The most successful racism awareness campaign ever in the history of Edmonton has come under severe fire as organizers try to propel the campaign to the next level.
The “Make It Awkward Inclusivity Summit” (MIA) organized by Make It Awkward Inc., a private company is the next level of #Make It Awkward Campaign. The summit is scheduled for February 1-3, 2018, at the Westin Hotel in Edmonton. It has been criticized this week for its high ticket prices and for being a for-profit venture. Tickets range from $89 a day to $450 for all three days. Youth ticket is $299.
To neutralize the high ticket prices, the organizers are offering 100 free tickets for youths, paid for by the City of Edmonton Multicultural Department. They are also streaming the event live for those who cannot attend.
Diversity Magazine did some digging to create some awareness on the financial implications of planning such a high-end conference and to help understand why the ticket prices are within the financial confines of most conferences, but above the reach of an average Edmontonian.
I got a quote for a similar size event at the Westin for the ball room where the event will be taking place. It states,
“The hotel would be pleased to offer you complimentary room rental (value $15,000) provided that a minimum Food & Beverage Revenue of $32,000 a day prior to service charge and tax is achieved”.
That is for a full ballroom which I believed the event will be using. The event will have 30 speakers and performers, most of who are coming from out of town and need accommodation. Just along the lines of securing a wonderful venue for the three days, the organizers are close to touching 100K.
What happens at the summit? There will be speakers, performers, networking, workshop, comedy, music, of course delicious food. The Summit features more than 30 speakers and performers such as Scaachi Koul, Jane Elliott, Quinton Aaron, and Mayor Don Iveson.
Cost of attracting great speakers and performers undoubtedly adds to the cost of staging this summit with fee for speakers and performers, added to the cost for sound system equipment rental, and service fee, and equipment service fee for live streaming to be carried out by a third party company, taking the cost of the summit above the 100K mark. Planning of the summit, design of marketing materials, and marketing of the event will also trigger the summit’s account release valve to dilate. No wonder summit Co-founder Jesse Lipscombe said in a phone interview with Diversity Magazine that their cost is over 100K and rising.
MIA Summit has come under serious criticisms for high ticket prices and for being a for-profit venture, surprisingly by people some of whom traditionally portray themselves as diversity and inclusion activists. This has surprised Jesse who expected to be wrestling this time not just with a couple of people in a car pelting him with racial slurs but an arena full of racial uncompromising people.
Jesse and the MIA team have made some first timer mistake such as not registering the not-profit arm of their project before the summit, and are learning the hard way that the optics of a venture can be more important than the objective. Once it looks like a fish, smells like a fish, some people will be quick to cry out loud that it is a fish.
One organization who has not cried loud that it is a fish is the City of Edmonton Multicultural Department who chooses to focus on the objective of MIA Summit to teach some of Edmonton’s leaders, educators, and champions change lessons in inclusivity that they can take home. Such leadership from the City is applaudable. Hopefully, critics will not subject the summit to the same treatment they are fighting against. Fantastic Edmonton always rallies behind a good project, why not this?
#MakeItAwkward was borne out of an unfortunate incident on Wednesday, August 31, 2016, when Jesse Lipscombe came under verbal racial attack in Edmonton, while filming a PSA for the city in downtown Edmonton. The attack was caught on camera, and the video immediately went viral.
