NOEA Respect Campaign

Whilst 2020 was a challenging year for the events industry it also gave us the opportunity to assess how we, as an industry, function and what we can do to improve.

Events across the world and the Black Lives Matter movement has made us all look inwards and consider how we might hold onto conditioned racist and misogynistic beliefs no matter how anti-racist and feminist we believed ourselves to be.

At NOEA we have started working to address the inherent lack of diversity in the industry. We have appointed a dedicated council member to work on Diversity and Equality, part of this role has been to work with the BVEP working group on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion to address issues across the entire events industry, not just outdoor events.

To do this properly we need to be honest with ourselves. The events industry has grown exponentially over the past 30 years and yet we are still operating on many of the old systems we started out with.

Recruitment is often word of mouth with little formal processes in place. We seldom have systems in place for supporting staff who are overworked and exhausted. We pay poorly for the hours worked and we get away with this by creating day rates for days that can be twice the standard working day. We rarely provide any statutory benefits meaning that many find it difficult to have a career break to have children, and of course, we cannot ever afford to take a day off sick!

With all this in mind is it a wonder that we struggle to be diverse? Yes, there are many upsides to our industry but

we may miss some amazingly talented young people if we do not address these issues.

The BVEP research highlighted how we struggle to recruit young people from BAME backgrounds and we need help to work on how we improve this.

One of the problems is the public perception of the industry, the majority of speaking panels are dominated by older white men despite the fact that women make up a significant percentage of the workforce. The NOEA council sadly reflects the current status quo - only two women out of twelve council members and we are all white.

We launched the RESPECT campaign in 2019 in conjunction with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to reduce sexual harassment in the hospitality industry. The plan was to test run it in 2020 and then to widen the reach to cover all harassment. We are still developing it and we urge all members to sign up for when we can re-open. Harassment in all forms is unacceptable and NOEA wants to support our members to stamp this out.

We need to start showing that the industry can and will represent everyone.

We appeal to you if you are a woman and/or a person of colour to consider applying for council and in the meantime, if you are interested in helping with the campaign to increase representation for everyone at all levels please get in touch.

respect@noea.co.uk