Many workplaces now recognize the importance of attending the Out & Equal Workplace Summit and have policies and funds in place to support sending team members at every level.
If you work for a company that has not yet approved your travel to Summit, we’ve drafted the following request to educate your company’s decision makers about the importance of the conference and to inform them of the benefits to you and your organization.
Use it as a starting point for your own email. Just copy, paste, and edit it.
Dear _________,
I wanted to share an excellent workplace equality conference that I came across, the Out & Equal Workplace Summit. The Workplace Summit is a 3-day conference filled with abundant educational opportunities including nearly 100 LGBTQ-specific workshops, featured panels, community advisory roundtables, special networking receptions, and inspirational plenaries featuring prominent LGBTQ and ally leaders.
At the Workplace Summit there seems to be content for almost anyone in our (Insert ERG / Organization / Firm). On their website, I discovered a number of curated “Tracks” from the 2018 Summit that synthesize their workshop offerings into accessible specialized paths which ranged from a “Diversity & Inclusion Expert Track” to an “Intersectionality Track” to tracks specifically designed for allies, globally-focused employees, and recruiters (among others). I think that if we were to attend this conference, our personnel would bring back cutting-edge information surrounding LGBTQ talent acquisition, retention, creating workplace cultures of belonging, ERG development, and best HR practices. Most of the competitors and clients in our field are already attending—I wouldn’t want us to miss this important opportunity to gain the cutting edge we need to be successful with <insert focus: ERG development/recruitment/capacity building/supplier diversity/D&I/benefits administration/executive promotion>.
They’re expecting over 6,000 LGBTQ and ally professionals to join them in Washington DC this year. For the event, Out & Equal has corporate sponsors from nearly every major industry and attendees from over 800 of the Fortune 1,000.
This would be a valuable opportunity for our organization and my colleagues to develop professionally, co-create a successful and affirming company culture, and stay up-to-date on the best practices to foster LGBTQ diversity within our company. The conference takes place from October 14 – 17, 2019 and their Early-Bird rate for registration ends June 26.
You can glance at this report on the 2018 conference to really narrow in on who attends and what they gain from the experience. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to attend this year and share my own custom trip report with you and the team after returning.
Thank you for your support.
{Your Name}
{Your Title}