Subject: Philly Trib: Diversity, inclusion conference focuses on business solutions
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Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 14:29:26 -0700

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Diversity, inclusion conference focuses on business solutions
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Lodging Media President McNeill; Ed Rendell; Mayor Jim Kenney; Julie Coker-Graham, CEO and President of PCVB; PHL Diversity Executive Director Greg DeShields and Jeffrey Montague, Associate Vice Dean of Temple's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management are pictured here at the luncheon. - Photo by Samaria Bailey

Posted: Tuesday, May 3, 2016 12:00 am

Samaria Bailey Tribune Correspondent

Strategies for achieving diversity in the service industry were discussed in the 2016 Diversity and Inclusion Conference at Temple University and Center City last week.

The first part of the Conference included a series of panel discussions such as Supplier Diversity, Franchise Ownership and a Faculty Think Tank, which focused on diversity in hospitality education. The closing luncheon featured a speech by Gov. Ed Rendell, chairman of the Democratic National Convention Host Committee.

"As a city and as a Convention and Visitors Bureau, we have always focused on diversity and inclusion," said Julie Coker-Graham, president and CEO of the Visitors Convention Bureau. "We had the first Multicultural Affairs Congress, started in 1987 and it was founded to promote Philadelphia as a destination for African-American meetings. We've expanded that and now that includes African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, LGBT and women."

Rendell commented on the degree to which diverse groups will be involved with the July Democratic National Convention (DNC).

"We've (Host Committee) given out eight major contracts...and seven out of eight given out were to diverse enterprises," Rendell said. He added that five of the contracts awarded to diverse groups were solely managed by the Host Committee and the remaining two were awarded with the input of the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC).

Communications Director for the DNC, Anna Adams-Sarthou, said "diverse," for the purposes of the Convention, includes "minorities, women, veterans, LGBT," and people living with disabilities.

A vendor directory compiled with thousands of businesses was also produced by the host committee and is available to the DNCC and the public, via the DNC website.

Sarthou said "60 percent of the businesses on the directory are Pennsylvania businesses; "40 percent are from the Greater Philadelphia Region" and "30 percent of the businesses are diverse"

The contracts awarded to the diverse groups cover event production, insurance and merchandising, among others.

Latinos, African Americans and women are some of the diverse groups that were awarded contracts.

"It's significant in that it provides opportunity. Opportunity has a cost," said Greg DeShields, PHL Diversity Executive Director, "When you make opportunity available, they can take that to cover the cost assigned with growing their business, to take them to the next level. That access gives lift."

Darryll Adams, the only African-American general manager of a hotel in Philadelphia, was one of the panelists, for the discussion, "Minority Leadership Gap in Hospitality" earlier in the day.

"Diversity is so broad," he said. "In order to be effective and make an impact, we have to break it up in chunks and deal with it one aspect at a time, instead of all at once."

Adams stated "exposure" is also important in having diverse groups represented in the top levels of the hospitality industry.

"Coming in, you really don't know what opportunities are out there," he said. "It takes leadership to expose the opportunities and you make the decision."

Ed McNeill, president of Lodging Media, shared a similar view.

"The demand for future employees is so great right now," he said. "There is path to the top but you have to learn every aspect of the industry but the industry has to do a better job with education and say 'here is what we are looking for' and schools need to say 'here is what we need for that to happen.'"

McNeill added that, after the conference, the next step is "trying to grow it within our industry and that means expanding participation among other hotel chains and trying to get schools more involved."