You’re invited!
Date: Feb. 23, 2023
Time: 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (Guests are welcome to attend either the full day, or can choose to attend individual sessions only).
Location: Vaughan Studio and Event Space, 200 Apple Mill Road
Join Tourism Vaughan and a panel of leaders in diversity, equity and inclusion for our first-ever Better Your Business: Tourism Diversity event. This is your chance to get together with other local businesses, and learn how to make your business more inclusive and welcoming.
This free event will include panel discussions, lunch and three interactive breakout sessions:
The Case for Accessible Tourism – Scope, Skills & Strategy, Joe Baker (Joe Baker Consulting)
This interactive workshop will set the stage for business owners and operators to develop an awareness of the business opportunity presented by adapting current hospitality and tourism services and experiences to include people with disabilities. Built on the framework of effective changemaking, this session will highlight and develop the social and emotional skills required to embrace this market segment and will be a spark for the strategic mindset and complementary tools required for sustained success.
An Unbiased Approach to Exceptional Customer Service, Tolu Aladejebi (Black in Hospitality)
This workshop provides participants with an engaging and interactive opportunity to investigate and unpack their own personal and organizational biases. Using a series of real-life hospitality scenarios, this workshop allows participants to think deeply and analyze ways that biases can lead to the exclusion of others, create unfair decisions, and affect how customer service is delivered. This session also gives participants the opportunity to brainstorm equitable solutions that foster positive outcomes/experiences for everyone.
Cultivating Safe Spaces for the 2sLGBTQIA+ Visitor, Kyra Cole (KLB Consulting)
Creating safe spaces for 2sLGBTQIA+ visitors goes beyond putting a rainbow sticker on your front window- it involves ensuring that you are recognizing the diversity and intersectionality of the 2sLGBTQIA+ traveller and also understanding and responding to their travel motivations. The business decision for creating this space is clear, but what needs to happen so that you have meaningful, inclusive, and equitable practices in place?
This workshop will help participants understand, support, and serve 2sLGBTQIA+ visitors and employees through an intersectional lens.
All three breakout sessions will be available at the same times: 9 a.m., 10:45 a.m., and 1:45 p.m. Stay for the whole day to learn from all three of our speakers – or only stay for as long as you’re able, and choose the sessions you wish to explore most. The full day’s schedule is provided below.
Space is limited, so RSVP now!
The Day’s Schedule:
8 a.m. – Welcome and Open Panel Discussion with our Speakers
9 a.m. – Breakout Sessions, Round 1
10:30 a.m. – Break
10:45 a.m. – Breakout Sessions, Round 2
12:15 p.m. – Complimentary Lunch with Learning Activity
1:45 p.m. – Breakout Sessions, Round 3
3:30 p.m. – Closing Panel Discussion
4:15 p.m. – Q&A