About the Conference 

The Diversity & Inclusion Conference is a OneOMA initiative, which its purpose is to enhance the learning, understanding, and development of concepts surrounding diversity, inclusion, and social justice for the USF system and students, faculty, and staff of Florida colleges and universities. The workshops provided will focus on three sub themes, which are resiliency, racial battle fatigue, and celebrating excellence. These intentional workshops will explore real and important conversations, while celebrating the hard work we all have done.

Sub Themes

The Diversity & Inclusion Conference will focus on three sub-themes for this year's conference. This will drive educational session and keynote speakers, which is what the conference will focus on. The first sub theme is Resilience. As a community, resilience is something majority of individuals had to display during the pandemic and slowly transitioning out. Resilience is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.” In and out our job settings, resilience has to be displayed. For certain communities, resilience means a lot more because of the difficulties revolving around race and gender. As the entire world is slowly transitioning out of the pandemic, we are slowly introduced to a foreign sense of normalcy. We are navigating the world unexpectedly not sure what’s to come next. However, as we transition, we continue to adjust quickly. We adjust even if that creates a sense of uncomfortability. We adjust in our personal, family, and work lives. We continue to show up for the ones we love even in a time of transition. We continue on during very unusual times. This a sense of resiliency that we had since the start of the pandemic and will continue to have transitioning out the pandemic. This conference plans to drive home that message and will create sessions that focuses on resiliency and allow participants to understand the multiple layers of resiliency. The second sub theme is Racial Battle Fatigue. Racial Battle Fatigue is a term that was coined by William Smith in 2008. Racial Battle Fatigue is defined as “cumulative result of a natural race related stress response to distressing mental and emotional conditions. These conditions emerged from constantly facing racially dismissive, insensitive and/or hostile racial environments and individuals.” From the murder of George Floyd to the eight Asian women who lost their lives in Atlanta, communities of color have been fatigued and exhausted by acts of the racism and macroaggressions. Communities of color witness these events via social media and news outlets. After enduring secondary trauma, communities of color still have to navigate their normal lives. Whether that’s home with their family or at work around co-workers. This particular conference will have sessions to address Racial Battle Fatigue and what that looks like for communities of color in the world and in professional environments. The final sub theme is Celebrating Excellence. While we address important topics that need to be address, we also want to open this space to celebrate everyone’s excellence. This conference will do that through recognizing individuals for their hard work and contributions to serving students, observing some well-informed educational sessions, and meeting a network of people who you can connect with and establish an extended support system. We will highlight and celebrate various cultures though student performances and educational sessions. Lastly, we will also celebrate the excellence and hard work of our lovely guest speakers for their expertise and ongoing support to underrepresented students.

Overview of the Conference 

The Diversity & Inclusion conference will take place February 18th and 19th on the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus in the University Student Center Ballroom. The conference will be from 4pm-8pm on Friday, February 18th. The conference will pick back up Saturday, February 19th from 8am - 5pm. There will be three keynote speakers between the three days. On February 19th, there will be four educational session blocks attendees can attend. Every part of the conference will have a virtual compononent for virtual viewers as well. During the conference, attendees will receive a shirt upon check in along with a colored wristband. The wristband color will signal how comfortbale you are with intereacting with people at the conference. Also, during the conference on February 19th, we will have a video booth for conference attendees and USF Alumni. There will also be a meditation/prayer space during the conference. Lastly, all bathrooms will be gender neutral.

Sponship Package Details: The Platinum Sponsor package includes at least $1,500 or more in a monetary donation. This also includes your brand/logo on all marketing material including shirts, conference pamphlets, email communication, and the conference website. This also allows you to reserve physical or virtual seats at the conference at no cost. You also will be invited to a community partnership dinner with the USF OMA team on February 18th at 5pm with multiple community partners. You are able to provide any optional giveaway items for the conference or post conference (gift cards, tickets, promotion codes, etc). You also will be invited to all OMA large scale events free of charge and able to reserve seating. Your organization will be featured on the USF OMA St. Petersburg website as a community partner. The Gold Sponsor package includes at least $1,000 or more in a monetary donation. This also includes your brand/logo on all marketing material including shirts, conference pamphlets, email communication, and the conference website. This also allows you to reserve physical or virtual seats at the conference at no cost. You also will be invited to a community partnership dinner with the USF OMA team on February 18th at 5pm with multiple community partners. You are also to provide any optional giveaway items for the conference or post conference (gift cards, tickets, promotion codes, etc). The Silver Sponsor package includes at least $500 or more in a monetary donation. This also includes your brand/logo on all marketing material including shirts, conference pamphlets, email communication, and the conference website. This also allows you to reserve physical or virtual seats at the conference at no cost. You also will be invited to a community partnership dinner with the USF OMA team on February 18th at 5pm with multiple community partners. You are able to provide any optional giveaway items for the conference or post conference (gift cards, tickets, promotion codes, etc).