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How to create a truly inclusive event
Arinex Managing Director, Nicole Walker, shares insight from the 2023 Sydney WorldPride Human Rights Conference.
For 17 days in February and March, Sydney was awash with rainbows for the WorldPride festival. A core element of the festival was the WorldPride Human Rights Conference, which united LGBTIQ+ communities and celebrated diversity in the Asia-Pacific region.
The three-day conference (1-2 March) was the largest event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and, as the principle event organiser, Sydney-based company Arinex worked with multiple stakeholders to bring the conference themes of diversity, inclusion and equity to life.
“Regular communication and setting clear objectives across all stakeholder groups was fundamental,” said Arinex managing director, Nicole Walker.
This included working with a range of freelance producers, technical production agencies, exhibition companies and creative suppliers to ensure inclusivity and diversity were at the forefront of every decision. These were then cross-checked with WorldPride’s sub committees to guarantee the diverse needs of the LGBTIQ+ community were met.
So, how exactly did Arinex ensure all delegates were made to feel welcome?
Listen to our chat with Nicole Walker as she explains some of the key considerations that made this “the epitome of diversity and inclusivity within events” and the lessons she plans to implement at future events.
As a female-owned business that employs a flexible, hybrid working environment, Walker said Arinex “lives and breathes” inclusivity.
“It’s important to respect and reflect the beliefs of your team members,” she said. “If you can align everyone’s beliefs to form a common goal the things you can achieve together are absolutely phenomenal.
“Working on the Human Rights Conference reflected our values as a company. Our people were so engaged with the purpose [of the event] and really wanted to see the event succeed because of those aligned beliefs… when you think about event planning from this perspective it moves well beyond logistics.”