NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR THE EUROPEAN DIVERSITY AWARDS 2017 – SUPPLIER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PROGRAMME OF THE YEAR CATEGORY

(June 16, 2017) WEConnect International has supported the European Diversity Awards since 2014 – the awards recognise and celebrate innovation, excellence, creativity and commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion by organisations and by individuals. This year’s awards take place on Thursday 16th November 2017 in London.

We are encouraging firms with supplier diversity programmes in Europe to apply for the Supplier Diversity & Inclusion Programme of the Year Award.

This award recognises and celebrates the work of a corporate organisation that is driving forward the supplier diversity and inclusion agenda in Europe through programmes that specially encourage the participation of minority owned businesses in corporate supply chains. Minority owned businesses are defined as firms that are 51% or more owned by women, ethnic minority, LGBT and disabled business owners.

The entry process is straight forward and online and nominations close on Monday 31st July 2017.

You have to answer two questions based on the period from June 2016 – July 2017:

• Provide a brief statement about why the nominee should receive this award. This section will be used in the awards programme if they are shortlisted. (max 150 words)
• Describe how the nominee has made an impact on diversity and inclusion in their field. Evidence of the impact must be given within this section (max 1000 words)

Nominations can be submitted online here.

The winner in 2014 was IBM, in 2015 it was the US Embassy in Portugal for their Connect to Success programme and in 2016, the winner was Intel.

There are 14 categories in total including:

• Head of Diversity of the Year
• Inspirational Role Model of the Year
• Diversity Team of the Year Award
• Social Mobility Initiative of the Year
• Company of the Year Diversity
• Champion of the Year

A full list of categories can be found here.

You can watch a video about last year’s event here.