Over the past few years, there's been an industry wide push to get more women on stage at some of the big conferences. This has been great and I fully support it, but the number of diverse speakers is lacking. Still.

I was looking at the speaker roster for some upcoming conferences, and there are a ton of female speakers at some events, which is good, but it's mostly white women. There weren't many speakers who were people of color, specifically Black speakers. I counted a total of two at some conferences, which is progress I guess since too many conferences have zero Black speakers.

Maybe it's a case of diverse voices being invited to speak at industry events but not being able to commit given company budgets or other conflicts. I hope that's it. But if it's a case of event hosts just going to the same people they know because it's easy, you need to put in the legwork to find Black speakers and other diverse speakers because they are out there.

There are a ton of studies showing the benefits of having diverse companies, and companies are working to hire the right people to find diverse candidates. I think the same could and should be done at industry events. Find these diverse companies and ask them for help when it comes to filling out speaker spots. Some great sources can be found in many of our articles here on HNN. Here's a recent article that features Black industry leaders speaking on the importance of rebuilding the industry from the COVID-19 pandemic with a diverse workforce, all of which would be great event speakers.

Another great resource is Our Truths, a professional speakers bureau that's dedicated to representing Black women and is founded by a Black woman, Christy Pruitt-Haynes. The organization has a fantastic roster of talented speakers with expertise on a number of topics.

There are also quite a few professionals in the industry who are committed to getting more Black speakers on stage. Take Bashar Wali for example. I spoke with Wali in March for a story on his new companies, Practice Hospitality and This Assembly, and he said he questions which leaders are on panels he's invited to speak on.

"If I get invited to a panel full of white men, I am going to call foul. Why are there no women? Why are there no people of color? There are a lot of smart people. If you can't find them, I will help you find them," he said. "We have to be the change, not just talk about [diversity]."

All panels should be rounded out with diverse speakers. Don't seek out a couple of diverse speakers and throw them on a panel about diversity. There are tons of diverse subject matter experts out there who can talk about financing, food and beverage, group business and more. Panels should have a wide variety of speakers because I am sick of seeing a panel full of white men at conferences with one woman or one person of color.

More people in the industry need to have this mindset of prioritizing diverse speakers and asking for help when it comes to finding them. This is something we're trying to do a better job of when finding sources for stories at HNN, and it needs to translate to events. Let's all do better.

If you need help finding diverse speakers, feel free to email me at dhess@hotelnewsnow.com, find me on Twitter @HNN_Danielle or on LinkedIn.

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