The nice thing about planning for Pride is it comes around every year – it’s never a surprise, and we’re always talking about it and flagging ideas that we’re excited about it. This year, we started planning in late February and our theme is #VisiblyYou. Through this lens, we want to encourage more folks to be visible in the workplace, to feel safe and supported within the walls of our company to be their fully authentic selves.

This year has seen Avanade invest in Inclusion & Diversity in many ways, including hiring a global Employee Network lead. That lead has been pivotal for us in collaborating with other Employee Networks to create a slate of Pride events that is as inclusive and intersectional as possible. The events of the past year have been hard on all of us, but Pride is a celebration, and we want everyone to feel welcome in that.

Celebrating our differences showcases our strengths, builds more diverse and innovative teams as well as brings a fresh perspective to our daily work, both internally and for our clients. This year, as we celebrate Pride, we have curated a selection of panels, activities and events which highlight those strengths and diverse teams with fresh perspectives, brought to you in team effort by our Employee Networks and individuals from around the globe:

• The Words We Live By: An Employee Network Poolside Chat – For our first event, we partnered with the Jewish EN, Veterans’ EN and Latinx EN Adelante. We’ll all come together to talk through sayings and adages that our communities live by. For example, the Veterans’ EN mentioned “Be all you can be” as an old army slogan. So we’ll look at a saying like that that applies to one community, but also examine how it applies to others, and see what connections exist between our groups through guiding principles like that.
• Employee Network Trailblazer Series Code Switching and Cocktails – This is the start of a monthly summer series of events where we highlight a trailblazer from multiple underrepresented communities and talk about what they’ve done for the respective communities. We’ll celebrate their activism with a cocktail making demonstration (a mocktail option provided too for those who don’t want to drink), and then we’ll continue with a conversation about code switching. People of color and LGBTQ+ employees often feel pressure to cover or code switch in the workplace, which can take energy out of your daily work, so we’ll be discussing how to navigate that and feel comfortable as your authentic self.
• Out on Top: A Conversation with Avanade’s Out Leadership – This is our real visibility marquee event; five out members of Avanade leadership will have a conversation about their journey to where they are today, the challenges they’ve faced, and then share advice for folks who are looking to pursue a leadership pathway.
• Parent Pride – Moderated by our Chief I&D Officer and in collaboration with the Women’s EN, this is an event to discuss all different kinds of parenting experiences. On the panel we’ll have folks who are married parents, single parents, parents of LGBTQ+ youth, LGBTQ+ parents. They’ll discuss parenting during the pandemic, both the challenges and the joys, as well as what it looks like to be an inclusive family.
• #VisiblyYou: Avanade’s Global Pride Celebration – We’ll wrap up the month with a big global celebration with two options to join so that people all over the globe can take part. We’ll be celebrating the winners of the Pride Around the World Challenge and wishing everyone a happy Pride and thanking people for being themselves.

As a whole, Pride is about both celebrating the progress we’ve made while challenging ourselves to do better. The road is long, and we’ve come a long way and still have a long way to go. Regardless of who you love, how you identify or which words you live by, we are #AvanadeProud to have so many individuals who bring their uniqueness and individuality to their work each day which is why we welcome each and every one of you to join us in celebrating pride by being #VisiblyYou.