In February 2020, me and some friends launched a little thing called The DICE Charter.
Sick and tired as we were of never-ending pledges, words, and inaction we decided to get our heads together and try and create something tangible and practical that would actually make a difference.
Let’s get into it.Â
WHAT IS DICE?
DICE provides certification and guidance to help conferences and events deliver a representative and diverse set of speakers, perspectives, and attendees. It does this by asking conference and events organisers to sign up to and abide by the DICE Charter.
OK SO WHAT IS “THE DICE CHARTER”?
Great question. The DICE Charter is a set of scored guidelines based upon the 2010 UK Equality Act. It covers includes details on speaker line up such as gender, age, race – as well as other elements such as the content and themes presented and even the attendees themselves. Y’know what, just go ahead and read it.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
To get DICE certified, an event organiser fills out a set of online questions about their event. Once the answers are in, one of the DICE team (normally Amy but sometimes me) goes through the answers and helps get to a DICE score. 10% is available for each part of the charter with 100% being the highest possible score.
To be certified, you need to score 40% or higher. Under 40%? NO DICE! The scoring system works like this:
<39% Poor – NO DICE.
>40 <59% OK – DICE CERTIFIED.
>60 <89% Great – DICE CERTIFIED AND APPROVED.
>90 <100% Perfect – DICE CERTIFIED AND RECOMMENDED.
WHY IS CERTIFICATION SO LOW?
Because this shouldn’t be hard. Getting 40% should be easy and the jump from 40-60 isn’t much more difficult. By going through the process, our plan is that events organisers will realise what easy changes they can make to get to the next tier. And if it’s only 50% this year, maybe next year you can get 70%. This is a journey and we want it to remove as many hurdles as possible.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Becoming DICE Certified is COMPLETELY FREE. It literally costs NOTHING for an event to check, apply, or even receive certification. NOTHING. FREE FREE FREE. FOREVER.
WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
I’m glad you asked. Whether you’re an event organiser, speaker, panel participant, or even just an attendee – simply just by asking the question ‘Are you DICE certified?’ is the best and biggest thing you can do. If you want to do more, we’ve got a link for that as well.
Thanks for reading.
I am so proud of the work to date – and the events that have signed up along the way – if you’ve got any questions about DICE, don’t hesitate to get in touch.