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Steven Wakabayashi

Founder & President , QTBIPOC Design

About Steven Wakabayashi

Steven Wakabayashi is the founder of QTBIPOC Design – an organization that provides free and accessible design education, mentorship, and networking opportunities to LGBTQ+ designers of colour. After leading creative teams on some of the biggest brands including Apple, Salesforce, Sephora, Mercedes-Benz, and Samsung, he is now dedicating himself to bring more diversity and equity to creative teams around the world.

Speaking at the conference

Equity in Design - What's Not Working, and What We Can Do About It

In this talk, Steven Wakabayashi (founder and president of QTBIPOC Design) will walk through the landscape of diversity within our design industry, highlight some of the pitfalls of transactional DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work, and ways of creating brave and safe spaces to create more equitable spaces for one another that encourages more diversity and creativity within our design teams.

Q&A with Steven Wakabayashi & Felicia Williams

Jeremy will take your questions for Steven & Felicia.

Book your conference pass

Masterclasses

Creating equitable design teams

Establishing equity within our teams starts with reevaluating our own internal culture. In this workshop, you will learn some of the pitfalls of diversity hiring, why they haven't worked, and ways to create a more equitable creative culture that leads to more diverse thinking, freedom, and creativity. We'll share some of our QTBIPOC Design organization principles and methods that have guided us in building a thriving team, and workshop methods together to create safe spaces, build empathy, and reinforce positive action.

In this session, we will:

  • Re-examine our traditional approach towards diversity hiring and address equity through our everyday processes and culture

  • Learn tactical solutions creatives can apply to their internal reviews, meetings, critiques, and delivery that shifts away from perfectionism and metric-driven processes to a more mindful and equitable model.

  • Feel re-energized to hold safe space for one another that is less judgemental and defensive, and where challenging issues can be discussed without fear of conflict.

Tickets

We have a range of passes available to suit every schedule. All the conference and festival content will be available on-demand for three months after the event.

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