Policies

The Locate Conferences Australia (LCA) Board have developed a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Policy as a visible commitment to raising the profile and importance of these principles in our community and for our industry. The publication of this policy on our website is a demonstration that we intend to ‘walk the talk’ and approach each conference with a commitment to D&I principles and as an opportunity to demonstrate good practice. The policy is intended to provide guiding principles reflecting board commitment and direction for the Organising and Program Committees. The policy is intended to strengthen and amplify LCA’s business objectives to be the national conference of choice for our industry and to represent and include a wide variety of stakeholders and participants across our industry and allied industries.

1. Purpose

Locate Conferences Australia (LCA) is committed to developing and maintaining an inclusive industry that embraces and celebrates diversity. LCA’s vision for diversity is to foster safe, inclusive and diverse conferences reflective of the community we serve. LCA recognises that diversity improves its ability to attract and motivate to deliver the highest quality services.

In the words of the Spatial Industry Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan ‘our ambition of  leadership, innovation and collaboration will only be as effective as the people who share our aspirations’, those we can get involved. Our industry is founded on the sharing of knowledge, skills and information for growth, broadening the participation of those ‘sharing’ provides a key trajectory to LCA’s growth.

The key motivators can be summarised in three points from the plan (though there are many others also relevant):

1. We need to engage younger and newer members of our community – they are the next generation of LCA. By 2025, there will be a shortfall of approximately 1,300 graduate or licensed surveyors and 300 geospatial specialists with university degrees. At the same time, almost 20 percent of us working in this space are over 55 years old.
2. The sector is male-dominated. While women make up around 50 per cent of Australia’s workforce, only one quarter of the spatial workforce is female.
3. More broadly, there is limited evidence of cultural diversity, indigenous employment, or people with disability in the sector.

A diverse and inclusive environment establishes a sense of belonging. When people feel more respected and included, they tend to contribute and embrace the community. Proven benefits of diversity and inclusion include:

• Access to a bigger talent pool
• Increased engagement and trust
• New perspectives and innovation impacting decision making, performance and business outcomes.

Businesses that are in the top quartile for racial, ethnic, and gender diversity have a 25 percent greater likelihood of being more profitable than the national median for their respective industry. Great Place to Work research has shown highly diverse, inclusive companies experienced a 14.4 percent gain while the S&P 500 saw a 35.5 percent decline in stock performance in times of crisis, such as a recession. If LCA are to be resilient and remain relevant it is time we think differently about the composition of our conferences to reflect the possible diversity of our community and their representation from across different industry sectors.

This Diversity and Inclusion Policy (policy) provides the framework by which LCA  actively manages and encourages diversity and inclusion across the conference-convening organisation. It is intended to set out the guiding principles and practices to promote LCA and our conferences as a diverse and inclusive environment.

This is an organisational policy only, and does not in itself give rise to any cause of action. The policy should be read in conjunction with other company policies and the Spatial Industry Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.

2. Objectives

LCA’s objectives for this policy include:

• Attracting a greater diversity of people to our events from across the industry (outside the usual and currently less diverse surveying and spatial circles)
• Leverage the industry’s  diversity of skills and perspectives to enhance the Locate Conference experience and organisational growth of LCA
• Providing an environment that reflects the diversity of our stakeholders, where “everyone is welcome”
• Reflecting the values supported and promoted by LCA shareholders, who are signatories and key sponsors of the Spatial Industry Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan
• Championing diversity and inclusion – demonstrating our core values and culture, living up to them, and demonstrating pathways to do so. We have the opportunity to lead our industry – set the tone, set the direction, show what D&I can look like by example, and how it boosts business outcomes.
• Empowering individuals involved in guiding and developing Locate conferences to work and grow together in an inclusive, safe and flexible way.

3. Definitions

Diversity: Accepting each person as an individual irrespective of differences is used to differentiate groups and people from each other (both visible and invisible). Such differences include but are not limited to age, gender, physical abilities, disability, nationality, cultural background (race, colour, descent), ethnicity,  marital, family or relationship status, religious or political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, carer responsibilities, pregnancy, breastfeeding, socio-economic background, geographic location. The Spatial Industry Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan also includes industry background.

Equality: Ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives/talents. We aim to remove barriers and look to eliminate all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment which may be caused by personal stereotypes and prejudices.

Inclusion: An environment that makes every individual or group feel comfortable and safe to speak up and be themselves, where similarities and differences are not just accepted, but are valued and utilised to achieve a broader industry perspective; where all are welcome and able to participate.
                   “Inclusion is about valuing that difference, and creating work processes and cultures that enable a sense of belonging and                           psychological safety so employees feel valued and respected.”

Diversity & Inclusion Spatial Industry Action Plan p4.

4. Policy

The four key elements of the policy are its guiding principles, practices, measurable outcomes and accountabilities.

4.1 Principles

• LCA to be a leader and champion of diversity and inclusion in the industry and communicate this.
• Participant diversity – delegates, speakers, exhibitors, organisers, attendees at Locate should reflect stakeholder demographics and be associated with measurable outcomes.
• Content diversity –  the program’s topics and speakers should reflect the diversity we aim to attract in our delegates, with a targeted appeal to new and/or different groups.
• Delivery diversity – the physical delivery of the conference should embrace accessibility physically and engage different formats, geographies, industry sectors, partners and sponsors.
• Inclusion – ensuring all feel a sense of inclusion and belonging, enabled by inclusive leadership, committees and working culture;  Locate is organised so that all people across the diversity spectrum feel welcome (and thus want to attend) such as:

• • All genders (male, female, other)
  • Age (from students, young professionals through to our elders)
  • Ethnicity (including first nations people)
  • Geography (e.g. regional, international)
  • Industry (sub-) sectors: spatial, surveying, RS, open source/devops
  • Ability
  • Neuro-diversity
  • LGBTQIA+