By Paige McGovern
Measuring inclusion is the first step towards understanding and improving representation at your next event – on stage or virtual. Identifying which data points are necessary, as well as how to collect and analyze them can be overwhelming.
Enter the Speaker Equity Assessor, designed to help you evaluate the overall diversity of your speaker lineup and ensure that you are meeting the mark when it comes to inclusion on stage.
We recommend getting started with the Speaker Equity Assessor as soon as you begin outreach to potential speakers and collecting data as part of the process. This tool can also be used to enter past events which will provide a larger landscape to benchmark your organization’s progress in achieving diverse speaker representation.
6 Steps for planning your event with the Speaker Equity Assessor
The Speaker Equity Assessor is easy to use. The tool has only two speaker criteria: gender and race.
- Start by inputting the number of women, men, non-binary people, and people of color who will be speaking at your program. Type in each number in the text fields or press the arrow keys to move the counter up and down.
- Next, label your program. We advise that you keep track of panels or events by adding the name of your event, the date, location, and organizing department.
- Submit your results. The Speaker Equity Assessor will inform you of how you’re doing with a pie chart breakdown and a detailed overview of your results towards the bottom of the page.
- Are there places where you need to improve? Read through our speaker tips designed to inspire and challenge you with questions to support a diverse and holistic speaker line-up.
- Feeling proud about your results? Let others know about the awesome work you’re doing to hold yourselves accountable. Show your colleagues how you are adding value by emailing your wins.
- Download the chart to save and access anytime, anywhere. It’s yours to keep and share how you want. Print it out to bring to a meeting, or send this chart as proof of your wins to your management and leadership teams.
…and you’re done! It’s that easy!
We hope you’ll return for each event you plan, so you can record the progress being made. Creating a compelling, inclusive program takes intention, purpose and time. The Speaker Equity Assessor is here to help along the way.
Get started with the Speaker Equity Assessor now.
