OFFICIAL: we're speaking at Cannes Lion! Workshop: Unlocking Creative Excellence with Powerful DE&I Strategies. DE&I shapes creative excellence. Across all Cannes Lions 2022 Award Winners, creative work with a DE&I heartland proved inclusion powers creativity. For this to have a meaningful impact it must go beyond representation and into brand strategy. In this Cannes Lions workshop…

Yes, after the success of our London workshop, we're going stateside with our signature workshop 'Rewiring the Creative Process for Inclusion' to NYC with Henry Stewart's 'Creative Operations' conference (yes, DEI IS a key part of operations).

To begin the event, we're holding a dynamic three-hour DEI workshop on Wednesday, May 24, 9.30-12.30pm that focuses on understanding the creative process and embedding inclusion-first thinking into it. Through interactive discussions, you'll explore how to rewire the creative process to produce authentic content that deeply resonates with our audiences. We'll interrogate work, and co-design a better, more inclusive system.

INTRODUCING DISABLED CREATIVES: an industry first

Yes, 2023. We are here and we're doing what we always do: making real, meaningful change where it counts. That's why we've launched Disabled Creatives.

This is a FREE three-week creative leadership programme open to creative talent who are disabled and/or neurodivergent, who are working, or have previously worked as a creative or studied in the field of advertising, marketing and design with best-in-class training from D&AD.

The last couple of months has been crazy busy at Creative Equals. We're just coming up for air, and suddenly it's December this week (can someone press pause please?). We've welcomed several new clients ready for change, built out our team and celebrated four years of what 'returning' means with our Creative Comeback Alumni. In the spirit of knowing equity and inclusion are the legacies we bring, here's a round-up of things we're watching and doing to make a difference…

CALLING ALL BUSINESS LEADERS

What will it take to get to 50:50 at the C-suite? This programme is a game-changer. Applications are now open for our 4th CE Business leadership programme. This programme and community is built to give women, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, the skills and network to take their next step in leadership. In the past we've had …

RISE2022: 'This day moved me in a profound way' Wow. Thank you for THAT feedback, 5* all the way. If you missed out, you can download Creativebrief’s thorough RISE Trends Report. To amplify those voices for change for the second year running, Managing Editor, Nicky Kemp, and her team created a report sharing the key insights from the day. ‘Who makes the work, shapes the work’ was a key theme of the conference, so we bring you actionable insights and articles to help you to shape both the work and the workplace itself in progressive and inclusive ways. Oh, and #RISE2022 made it into Forbes.

In todays newsletter, we’re putting the call out for all women, GNC or nonbinary creatives who have taken a break and want to return to work. We look at RISE and the six C’s of inclusive leadership, and we also review another faux pas from Samsung and how we can fly the flag for Ukraine’s Creative Community.

Why the cost of living crisis is an inclusion crisis... Last week, we meet West Yorkshire Paralympic Gold Medalist Hannah Cockcroft to talk content for RISE2022. While we focused on representation (and she regrets starring in Channel4's award-winning 'Superhumans' ad), our conversations moved to the inequity of the cost of living crisis for disabled people, who are facing rising costs of up to £1,000 a month. Many are being forced into making impossible…

Future Leaders is back for its fifth year and it’s clear that making the cut matters. Every year, we shine the spotlight on up-and-coming female, non-binary and gender non-conforming leaders in the ad industry in order to eradicate barriers and bias and drive progress. Being on the list is more than recognition, in many cases – it’s a chance to be…

TO #BREAKTHEBIAS, YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR BIAS. In order to challenge unconscious biases we must first confront them. An all-female team that works for Helen James, Managing Director of Crispin, Porter & Bogusky and lead of Creative Equals' Women's Business Leaders Programme, came up with this campaign for #IWD2022. This tracks into one of our bias exercises (just Google CEO: what do you see?). Now imagine a world where genders make no difference. At RISE2022, you'll get one of their #BreakTheBias colouring-in books - a great way to explain bias in all its forms to children. After all, biases are often in play by the age of five.

Over the coming months, we believe standing together as part of a culture-shaping, change-making community matters. We stand for equity in our workplaces and our work.

This year, RISE 2022 (our first in-person conference since 2019) will bring you the inspiration and know-how to impact what we can in our working lives as we step into our own leadership. We'll tackle the important topics: what inclusive leadership looks like, how to create fearless work, what pay equity looks like, how to drive equitable representation and what's keeping marketing leaders awake at night. Plus, we'll take on a brief for the Women's Equality Party, with leader Mandu Reid.

It’s happening! 12th May 2022 at the Royal Horticultural Hall, London. We are back and we are bigger! And in REAL life! And, over the next few weeks, we'll be announcing the line-up of line-ups. For now, we're releasing the name of our first speaker…

#CREATIVECOMEBACK INDIA 2022 LAUNCHES. In a first for India's advertising industry, this International Women's Month, we are calling for all female creatives in India who want to restart their career to join Creative Comeback. Partnered with D&AD and Diageo, we help #BreakTheBias by changing perceptions of the CV gaps women have due to a career break, often for caring responsibilities.

CMO of Diageo India, Deepika Warrier says: "Women are 11 times more likely to not work after a COVID job loss (Times of India, 2021). We know when women take a career break, their life experiences bring them a deeper, richer perspective'.

Is DEI crushing it at Cannes Lion? This National Inclusion Week, we wanted to bring you a fresh POV on Thursday, September 30, 4-5pm.

With one of the most progressive leaders in the DEI space, Efrain Ayala, Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Marketing Excellence at Reckitt, we trawled through the Cannes Lion winners from 2021.

Here's what we uncovered:

When you look beyond the Glass Lion, you'll see the Grand Prix for Innovation, Brand Experience, Film and more were awarded to work where is DEI embedded in campaigns. For us, this goes beyond 'representation'. This is about DEI at the heart of business strategy - and it IS smashing awards, hands down.

What does it mean to be a creative/marketing leader in 2021? Attend a day where every speaker will leave you with three actionable tips on how to drive growth for your leadership skills, your team, tech, campaigns and your own perspective…

#AdlandCommits: did we progress? All leaders know accountability is critical. So we’re asking all AdlandCommits CEOs to take 15 minutes to complete this survey (promise - it's short).

When we first completed this survey in October, we had over 109 respondents - about 30% of signatories. Right now, we have 23 respondents. We want to match our original response as we go out to report on progress in time for the anniversary of George Floyd’s brutal murder, May 25.

In the George Floyd case, justice has been served in the courtroom, but this is only one incident, and only one part of seeing justice served. The basis of #AdlandCommits is that this is a movement, not a moment. The work of accountability goes on day after day.

With this in mind, we’re asking all signatories to

In a week that has seen the dismissal of structural racism in a government-led report, this week, we’re applauding David Lammy more than ever. When the disgraceful Sewell report came out, Lammy said this: 'For my own mental well-being I am not doing media interviews on the race commission today. Like so many in Britain’s Black community I’m tired! Tired of the endless debate about whether structural racism exists with little desire to actually address it. We are being gaslighted.'

We are proud to have David Lammy appearing on our stage at RISE this year to talk about why representation matters. When asked 'How can the creative industries tackle the inequality we have seen since Covid-19 pandemic began?' David responded…

Sandwiched between International Womens Day and Mothers day we saw Meghan and Harry were excluded, unprotected and blindsided by racism from the 'institution'. Meghan became 'race hate click bait' for the British press and we saw a woman left with no help when she said she was having suicidal thoughts. THEN we heard about Sarah Everard and Labour MP Jess Philips read out the names of 118 dead women in parliament, revealing how violence against women and girls is an epidemic, we discovered 97% of women in the UK have been sexually harassed and we saw a #CrimeBill, which does more to protect statues than women. Honestly, we think…

nternational Women’s Day 2021 is particularly poignant this year, as March 8th marks the return to schools across the UK and the end of the impossible task of attempting homeschooling, while for many, simultaneously trying to hold down a full-time job.

As the Creative Equal’s CreativeComeback alumni (a returners programme, backed by Diageo and D&AD) of 2020 began exploring creative ideas for IWD2021, it was hard to ignore the bitter irony that March 8th will leave many working mothers across the industry equal parts exhausted and exhilarated. The radical act we want for IWD is...

MAY 13TH 2021. RISE GOES VIRTUAL...

Represent your perspective. Represent ALL your customers in your marketing. Yes, our sell-out conference is BACK - and it's online (plus you can purchase tickets in collaboration with AdWeek - yes, such a great deal!), with Campaign as our media partner.

Insight from our Equality Standard data tells us 19% of creative directors are women (when we started it was 12%); yet 1-3% are ethnically diverse women. Year-on-year this conference is the game-changer. This day is designed to create the next generation of leaders and give you the skills, tools and know-how to rewire culture change in advertising for inclusion. We explore what makes an outstanding leader, how to have brave conversations as well as topics like 'what's keeping CMOs up at night?'

FIRST SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED…