How to champion diversity in the workplace

Senior figures in the marketing industry gathered at the Festival of Marketing last month for a compelling debate about the challenges of achieving diversity in the profession.

Diversity is a hugely pressing issue for the marketing industry. Recent research commissioned by Marketing Week found that 65% of consumers believe British marketing and advertising is not representative of the full range of lives and experiences of people across the country. The same report also revealed that many marketers believe their departments are not representative of minority groups, including different ethnicities, sexualities and disabilities.

At the Festival of Marketing last month, three senior figures from the business world – Jan Gooding, group brand director at Aviva and chair of LGBT charity Stonewall; Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, founder of meat and poultry brand The Black Farmer; and Maggie Semple, founder of the Semple fashion brand – joined Marketing Week editor Russell Parsons onstage to tackle these challenges head-on.

They discussed the challenges that different minority groups face in forging a career in marketing – and the steps that business leaders must take to create more diverse, better brands.

Festival

The Festival of Marketing is this year running on the 5 and 6 October at Tobacco Dock, London. For more information about the event, including how to book tickets, click here

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