Nirjary Desai: Board Member of the National Events Council
Nirjary Desai is the Owner and Founder of KIS(cubed) Events, an event marketing, experiential agency based in Atlanta. Nirjary is also a board member of the National Events Council.
The National Events Council is leading the way to end racial inequality within the event industry and all supporting elements by accelerating awareness of qualified Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who are Business Owners in the event industry. The National Events Council conducts research and provides education with a goal of increasing direct spending within BIPOC businesses.
The National Events Council envisions an industry that celebrates all genders, races, sexual orientations, and ethnic backgrounds. In order to achieve this, we must realize that every action we take has to be indicative of the industry we aim to see: intersectional, multicultural, all working with a synergy that is dependent upon each other to reach the highest standards our clients deserve and want. An industry that creates spaces where solidarity, equity, and equality thrives while being accessible to all.
Nirjary Desai
Hi Nirjary, it’s so nice to meet you! Who started The National Events Council?
The National Events Council was started by Andrew Roby, Founder of Andrew Roby Events, Darrell Moore, Founder of D’Concierge Weddings, and myself. The mission behind the National Events Council is about promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the event industry. We’re focused on making corporations, individuals, and brands more culturally conscious, socially aware, and inclusive. It's all about creating an equal playing field for everyone in the event and hospitality industry to serve brands and corporations, aside from just having a personal relationship with the individual decision maker.
The National Events Council aims to bring awareness as to why it’s so important for everyone to have a seat at the table. We want to help our members attain corporate business. We want to make sure that everyone in the industry feels included. The National Events Council board is leveraging our connections, and we’re focused on making an impact through grassroots efforts.
What was the catalyst to start this organization?
I met Andrew last year when we were both panelists on a webinar. I reached out to him because we were so similar in our thinking. I’m South Asian and Andrew is African American. I was already doing a lot of education around how to make our industry more inclusive. One day, Andrew called me, and told me he was thinking of starting The National Events Council, and asked if I’d like to be a board member.
So here we are today, making progress, pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, and creating this platform. Andrew had reached out to David Adler, from BizBash, and the other board members started reaching out to people from their network they knew could make a difference. And now we have a partnership with ILEA, as well as many other event industry organizations. The mission of the National Events Council is bigger than all of us. We’re also paying it forward, and creating awareness for the event professionals of tomorrow. We want to prove to people just graduating from hospitality school, or people who want to be in this industry, that you can be of a different background and culture, and still be successful in this industry.
What is the mission of The National Events Council?
The mission is very simple. The mission is the Golden Rule: How do you want to be treated? How do you want to be treated as a business? How do you want to be portrayed as a brand? And how does your consumer want to be treated? We came up with a pledge to hold bigger corporations accountable, and we’ve been going to the brands and corporations asking them to take the 20% Pledge, which is to take an active step towards equality and equity for BIPOC event professionals.
THE 20% PLEDGE:
Be the first to stand up and agree to hire 20% or more BIPOC event professionals for your upcoming events.
Agree to highlight 20% of BIPOC event business owners in your publications and media outlets.
Agree to include 20% of BIPOC couples and people in marketing material and what you share on social media.
We focus on decision makers giving everybody an opportunity, about being more conscious about who gets the business, and being objective about who’s actually the best fit for the job, and not just giving it to the company that already has the personal connections.
How can organizations achieve diversity goals?
A lot of the questions start with one simple question, is our leadership diverse? If everybody is from the same cultural background, same ethnicity, and so forth, then that organization is already not succeeding. Diversity starts from the top. If your leadership is not diverse, then your organization is not diverse.
Organizations can help by promoting from within. By training and equipping someone to climb the ladder. That’s what sustainability is, looking at your own talent, and creating opportunities for everyone. Organizations need to start investing in people that are just starting out. Folks entering your company have fresh eyes, so it’s important to listen to them. Today's generation is already diverse, and inclusive in their approach, and we can learn so much from them. They’re just coming out of school, and they see things really differently. As a society, and as an industry, we need to focus on equipping them for success.
We’re spending so much time trying to reinvent the wheel because there’s been a lack of diversity and inclusion for so long. We’ve been accepting the way companies conduct themselves, and letting it go. But now we need to clean it up. That’s what Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training is all about.
I want to point out that individuals play their part. Even if you are starting out at the entry level, it's important that you hold people accountable. Like, if someone's not saying your name correctly, don't feel bad correcting them. It starts with little steps like that for people to become more aware of your needs. We teach people how to treat us. And if we don't treat ourselves with respect, we can’t expect others to include us.
What's something that you’re excited about right now?
We’re really excited about our collaboration and partnership efforts including one with LinkedIn. We’re working on offering badges for individuals that have gone through DEI training. Several folks on our board already offer customized training. We've got someone that specializes in training for universities, and someone else that handles training for corporations or trade shows. Our board is well rounded, and so we’re able to connect with many industries. We want to make sure that our platform works for all businesses, and that we can set up all organizations for success.
What about the RFP process? Is this an important aspect of what companies focus on in terms of DEI?
Yes, corporations can put their own stamp on making an effort. Are you a minority owned business? Has your organization gone through any DEI training? Is your organization a member of the National Events Council, or any similar organization? The truth is that some organizations are just collecting proposals for the sake of collecting them, and they're awarding the business to someone else that might have not even filled out the RFP.
We hope that the organizations that have filled out the pledge are going to stand by that, and only award business to those that have gone through the RFP process. But most of all, we want to make sure that they’re going the extra mile. With the 20% Pledge, we’re asking for 20% of the business to be awarded to BIPOC owned companies. So, if they’re doing 100 events in a year, then 20 of those events get awarded to minority owned businesses.
How do people take the pledge?
Anyone can go to the link on our website that says, “Take The Pledge.” After filling out the section, someone from our team will reach out, to get them qualified to make the pledge. The pledge is geared towards corporations, because essentially, the small businesses want to get the business from the corporations. These smaller businesses want to bypass some of the larger PR firms who act as the middleman. We want the corporation's themselves to make the pledge, so that they help shape the DEI goals for the event industry. Especially if they're doing meetings, conferences, retreats, and things like that.
Have there been any “a-ha” moments you’ve had throughout the process?
Yeah, absolutely. The number one thing has been making more of an effort, and this includes the little things you can do within your own community, that eventually create impact on a larger scale. For example, I do a lot of South Asian weddings. People assumed that all my vendors were South Asian. I started promoting that I actually hire a lot of vendors and suppliers that are not South Asian, that are more diverse. It’s really important that you, as a company, put it out there. It's important to say “Hey, my team is made up of Indian, Puerto Rican, Korean, Caucasian, African American, and we truly are united, and work really well together. And we produce incredible events.” More and more corporations are going to start looking for companies to hire that are diverse, so even make sure people know this.
One of the biggest lessons in the past year has been that we all need to keep learning. We've all learned so much from Covid. We all transitioned from being in this hustle and bustle line of work, to being stuck at home, and we're trying to make the most of it. And now with new variants, and everything we have to keep being creative. 2020 was a year we got a chance to fix our operations and business practices. And it's okay if it means you have to clean house, and restructure and reassess. We must all start doing ethical business, and being more transparent. Because whether you’re B2B or C2C, these are things that companies and consumers are looking at.
We’re finally saying the old way of doing something is not okay. We need to make sure that the impact we’re creating with the National Events Council is going to be sustained, that people are sticking with the mission and the progress, versus going back.
The National Events Council
Website: www.nationaleventscouncil.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NationalEventsCouncil
Twitter: www/twitter.com/ntleventcouncil
Instagram: www.instagram.com/nationaleventscouncil
Take the 20% Pledge