Don't miss Zoe Moore at IMEX America during the session, "Increasing DEI in our supplier community," Wednesday, Oct. 18!

In many ways, the meeting industry—and society at large—has made great strides in terms of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in recent years. There have, of course, been setbacks—for example, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to end affirmative action practices at colleges and universitieswas considered a setback by many. And there are also some specific areas of focus that have long needed more EDI attention, such as meeting and event contracts.

“Event hosts are in the business of people and focusing on EDI means they understand that all people are different and have diverse needs,” says Zoe Moore, a strategic EDI consultant who runs Grow with Zomo and co-presented “Socially Committed & Legally Compliant Meetings: Aligning Your DEI Strategy with the Law” with attorney Joshua Grimes during MPI’s World Education Congress in June. “To have business success and properly design an inclusive attendee experience, an organization must be proactive with their commitment by integrating their values into event contracts. If not, they’ll be reactive, risk their reputation and face legal consequences.”

A Lack of Consideration

Failure to properly consider EDI when negotiating event contracts is common, according to Moore.

“A primary reason they’re coming up short is they don’t feel the urgency to go from insight to implementation due to discomfort with challenging the status quo; budget constraints; biases that are unconscious, implicit and explicit; and lack of awareness,” she says.

Moore believes part of the challenge lies in the mentality that EDI is a “nice to have” and therefore often remains an afterthought, so meeting buyers and sellers don’t invest time, money and resources into developing measurable and sustainable strategies.

Elaiza Shepherd, HMCC, CEO and founder of the consultancy ELEVATE by Elaiza and co-chair of MPI’s EDI Committee (a role also previously held by Moore), agrees that EDI often isn’t sufficiently considered when crafting meeting and event contracts.

“I had a client request that I ask all venues to include an EDI statement with their RFP response and only one of probably eight actually submitted. This tells me corporations are asking for it, but it may not be something we are all thinking about,” she says. “I have also seen it come as a last-minute thought—meaning it only came as a reactive response when an attendee or client asked the right questions. I believe both suppliers and planners can be better about keeping it top of mind from the beginning stages of planning to strike onsite.”

Key Contract Concerns

The Center for Creative Leadership defines psychological safety as the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. At work, it’s a shared expectation that teammates will not be embarrassed, rejected or punished for sharing ideas, taking risks or soliciting feedback. Moore believes ensuring psychological safety at events can be addressed during the contracting phase.

“By explicitly addressing psychological safety in the contract, event organizers can ensure that the venue, materials and services provided are practicing social equity as a result of ongoing training,” she says. “This can involve considerations such as the selected destination, cultural competence, representation in marketing materials, on stage, in experiences, with food options, socio-economic considerations, accessibility, etc. Including psychological safety embraces our differences and acknowledges what it feels like to not belong, to be marginalized and excluded, and then seeks to remedy these concerns with actions that are operationalized as a standard practice of being inclusive.”

Shepherd agrees with Moore that accessibility is of critical importance at events and is often neglected during the contracting phase.

“When you think of EDI, you mainly focus on what you see; you almost always forget what you can’t see—neurodiversity, physical diversity and internal diversity,” she says.

Promises related to EDI are often made in advance of an event when suppliers are talking to planners. But how can a planner ensure those promises are carried out?

“All vendors/venues must agree to sign a pledge to ensure that they will fulfill their commitment to EDI by adhering to principles of embracing differences, providing fair treatment and contributing to a culture of belonging throughout the provision of services for the event,” Moore says. “This includes but is not limited to examples such as 1) no discriminatory behavior or actions; 2) supporting accessibility: physical, digital and neuro; and 3) exercising cultural competence and sensitivity. Each organization needs to create provisions that align with the services they provide.”