Promoting Inclusion at Your Conference
Creating an inclusive conference environment fosters innovation and enhances the success of your event. We are pleased to share some practical tips on building an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere for all participants.
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Tips for Designing an Inclusive Conference
- Check to ensure that your event date does not coincide with religious or national holidays
- Ensure diversity on your conference committee
- Review your website, promotional materials, presentation slides, and giveaways for inclusivity
- Promote the IEEE Event Conduct and Safety Statement at your event
- Ensure accessibility at your conference (website, accommodations, venue, schedule, signage)
- Invite underrepresented groups and students to your conference. Consider offering discounts, scholarships, or other incentives for these attendees.
- Use a double-blind paper review process
- Ask about attendee needs during registration and make necessary accessibility accommodations
- Invite speakers from diverse backgrounds to present at your event
- Ensure all panels include at least one woman and person of color
- Train panel moderators on strategies for ensuring inclusive discussions
- Consider offering childcare at your conference
- Enable attendees to ask questions during your event via your conference app
- Ask for feedback on your event survey
IEEE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Website
To further promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the IEEE and the engineering profession, the organization has launched a new website that contains a wealth of information, resources, and tools for members, volunteers, and the broader community.
IEEE Diversity Statement
IEEE’s mission to foster technological innovation and excellence to benefit humanity requires the talents and perspectives of people with different personal, cultural, and disciplinary backgrounds. IEEE is committed to advancing diversity in the technical profession, and to promoting an inclusive and equitable culture that welcomes, engages, and rewards all who contribute to the field, without regard to race, religion, gender, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
IEEE Nondiscrimination Policy
IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying against any person for any reason—for example, because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religion, gender, sexual or affectional orientation, gender identity, appearance, matriculation, political affiliation, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
IEEE Accessibility Statement
IEEE strives to provide an accessible web presence to all people, regardless of disabilities. To support this commitment, IEEE has adopted the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level A as the enterprise Web Accessibility objective. However, IEEE web publishers are encouraged to deliver content at higher accessibility levels (Level AA or Level AAA) whenever possible.
If you have any trouble accessing information or services on IEEE’s site, please contact accessibility@ieee.org. Please specify the nature of the accessibility issue and the assistive technology you use.