Belinda Clemmensen

On IWD we’ll look at gender inclusion specifically, although we can’t talk about inclusion without taking an intersectional perspective. This keynote begins with taking stock of how
we’re doing on gender equity and inclusion so far. We’ll cover the key milestones reached over the past years, as well as the misses and the work left to do, so we can understand
both the progress and the ongoing challenges.
Organizations have a key role to play in the movement towards equity and inclusion, and we’ll learn from some of the best practices and research about what kinds of organizational strategies and cultures lead to the most inclusive workplaces. Although inclusion is a worthy endpoint in and of itself, there are many well-researched benefits for all of us when we create more inclusive organizations.
We’ll explore these benefits, which range from employee attraction and retention, through to higher levels of engagement and innovation and positive impacts on KPI's

Many of us want to be good allies, and we definitely want others to be good allies to us, but it can be confusing when we’re also facing the truth of our own conscious and
unconscious biases. The reality is none of us are perfect when it comes to diversity and inclusion. We’ve all grown up with varying degrees of stereotypes, sexism, racism and
other biases because we’re part of a larger society that is reckoning with these very
issues.
It's helpful to think of allyship as a verb. It’s not who you are, it’s what you do, the actions you take. And thankfully, those actions and behaviours can be learned and developed so that we can have the kind of positive impacts we want to have, even when we’re not perfect or don’t have it all figured out.
This session starts as a conversation about what we want from our allies and what it takes to be a good ally ourselves. We’ll each look at how we can shift our actions and behaviours personally, and how to ask for more allyship and support.

Many women have learned that we need to change who we are in order to fit into existingorganizations, cultures and industries. We’ve become masters at it, and it’s helped us tosurvive and thrive. However, there’s a cost – both to us personally and to ourorganizations, when we don’t show up more fully as ourselves.
It takes some unlearning to be more intentional about showing up as yourself. In this session, we’ll learn to break some old habits and try out some new ones. We are constantly communicating, whether we’re aware of it or not. Being intentional about the messages we are sending ensures we are having the impact we want to have.