On behalf of the team organizing Indie Untangled, I want to address my actions related to compensation of special guests at my events.
I owe Denise Bayron an apology for not offering to provide monetary compensation for her time at a for-profit event when I first asked her to appear. It was wrong to assume that publicity or exposure was sufficient compensation in this instance, and to make it her responsibility to ask to be paid. I know the historical baggage that is attached to asking women, especially BIPOC women, to do work in exchange for less than they deserve.
Additionally, in my sincere effort to make sure Indie Untangled was an inclusive event, I recognize that specifically asking a person of color to do something that benefits my business can look like tokenism. That was not my intent.
Of course, one of the things I have learned over the past several months is that intent does not cancel out the impact of one’s actions. It is obvious to me now that I have not fully absorbed this idea, and have a lot of work to do to truly understand how this kind of situation can come from good intentions.
I also want to take responsibility for the initial response when the details of the compensation discussion were made public. The response that we thought would “set the record straight” only led to more miscommunication and bad feelings.
On a related note, I need to apologize to Stephen West for making the details of his compensation public, without his consent.
And, finally, I want to apologize publicly to the vendors who entrusted me with their reputations and livelihoods. We all know that running a business isn’t easy in the best of circumstances, but that doesn’t negate the hurt that my actions have caused.
This situation has given me a greater insight into the discussions that have been occurring in our industry, and I will be using this experience to inform the guidelines and standards I will be setting for future events.
I sincerely hope that what happened doesn’t tarnish what has always been an enjoyable weekend.
4 Responses
This is an ethics issue. You are a business woman, asking another business woman to share her time, effort & talent, for no compensation, like what she does & who she is doesn’t matter. Making it sound like you are doing her a favour, instead of appreciating & acknowledging her worth.
Everyone wants diversity issues to be transparent, guess what, now it’s crystal clear.
Enough of what your personal lessons are or need to be, who cares.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Gillian, I care. This apology seems very sincere to me. I agree with Beth, in the next comment, 100%. There is responsibility with both parties. This is business, if you consider yourself a business person – be a smart one. You do that by making mistakes and moving on.
This whole thing was made way bigger than it needed to be. Over it.
I haven’t spoken up because my opinion doesn’t 100% fall with most people and I’m not a fan of conflict. I believe that there is fault in both sides of this issue. Taking diversity and race and everything else out of the equation, a contract should have been signed by both parties before the first promotion was ever posted about the event. I absolutely believe that artists should be compensated and know their worth. But that needs to be put into a contract and negotiated before accepting an “invitation”. Hopefully this is a lesson learned for everyone that no matter how small and friendly the business, binding contracts are important. I am also very sad that I won’t get to shop at the vendors that have pulled out of the event.
I absolutely agree that contracts need to be part of any event and/or promotion.
Designer & Artists have no fault in this at all. The companies or businesses that want them to appear at their events, need to treat the collaboration in a proper business like manner & offer fair contracts. That’s part of their job; or it should be.
Diversity & race cannot be taken out of any equation, because it’s a part of everyday life. It’s not something that can be ignored & taken out when convenient because it makes some people uncomfortable. Yes, hopefully everyone has learned something from this & not just those directly involved.