RSE Conference Diversity

Our goal is to create an inclusive, respectful conference environment that invites participation from people of all races, ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities, religions, and sexual orientations.

We’re actively seeking to increase the diversity of our attendees, speakers, and sponsors through our calls for proposals, other open submission processes, and through dialogue with the communities we serve.

This is an ongoing process. We are talking to our program chairs, program committees, and various innovators, experts, and organisations about this goal and about ways they can help us achieve it.

Here are some ways you can help us build a more diverse conference experience:

• Recommend appropriate speakers to the conference chairs. See the contact pages for information; you may also email us
• Forward our call for proposals to relevant affinity groups with the message that we are looking for a diverse speaker roster
• Suggest to potential speakers that they submit a proposal during our Call for Participation conference phase
• To broaden participation, we’re offering mentoring and other support with your talk or workshop. If you would like to know more, please get in touch.
• Suggest ways that the onsite conference experience can be more welcoming and supportive, free from intimidation and marginalisation
• Share your ideas and best practices for how we can realise our vision

We value diversity in the communities we bring together, and we welcome your contributions to bringing balanced representation of the richness of our collective human experience.

Credit for the original version of this document goes to O’Reilly Media licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Code of conduct

The RSE Conference is a community conference intended for networking and collaboration in the RSE community.

We value the participation of each member of our community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout the conference and at all conference events, whether officially sponsored by UK RSE or not.

To make clear what is expected, all delegates/attendees, speakers, exhibitors, organisers and volunteers at any RSE event are required to conform to the following Code of Conduct. Organisers will enforce this code throughout the event.

The Short Version

The RSE Conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form.

All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks.

Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other attendees. Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate for the RSE Conference.

Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the conference without a refund at the sole discretion of the conference organisers.

Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly event for all.

The Longer Version

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

Exhibitors in the exhibition hall, sponsor or vendor booths, or similar activities are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualised images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualised clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualised environment.

Be careful in the words that you choose. Remember that sexist, racist, and other exclusionary jokes can be offensive to those around you. Excessive swearing and offensive jokes are not appropriate for the RSE Conference.

If a participant engages in behavior that violates this code of conduct, the conference organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund.

Contact Information

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff. Conference staff will be wearing RSE t-shirts and wearing yellow lanyards. You can also raise any concerns using the email address info@rse.ac.uk which will be received by all conference chairs, or by using the emergency contact details found in your conference bag.

Conference staff will be happy to help participants contact venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance.

Licence

This Code of Conduct was forked from the example policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and other volunteers, which is under a Creative Commons Zero license, and then adapted by PyCon and licensed under a under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.