Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – When Content Delivers on the Marketing
It’s not a guarantee that a promise will be delivered upon. This holds true for purchases we make like a new air fryer or a weight-loss program, but it also is the case with conferences and the education they provide. I was fortunate enough to work on the REALTORS® Conference & Expo in November in San Diego and saw first-hand how the marketing did match the content.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion topics seem to be everywhere now, but in this instance the National Association of REALTORS® delivered. Sessions included topics such as:
- Bias Override: Overcoming Barriers to Fair Housing
- Reimagining Gender: Are REALTORS Ready to Navigate this New Reality?
- The Past and Future of Family Properties: Overcoming Real Estate’s Historic Harms to Communities of Color
- Regulatory Issues Forum – Minding the Gap: Understanding Untapped Markets & Opportunities by Engaging with Millennial & Gen-Z Buyers through Technology and Innovation to Advance Homeownership
And they added Networking Sessions focused on DEI + Fair Housing to provide additional opportunities for those attendees who had an even deeper interest in this area to connect with their peers. A conference that recognizes the value in networking, and not simply education, is one focused on the future.
REALTORS® Conference & Expo also connected the dots through their signage as well. They had very clever session signs around these DEI topics (more on that below). They also showed diversity and inclusion through their overall conference signs which included people representing different ethnic groups and ages.
Speaking of their session signs. When was the last time a sign made you do a double-take? Because of the missing letters (yes, the D, E and I), people were regularly stopping in their tracks thinking some letters had fallen off the signs. And then watching the “ah ha” moment come over them was kind of fun, I admit. With multiple variations of these signs, they were each worth a second and third glance to make the connection on where the D (Diversity), E (Equity) and I (Inclusion) tied into each of the signs. Clever! I know it made me curious about the session content enough to actually read the signs.
Is your organization fulfilling the promise of its marketing with the education it’s delivering? It’s time to do your own double-take and make sure your content lives up to its marketing.
