Past Conferences - EDI 2010 Vienna

Equality Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2010

As we live in a world of differences, we have to deal with diversity in our everyday lives. We encounter differences like age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, ability, and many others. The value which we ascribe to these differences determines our approaches to managing diversity not only in our private but also professional lives. Leadership for diversity, equality and inclusion is identified as an essential ingredient to achieve positive changes across all domains of life. Thus, this year the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Conference 2010 will focus on ‘Leadership for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Work”.

The conference will provide for academics, policy makers and practitioners an inter- and transdisciplinary as well as an international platform for explorations, syntheses and discussions of leadership for equality, diversity and inclusion at work. There will be academic and doctoral sessions as well as sessions for practitioner and policy making interests at the conference. This year's conference will be held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU).

Stella Nkomo, Professor for Human Resource Management (University of Pretoria, South Africa), will deliver one of the keynote speeches at the conference and highlight leadership for equality, diversity and inclusion in the South African context. On the same day, Lize Booysen, Professor for Organisational Behaviour and Leadership (Antioch University, USA), will focus on diversity perspectives in leadership in her keynote.

There are 17 streams and several workshops planned as part of the conference. There is also a doctoral colloquium, which allows research students to discuss methodological and subject specific issues in studying equality, diversity and inclusion at work. Policy makers and practitioner sessions are also planned.

EDI Conferences are coordinated and supported by DECERe (Diversity and Equality in Careers and Employment Research) at the University of East Anglia. Emerald Press sponsors two best paper awards at the conference. The Vienna University of Economics and Business hosts the conference and the Gender and Diversity Management Group (Department of Management) is the local organizer. Orgics Ltd provides logistic support to the conference.

The inaugural EOI conference was held in 2008 at the University of East Anglia, UK, and focused on multiple strands of equality, diversity and inclusion at work. It was organised by DECERe, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK and it hosted 80 participants from 21 countries. The second EOI, held in Istanbul, Turkey, hosted already 125 participants from 30 countries. The participants discussed equality, diversity and inclusion in times of global crisis. This year the organizers hope to increase the number of participants further, due to the significance of the issue of leadership as well as the very attractive conference venue in Vienna.