Diversity in the workplace:
The first post about diversity in the workplace is an analysis based on the exhibiting companies at Marketing Nation London 2017, which was held on the 19th of October 2017.
Marketing Nation is a conference organized by Marketo and the purpose is to share best practices in and new technologies for digital marketing by Marketo and its partners. The companies were amongst others Clevertouch, BulkSMS, Adroll, Creation Agency, Successflow, and cVent.
Topic ´ The Engagement Economy´
The topic of the conference was ´The Engagement Economy´. We moved from ´Industrial Economy´ to ´Consumer Economy´, and now we are experiencing the ´Engagement Economy´ which should be applied as well in digital marketing. Thanks to technology, consumers became smart consumers, since everything and all kind of information can be found online on the Internet. Consumers no longer wait for information from companies nor they need to listen what companies have to say. Nowadays, people can actively get information, reviews and recommendations about companies and their products and services, by simply using Internet and social media on desktop and mobile devices.
Consumers know what they want and where they can get it best. Companies are now obliged to adjust to the needs and desires of the consumers, and not the other way around as it was before. Companies need to adopt a more personal approach in their communication with consumers. So from a marketing perspective, the engagement economy entails that companies should be more engaged with consumers and their needs.
Diversity exclusion at Marketing Nation London 2017
At the conference the majority was male and even on stage 80 procent was male speakers. It is not surprising either that 99 procent was caucasian too. Now as an attendee, a woman of color who is passionate about online marketing and all things digital, it is not inviting to connect with and show interest in these companies. There is clearly no diversity in these companies and they are not ashamed of it, as they proudly present their company that is lacking diversity and inclusion. Maybe they do have diversity policy in their company, but having only white males on the stage as leaders to represent the companies, shows otherwise.
Who am I to judge right? Even so, as I always like to network at conferenceS, that is one of the reasons one attends, I went to talk with some of these companies, explaining what I do and wanting to know more about their company. I also sent after the conference a follow-up email to some of them like Creation Agency, Successflow and even the organizer Marketo. None of them, until the day of today cared to reply. That says enough??
There is more, one of these companies, to be exact Successflow, totally ignored me when I visited their booth. They saw me approaching and reading their materials at the booth, and they pretended not seeing me. Instead, shortly after me a big white tall guy came and all of them (there were two women and a man named Mark Donkin who is the Managing Director) jumped enthusiastically to talk to that guy. What message does this send to me or other diversity groups as potential client or partner? Your company is clearly not interested in diversity and excludes clients, or better yet it discriminates. When you judge based on color and stereotype, you might miss an important client / partner / employee, and even might win a lousy client that looks like you in terms of race . Companies should stop make conclusions on what they know or think they know. Step out of the box and comfort zone!!!
Like Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said: A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions and outcomes for everyone.
I wish more companies believe and promote the above. When people ask if I would go back to a Marketo conference based on this experience, I say time will tell. I mean the world is changing, sooner or later they have to adapt to change unless they want to lose business to competitors. Like the saying ´there are more fish in the sea´, so more conferences and companies.
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