We apologise for taking a while to publish our 2020 plans. There’s been a lot to discuss at IP Inclusive Management, and many of our plans for the year have since been thrown by the escalating coronavirus crisis.
However, after a hugely successful 2019, we do need to have a clear view of where IP Inclusive should be heading in 2020. With five strong communities and four thriving regional networks, we’re in a better position than ever to widen our reach and push for serious, long-term changes in diversity and inclusivity levels in our sector.
Our November 2019 benchmarking survey confirmed that there’s still plenty more work to be done. So at our 21 January 2020 annual meeting we opened the floor to discussions about the next year’s priorities. We’ve come up with the following:
- Extending our reach:
- Persuade more people of the importance of diversity and inclusion (D&I) to the IP professions
- Target in particular people who are not yet convinced of the business case for D&I; people from outside the “minority” groups, who believe that IP Inclusive is not “for them”; and senior people in influential and decision-making roles
- Disability confidence:
- Through IP Ability, encourage and support disability confidence in the IP professions
- Ethnic diversity:
- Through IP & ME, understand more about, and begin to address, the current low levels of ethnic diversity in the IP professions
- Careers in Ideas:
- Continue to raise awareness of, and improve access to, IP-related professions, focusing on currently under-represented groups
- Develop the existing Careers in Ideas resources
- The EDI Charter:
- Encourage and support greater involvement from Charter signatories, and fulfilment of the Charter commitments
- Encourage a wider range of signatories from across the IP sector
You can download a pdf of our 2020 priorities here. It’s an ambitious set of objectives, but we’ve never yet regretted aiming high, and there are plenty of us to pull together on this. Keep an eye on our website for more details of our work under each of the five headings.
IPIM welcomes further suggestions throughout the year. Even better if you can help us to make things happen. Do please get in touch.