Although Day 1 and Day 2 are busy and interesting, Day 3 is usually the main day of the conference, since it culminates in the Gala Awards dinner. The morning started off as well as can be expected, with us still battling PST while being in EST.
Breakfast and the plenary session started off with a piano player who struggled to be heard over the constant clang of dishes and rude people talking - but with a crowd of over 2000 people, it’s really tough for them to be quiet, especially while eating.
After breakfast, John Amaechi, former NBA player (and Brit), took the stage (all 6 foot 9 of him) for the plenary speech.
He is a very eloquent and engaging person, and shared a lot of great thoughts and quotes with us - some his, others borrowed.
Here’s a sample:
“It only takes a tiny light to scare the monster under bed.” - in reference to his mother, who used her inner light to bring change to the world / spread joy to the people around her.
“Why speak if not to change the world.” - he did not remember who told him this quote, but it’s a good one.
“Before you, I didn’t realize black people could be gay.” - this from an old woman who came to one of his book signings.
“What John Amaechi doesn’t realize is that being gay doesn’t make him any more interesting.” - this from a British reporter who has covered John’s career in the past.
John’s main message was about writing our future history. He likened it to sci-fi writers who create elaborate visions of the future, writing in such great detail you would think they had actually lived there and were writing a history book. He also shared a good statistic - only 5%-10% of the people in an organization need to innovate and change, 80%-85% will follow if led properly, and 5% will never change and will likely leave. Which percentage are you?
After the plenary we were off to the next round of workshops. The first one I attended was a feature panel on Workplace Equality in the American Spotlight. The presenters were a mix of media moguls, including editors and reporters from the Washington Blade, Fortune Magazine, Washington Post, Metro Weekly, a blogger, and the president of GLAAD (who also happens to be the former mayor of Tempe, AZ). It was an excellent session on the impacts of ENDA - Employment Non-Discrimination Act (just a note here - we are one of the only companies in our sector who did NOT publicly support this bill and one of the few companies in our sector who do not provide or require mandatory diversity training for employees and managers), the Hate Crimes bill, and the roll of the media in sharing GLBT information.
In case you do not know what this really means - in 33 states it is legal to fire someone for no other reason than their sexual orientation. This means that regardless of whether your company guidelines prohibit discrimination based on GLBT, you could be fired for it and have zero legal protection.
Next up - Visibility and Profitability, Marketing to the GLBT Consumer. More and more, companies are realizing the massive consumer opportunities from the GLBT population. Some of this comes from the “DINK” phenomenon - Dual Income No Kids. Basically it means that the GLBT population has a LOT of discretionary money available for purchases. This session included representatives from Nike, Fannie Mae, and Winmark Concepts. They showed various new advertising campaigns which have allowed their companies to target market a new segment of the population who has money to spend. One interesting thing I would point out here is that stockholders in companies need to start caring not only about return on investment, but also whether the company treats its employees and environment with integrity. Do the companies you invest in support employees of all diverse groups? If not, why are you investing in them?
The last workshop I attended today was Executive Sponsors - Use ‘em or Lose ‘em. This was the best session so far, and was filled with a panel of very senior execs from Ernst & Young, Raytheon, and PepsiCo.
The executive sponsors of these employee groups attend Out & Equal, participate in Pride events, actively work with the employee groups for change, and one of them even joined the group on the AIDS Lifecycle Ride in California. This was a huge wakeup call that we are not effectively using our executive sponsor to help raise visibility and awareness, and to educate senior management on the issues we face.
After a quick break we were off to the Gala Awards Dinner.