One of the main events during the week was the signing ceremony of the Diversity Charter, hosted by the Canadian Ambassador to Hungary, H. E. Isabelle Poupart, 12^th October 2017 at the Embassy of Canada in Budapest. Greetings were delivered by Ambassador Poupart, Borbala Czako, President of HBLF, and Gabor Zupko, Head of the EC Representation in Hungary. The keynote speech was delivered by the new signatory of the Charter, Melanie Seymour, CEO of BlackRock Hungary who introduced the good practices of her company. András Volom, Youth Representative of Hungary to the UN, introduced the partnership and the re-launch of the UN initiative HeForShe in Hungary. Interested companies joined the initiative through the partnership with HBLF.

The signing ceremony was joined by all the companies, and the number of the 2017 signatories were close to last year’s numbers.

Un-conscious Bias Training (Side event - HBLF 25th Anniversary week, 10/10/ 2017)

During the training, hosted by EON Hungary Zrt. the concept of unconscious bias and prejudices was exposed and how these affect the everyday functioning of individuals, teams, and organizations.

Participants gained insight into how these assumptions determine people's decisions and they recognized why it is important to address this, in order to understand more deeply the potential for equal opportunities at work. They gained tips as well on how to control the negative effects of our preconceptions individually and in the organizations (staff recruitment, promotions, compensation).

Synergy with HBLF programs

The HBLF programs are in synergy with Diversity Charter activities (CEO Forum, Women Business Leaders Forum, Diversity/HR workstream, Romaster program among the main ones), as well as the activities of the 2020 minimum 20 - 20% Club. Year-round programs raise awareness of the importance of diversity and gender equality and bring together stakeholders from business, government, and NGO-os. HBLF has a special focus on Romani minority and future generation of women leaders.

Consulting services 

HBLF Diversity Charter partner, mtd Consulting provides diversity consulting services to the old and new signatories of the Hungarian Diversity Charter. This support includes diversity status report, development of high level, strategic diversity & inclusion plan, benchmarking on a selected diversity focus area (as and when requested by the organization). To the new signatories in 2017 mtd offered enhanced diversity status report, and all members could also request consulting services from a range of offerings at a reduced rate.