being the voice
OUR MISSION
bipoc professionals
overview of the industry
HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW
The event industry in the United States provides over 5.9 million jobs. North American has the highest spend at $381 billion annually. These numbers are expected to increase at a rate of 11% between 2016-2026 which is faster than the average 7% of the rest of the world. Of the meetings, convention, and event planners, 47% of those surveyed said having more clients would help them advance their event planning career. 28% are concerned with their lack of career progression possibly due to lack of client curation. These factors will provide unprecedented challenges and opportunities for certain members within the event industry.
We believe members of the Black Community who operate 7.81%, Asians 3.63%, American Indian 0.246%, and other multicultural races who make up 6.81% of the jobs in the event industry will suffer the most. The Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Community serves as the invisible minority of the meeting, convention, and event industry. It is no secret that the event industry is dominated by women who make up 80.7% and key opportunities still tend to go to white (non-hispanic) who make up 75.1% of the industry. The lack of racial diversity in the event industry is something that has been tiptoed around while blatantly visible when lists of the most influential people in our industry are all white.
check the stats
- In 2017, black men were paid only 69.7 cents on the dollar compared to white men
- Latino-owned businesses who tend to have lower average sales and hire fewer employees than white-owned businesses with the disparities widening each year
- Meanwhile, in 2000, black women were paid 60.8 cents compared to white men
- Only 43 percent of supplier diversity professionals consider their programs somewhat effective
- 43% of companies with a supplier diversity program do not track the financial ROI
To date there has been no closing racial gaps since 2000, and the narrowing of the gender pay gap has been largely to the benefit of white women who already make up the majority of the event industry.
For the event industry in the United States, these pay gaps are not indicative of the education levels of Black people and People of Color in the event industry. Meeting, convention, and event planners have the credentials to execute high level events. Of the industry 33.7% have a business degree, 19.7% communications, and 7.53% have a social science major. These findings suggest that meaningful progress to close the wealth disparities in pay by race and gender is due to companies failing to hire BIPOC Owned Businesses to help end the pay gaps between white men and other workers and failing to pay BIPOC Owned Businesses the same rate of white counterparts to keep up with productivity growth.
Our mission is to address failures that are in place leaving BIPOC Businesses Owners on the wrong side of wage gaps. The National Events Council is an organization providing advocacy, research, awareness, and support to BIPOC Business Professionals operating within the event industry. To enhance and strengthen this position, as well as expand the depth, we are committed to ensuring the BIPOC Community has an equal playing field. National Events Council aim is to reduce invisible minority groups from being left unseen for opportunities they are qualified for to one that is visible and prominent in the event industry.