Statement on Diversity and Inclusion at Events
Introduction
Diversity and inclusion in the remote working industry are subjects that are close to the heart of the Big Orange Heart team. We value fostering a diverse and inclusive remote working industry because it is the right thing to do. If that isn’t a strong enough argument, having a diverse team and diverse representatives has proven again and again to create better products, foster a better work environment and, if you need the business case, to improve the bottom line.
Events are a highly visible face of the remote working industry. Not only are the speaker’s representatives of their respective companies and industries, but they will act as role models for attendees and external audiences. It is therefore vital that speaker lineups represent the diverse range of people who work remotely and that events foster an inclusive and welcoming experience for all of their potential attendees, no matter their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability or any other protected characteristics. Any organisation that participates in remote working events needs to pay attention to these issues and work to make these events more diverse and more welcoming.
Supporting Diversity
That is why we have signed up to support the Diversity Charter events.
As part of our commitment, we will support diversity & inclusion in the following ways when it comes to events:
...Our team will not take part in panel discussions of two or more people unless there is at least one person of an underrepresented group on the panel, not including the chair.
...We will not speak at or sponsor an event unless the event’s organisers are clearly working hard to address the diversity of their speakers and attendees. We expect representation from different genders, ethnicities, abilities and other underrepresented groups.
...We will not participate in or sponsor events unless they operate under, and enforce, a published code of conduct. We developed our own code of conduct, we use for our BOH events. This code of conduct was based on and adapted from the amazing work of Open Source Bridge. We like codes of conduct that are specific and provide detailed enforcement information.
...We encourage, and will always use, inclusive language at events and in online communities surrounding events. This includes, but is not limited to, discouraging the use of gendered or ableist language.
...We will offer, and encourage other event organisers to offer, free or discounted diversity tickets for underrepresented groups in the remote working industry, and where necessary, financial help towards travel and/or accommodation if appropriate.
We’ll also hold ourselves to the same standards where our team is the host, for internal and public events as well. There will be times when event organisers are unable to meet the above rules, especially with smaller-scale events or meetups, as and when these occur we will take them on a case by case basis and are happy to discuss the guidelines with organisers and attendees alike.
We also will support and encourage the development of events that cater to specific underrepresented groups as a way to foster inclusion and diversity in our industry.
This statement is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.