By: Deborah Johnson Wood
The Grand Rapids/Kent County Convention & Visitors Bureau expects the Religious Conference Management Association conference to generate $1.3 million for Grand Rapids businesses next week alone and another $15 million in convention business over the next five years.
CVB leaders say the RCMA conference is the most coveted in the religious market.
“As Grand Rapids seeks to attract more national conventions, it’s vitally important that the hospitality industry prepares to welcome more diverse visitors to our community,” says CVB President Doug Small. “RCMA is more than just another convention; it provides a springboard for Grand Rapids into a national convention arena.”
Some 1,200 attendees representing 1,000 religious groups of diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds will gather at DeVos Place for the January 27 - 30 event. In order to better serve the diverse crowd, the CVB hired KMR Diversity Theatre to conduct a diversity workshop for 160 desk clerks, hotel managers, wait staff, concierges and others in the local hospitality industry.
Owner Alice Kennedy hires actors of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds to enact skits created to address all aspects of diversity, including, race, gender, sexuality, religion and age. After each skit, Kennedy engages the audience to identify and discuss inappropriate behavior or conversations the skit portrayed.
“Sometimes it’s just a look or glance, or folding our arms,” Kennedy says. “The skits help the audience understand elements of exclusion, identify unintentional discriminating behaviors, and recognize the micro-messages we all send and how they affect others."
After the discussion, the actors reenact the skit. Audience members ring a bell to identify prejudices or discrimination. The actors immediately change their actions, but not always to the appropriate behavior; the actors test the audience to see if they recognize that the new behavior is also inappropriate.
"We help the audience members assess where they’re at with diversity,” Kennedy says.
Source: Alice Kennedy, Kennedy Management Resources “Home of Diversity Theatre;”
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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