It is our sincere hope and expectation that 2020 will be remembered among other things, as a pivotal moment of action against passive contributions towards long-present systemic racism and other civic injustices. While we look to policies and movements from lawmakers and civil rights groups to deliver concrete signals of commitment and change, nothing stands in the way of our industry to drive diversity and inclusion on a day to day basis.
Last month IAB Canada announced an effort towards replacing taxonomy that is rooted in racist connotations within all of its outward-facing materials. We continue to review our course materials and other written content to ensure that moving forward, we are using terms that accurately describe what we mean.
As the thought leadership community representing the digital advertising industry in Canada, we would like to invite our members to participate in our efforts. Following are some initiatives we would like you, our valued members to consider in the coming weeks and beyond:
Nominating IAB Canada participants from within the organization that represent the diversity of our great country. We are always looking for Council and Committee members, speakers for our events, teachers to deliver courses that make a real impact to our learning community and volunteers that can help across all areas of our work.
Join us in making a collective effort to change taxonomy by reviewing documentation internally. Our audiences reach far and wide across the country, your contribution towards making conscientious decisions on wording is a powerful way to demonstrate commitment and movement towards change. Consider using words like allowlist, blocklist, exception list, core, source or central document. Likewise, if you have ideas and policies around wording, please share this with us so that we can add to our growing list of forward-looking language for the industry.
Importantly, this month we announced the formation of a Diversity and Inclusion taskforce that can help to centralize our ideas and develop resources for all to use. We openly invite representation from your organizations. This taskforce will work to identify challenges within our industry and propose ideas and strategies for change.
With over 250 industry stakeholder members, we are confident that meaningful change is possible. We can help each other do better and it is our greatest wish to have your support in doing so.
If you are interested in joining the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce or you have designated individuals in your organization who might be able to contribute to the conversation, please reach out to councils@iabcanada.com.