Sponsor the Confab Equity Scholarship

Increasing diversity has never been more important.

Content strategists plan and create content for all kinds of people—yet conferences in the industry too often represent limited perspectives from a homogeneous community. It’s imperative that our field includes and reflects a broad spectrum of experiences and perspectives, and it’s up to us to shift the tide.

This core purpose is at the heart of our equity scholarship program. By awarding select, qualified applicants with conference tickets and/or travel stipends, the program works to:

• Increase diversity among our event attendees
• Help remove systemic barriers to conference attendance
• Cultivate the global awareness and accountability our community so urgently deserves

So far, the program is working...

In 2020 and 2021, Brain Traffic hosted four virtual events. Because of lower per-attendee costs and unlimited “virtual seats” available, we were able to award nearly 300 equity scholarships, more than 25 times our previous capacity.

This massive, welcomed influx of equity scholarship recipients radically opened up our community to more perspectives across race, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, and geography.

The resulting shift in participation and focus was awe-inspiring. We saw:

• Difficult conversations about diversity and inclusivity happening in an intentionally designed environment where people felt safe to speak
• Event Slack channels like #black-people-at-confab, #neurodiverse, and #LGBTQIA
• Dozens of scholarship recipients connecting with mentors and recruiters they otherwise may not have had access to

...but to build something bigger, we need your help.  

In 2022, our goal is to award 50 Confab Equity Scholarships. To meet our ambitious goals for this program, we need significant contributions from our sponsors.

Each equity scholar requires up to $4,000 in funding (including ticket price, travel, and lodging) to attend Confab in person. That means we’re seeking sponsorships totaling $200,000—no small feat for a 700-person event. And rest assured: every dollar we receive for this program will go toward ticket prices and travel expenses.

Make an immediate impact with your DEI budget.

When you sponsor the Confab Equity Scholarship program, you will:

• Make conference attendance possible for more people by helping us bridge the wealth gap.
• Help amplify the voices of systemically oppressed and marginalized groups.
• Empower a vibrant and diverse community of practice within content strategy and UX.
• Recruit the people you want to hire by creating “a way in” for underrepresented, lower-visibility populations.
  

Ready to help build a more diverse, inclusive field of practice? Get in touch about sponsoring.

You’ll be in good company.

Thanks to our sponsors who have already contributed to this important work.