When it comes to increasing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, we see a lot of good intentions. Pledges to increase, heighten and take action are added to the list of corporate to-do’s, and the promise of “keeping this in mind” put to the test.

But why are they so hard to initiate, then? Even though there shouldn’t be a need to argue for a more inclusive workspace, the benefits of diversifying the workforce and -place are numerous. Fostering innovation, empathy and collective accomplishments are some of them, meanwhile, employees feel a sense of community, leaders build better teams and companies stick to core values.

Within DEI, bridging the gap between good intentions and action is a challenge we all need to tackle head-on. Many companies don’t even know their status quo or even fail to meet their own goal-setting. So how do we start today? How do we implement inclusive values, build diversified teams and accomplish our goals? In short, what are the first steps to becoming diverse?

For our third ‘Designing the New Usual’ event, we’ll take a deep-dive into the DEI agenda and how to turn momentum into a strategy. As always, we’ll record and share the insights with our international audience, but this time around we’ll also be hosting the event in-person. It’ll take place at Rentemestervej 57, 2400 København from 16:00-18:00 CET. Sign up HERE if you want to attend.

Featuring our DTNU host Phil Hall, two speakers and three change-makers interviews, we’ll make sure to highlight different aspects of getting started on and focussing on DEI.

Our speakers are:

• Niddal El-Jabri, Founder & Strategist at Liberate Agency. Niddal has a background as Founder of the NGO Mino Denmark, which works to help ethnic minorities in Denmark to be equal and participate in society. His Liberate Agency specialises in inclusive marketing, helping brands navigate successfully into being diverse, equity creating and inclusive, and reaching the full potential of their target group. 

• Aram Ostadian-Binai, Founder & CEO of the Soulfuls. Aram is a social entrepreneur, DEI advocate, and branding consultant. She’s the Founder and Director of the DEI creative agency Norm Media working with diversity and inclusion, and in 2018 she founded the women’s community The Soulfuls, which works to create space for more diverse talents in areas of creative and media as well as entrepreneurship.

Our changemaker interviews will feature:

• Tinna C. Nielsen, Anthropologist & Inclusive Behavioural Designer. Tinna has years of experience working with applying insights from behavioural and social sciences to pioneer inclusive design- and change approaches for inclusive systems. In 2013, she founded the change-organisation Move the Elephant – For Inclusiveness and launched the award-winning Inclusion Nudges change- and behavioural design methodology with Lisa Kepinski.

• Andrea Lee, Senior Manager of User Experience Research at LinkedIn. Andrea is passionate about building and leading high integrity and high-performing teams who work across LinkedIn's consumer products in diverse global markets. She collaborates with leaders of product, design, marketing and engineering. As a Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging allyship ambassador, Andrea leads learning circles to activate everyday allyship actions.

• Sina Fazelpour, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science at Northeastern University. Sina’s research focuses on issues of justice, diversity, and reliability in data-driven and artificial intelligence technologies. He also works on understanding the concepts and consequences of diversity in social groups and networks. He draws on analytical tools of philosophy, methods of cognitive science, and formal techniques of agent-based simulation and machine learning.

If you want to watch the interviews, key take-aways and overall insights from this event, make sure you follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and of course YouTube. And should you be in Copenhagen on November 17th from 16:00-18:00 CET, consider joining our event.

Download the full SUM-UP PDF from the event here!