I'm leading off with a percentage for you today, and that percentage is 44%.
That's obviously not unemployment rate (thank God); it's not inflation rate (thank God again); it's not an economic indicator at all.
It's the percentage of female speakers we had on the stage at the Hotel Data Conference last month, and it's definitely one of our own key performance indicators.
When Jeff Higley started Hotel Data Conference 16 years ago, he quietly and firmly set the 50:50 men-to-women goal for the planning team, and we have been chipping away at it ever since. We've never reached it but we get closer every year.
Closer is not good enough for me.
The goal is 50% and that's just the beginning, because we also must grow the percentage of other minority voices and faces on stage and on the page. It's not an option. These are not "nice to have" elements of the event. They are "why aren't we there already?" elements.
This year at and after Hotel Data Conference, I heard a lot of really nice compliments to the tune of, "I love this event because I see different people than I see at other industry events throughout the year," and "it's so great to hear different voices from your stages."
Compliments like that let me know we're on the right track. They underscore the huge value that comes with hearing different viewpoints and perspectives from different people we don't see or hear all the time.
But it's still not good enough for me, and it shouldn't be for any of you either. Countless research proves that by considering multiple perspectives, we develop more comprehensive understanding of a situation, and we get different options to try with our own teams.
As anyone who plans events with representation in mind knows, the key is casting a wide net. We need to see, meet and hear as many people in our industry as we can, so that our pool of top voices to put on a stage is naturally diverse and representative of the industry. It's just like building a basketball team or any other sports team: Sure you want to draft a top player, but it's more important to know that your bench is strong and representative of diverse skills and talent, too.
This is what I do all year.
And it's why I'm happy the Women in Hospitality Leadership Alliance recently published its interactive Speaker Directory of more than 700 senior-level women with subject-matter expertise across all facets of the hospitality industry.
I can't wait to dig into this resource. Learn more here and request access.
The people behind this effort are people you all know — Rachel Humphrey, Rachel Vandenberg and Lan Elliott. They and so many others work tirelessly to build the network.
They represent the type of action we all can take to grow our networks. Not every effort will be huge, like this one, or public. I think we reach better representation by taking more and more small steps.
But back to representation on the hotel industry's stages. Here's a big, bold suggestion I'm going to make that's not going to go over well, but I'll make it anyway.
Do you or your company sponsor these huge events and always get asked to speak because you know that's built in to your sponsorship?
Try something. Put someone else forward next year when you're invited to speak.
What if, just what if, Tony Capuano, Chris Nassetta, Elie Maalouf, Geoff Ballotti, Patrick Pacious, Larry Cuculic and Sébastien Bazin all said, "thanks for the invitation, but here's someone else who doesn't look like me or say the same things you've heard me say on every stage so far this year, but who knows a lot about the topic at hand, who has lots of experience at our company and a qualified viewpoint."
Is that ridiculous? Probably. I mean, these guys are all who people pay to see speak at these events, and of course they bring the value that comes with leading the industry's big companies. And to make a difference, they would all have to agree to do it, which would throw event organizers into chaos and they'd all come running for my head.
But what if we try it on a smaller scale?
Think about it. Email me, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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