You are here

Home » State Human Resources » Workforce diversity, equity and inclusion » Washington State DEI Empowerment Conference 2024
DEI Summit logo - three interlocking speech bubbles in green, blue and orange on a light background

Washington State DEI Empowerment Conference 2024

Book Giveaway - "So You Want to Talk About Race"

Washington's best-selling author Ijeoma Oluo (ee-joh-mah oh-loo-oh) will be joining us as our opening day keynote speaker for the 2024 DEI Empowerment Conference. In honor of Oluo's presentation, we are giving away copies of her first book, "So You Want to Talk About Race" to Washington State Executive branch employees as requested. Supplies are limited -- request yours today!

Executive branch employees may submit one request each. Employees will be asked to designate the book format they prefer, paperback, audio book download from Audible, or e-book download for Kindle. If employees need other accessible formats such as braille, please make note on your request form and we will try to accommodate. The request form should be filled out with your work email address. If you have trouble accessing the submission form, send an email to the conference inbox.

Ijeoma will also be joining us for an on-site book signing. Keep an eye on the conference's website for more information.

Check back in April to see information on our other presenters. 

Equity & Belonging Through Disrupting Policy & Practice

The 2024 WA DEI Empowerment Conference’s theme is Equity & Belonging Through Disrupting Policy & Practice. When we say “Disrupting”, we are looking for presentations that will provide information on the importance of pausing and analyzing our current policies and practices to help us identify and remove barriers. We are committed to supporting statewide and agency-specific efforts to build a broad path towards equity, anti-racism and belonging in the workplace.

The conference schedule

The conference will be held virtually over Zoom Wednesday June 5, Thursday June 6, Tuesday June 11 and Wednesday June 12. Add a hold to your calendar (this will downlaod a file you can open and save). We will also have in-person "Conference with Colleagues" that will welcome state employees to gather in-person to watch our virtual sessions. Conferecen with Colleagues events will be held in Olympia and Spokane. More details to come!

The conference dates have been thoughtfully chosen not to overlap with important BRG annual events. We encourage team members to attend virtual and in-person events being planned by WIN, BUILD, and RAIN during the month of June! We are excited to partner with our BRG community

Attend the live virtual sessions

While DEI practitioners and agency leadership will find the conference relevant to their work, all employees have the power to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in their workplaces. We encourage you to block time on your calendar to attend the live sessions.  While we strive to provide accessible solutions like recorded sessions for later playback, some sessions may only be available live for presenter safety or due to other concerns.

See materials from past DEI Empowerment Conferences

Dates to remember

March 8, 2024 - Book Giveaway starts, request yours today

April 16, 2024 – Conference speakers announced

May 1, 2024 - Attendee Registration Begins

June 5, 2024 – Opening Day

September 1, 2024 – Conference recording playback will be disabled

 

Click here to subscribe to conference email updates.