The SWE Annual Conference & Career Fair serves as an inclusive platform for women, nonbinary individuals, and male allies from diverse backgrounds to foster the persistence and success of underrepresented groups in the engineering and technology professions. We encourage anyone who holds a different perspective to reflect on their attendance.
In response to recent incidents of protests, harassment, disrespect, and a lack of commitment to fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at various diversity-focused career fairs, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is outlining clear expectations for attendees, as well as the proactive measures being implemented to ensure a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment at the WE24 event in Chicago from Oct. 24-26, 2024.
The Annual Conference & Career Fair hosted by SWE aims to connect organizations with diverse talent. While all individuals are welcome as members and attendees, SWE emphasizes the importance of collective allyship.
We strongly encourage all attendees to read the following. If an attendee does not feel they can uphold our standards, we will issue a refund to them for their conference participation. Refunds must note a disagreement with our policies and be requested by Oct. 14, 2024, and must be submitted to SWE@xpressreg.net.
Expectations for Attendees at WE24
SWE has the following expectations for all attendees, guests, and exhibitors at our Annual Conference & Career Fair:
- Adherence to rules & regulations and mindfulness of core values: All attendees must adhere to expectations set forth in our WE24 Rules & Regulations and be mindful of demonstrating our core values (integrity, inclusive environment, mutual support, professional excellence, and trust). WE24 Rules & Regulations are agreed to by all attendees during registration. Specifically, attendees should be familiar with the WE24 Code of Conduct (provided at length below) and our zero-tolerance policy for harassment and unacceptable behavior.
- Clear expectations for WE24 exhibiting organizations: SWE is sharing this information, along with specific expectations that pertain to exhibiting organizations, with all exhibitors. All exhibitors must adhere to our WE24 Rules & Regulations and may be subject to removal from the floor if they fail to comply. SWE is working with high-traffic organizations to put crowd control measurements in place and is outlining concrete steps for how to create a safe space around their exhibitor booth.
- Demonstrate zero tolerance for harassment: For WE24, all attendees and exhibitors should be aware that harassment includes, but is not limited to: cutting in line, interrupting conversations between an exhibitor and attendee, pushing, shoving, and any other unwanted physical contact of any form. As is noted in our Rules & Regulations, SWE reserves the right to remove all individuals who do not adhere to our expectations.
- Disruptive behavior of any kind will not be tolerated: Any individual participating in disruptive behavior will be removed from the facilities.
SWE’s Preventative Measures to Deter Harassment and Unacceptable Behavior at WE24
While we want to ensure our attendees and exhibiting partners have clear expectations of how to interact appropriately to uphold our code of conduct and core values, we also want to outline measures SWE will take as an organization to put power in the hands of those experiencing harassment or negative behavior and what we will do in response.
- Rapid reporting system for attendees of harassment and unacceptable behavior: Attendees who experience or witness unwanted harassment or unacceptable behavior should send an email to safety@swe.org. Reports must include the badge number of the individual reporting the matter so SWE can verify them; no one who reports an incident will be identified without their consent. Attendees are encouraged to document this with photos, videos, or badge numbers of those committing unwanted behavior (if they are safely able to do so) and include the booth name or number where the incident occurred. Reports should be made only if the reporter feels safe to do so. Two senior level SWE staff will be entirely focused on monitoring reports to this email and will coordinate with on-site staff and security to rapidly address issues to the best of our ability. Attendees may also report unwanted behavior or harassment directly to on-site security personnel, but we realize this may force the reporter to leave the Career Fair floor and may not be the most accessible escalation point for all.
- Right to remove individual attendees from the WE24 Career Fair floor and/or Annual Conference for harassment and unacceptable behavior: In the past, SWE has removed individuals who have not abided by our code of conduct and banned them from our events, and we will do so again if needed.
- As stated in our code of conduct: SWE reserves the right to take any necessary or appropriate action, including immediate removal from the conference, without warning or refund, in response to any incident of unacceptable behavior. SWE reserves the right to prohibit attendance at any future events, whether virtually or in person.
- Reporting harassment and unacceptable behavior of exhibiting organizations’ employees: As SWE has done in the past, if there are reports of employees at exhibiting organizations conducting or allowing harassment and unacceptable behavior, SWE will make a report to that organization. This may result in an exhibitor being removed from the floor and notice given to their employer for a fuller investigation. If a significant number of reports come into safety@swe.org reporting incidents at a particular booth in real time, SWE may escalate security to the booth in question. In addition, after the event concludes, SWE will proactively take additional steps to review patterns of disregard shown by exhibitors to the code of conduct in our Rules & Regulations.
SWE’s Steps to Promote Safety and Crowd Control Management at WE24
- Crowd control management: SWE will employ the use of rope and stanchions at the beginning of the Career Fair and at key points throughout the Career Fair floor to enforce access control for popular booths.
- Easy access to upload your resume to our career center: For those attending WE24, you may upload your resume and tag that you are attending WE24 so that WE24 exhibitors (all of whom have access to our Career Center) can find your resume and set up virtual or in-person interviews. Download the steps to upload your resume and tag WE24 here.
- General security: In addition to security throughout the convention center, SWE will also require all those entering McCormick Place to undergo various security checks. For example, there will be K-9 units on site and wanded checkpoints. As with WE23, to increase the overall security of all attendees, partners, and guests, firearms or weapons of any kind are banned from entering WE24 and McCormick Place for the duration of the event. During this time, all doors to the Center will be locked, and entry will only be permitted through designated entrances. There will be four main entrances for the WE24 Annual Conference. These four main entrances will have various security checkpoints that attendees/exhibitors/groups must enter through.
- Career Fair floor prioritizes members: As it has for several years, our Career Fair floor puts priority first to our members. The Career Fair hours are below:
Thursday, Oct. 24
2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. CT — Professional and Collegiate members only
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. CT — All registrants (including Collegiate nonmembers)
Friday, Oct. 25
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. CT — Professionals only, members and nonmembers
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. CT — Professional and Collegiate members only
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. CT — All registrants (including Collegiate nonmembers)
WE24 Code of Conduct
By registering, the in-person and/or virtual attendee agrees and acknowledges that they are undertaking participation in SWE’s Annual Conference, WE24, and adhering to the WE24 Code of Conduct (“Code”). SWE is committed to providing a safe, productive, and welcoming environment for all WE24 participants and SWE staff. All participants, including, but not limited to, attendees, speakers, volunteers, sponsors, SWE staff members, service providers, and others, are expected to abide by this Code.
This Code applies to all SWE events in public facilities or hotels and on public or private platforms. SWE has a zero-tolerance policy for any form of discrimination or harassment, including, but not limited to, sexual harassment by participants or our staff at our events. Please report harassment or unacceptable behavior to safety@swe.org so that appropriate action can be taken.
- Unacceptable behavior is defined as harassment, intimidation, or discrimination in any form, or verbal abuse of any attendee, speaker, volunteer, sponsor, SWE staff member, service provider, or other conference guests. Examples of verbal abuse include, but are not limited to, verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, or national origin; inappropriate use of nudity and/or sexual images in public spaces or presentations; or threatening or stalking any attendee, speaker, volunteer, sponsor, SWE staff member, service provider or other conference guests.
- Further unacceptable behavior includes disruption of presentations during sessions or at other events organized by SWE during the virtual meeting. All participants must comply with the instructions of the moderator and any SWE virtual event staff. SWE reserves the right to take any necessary or appropriate action, including immediate removal from the conference, without warning or refund, in response to any incident of unacceptable behavior. SWE reserves the right to prohibit attendance at any future events, whether virtually or in person. If you have questions about these guidelines, please contact SWE staff.
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