What We Measure
In business, if you care about an issue, you measure it. At Choir, we're focused on highlighting the voices of people of color, women, and non-binary professionals; and we measure that. Because what we measure, matters.
Choir's metrics center Black, Latina/o & Hispanic, Indigenous, Middle Eastern & North African, East Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander men, women, and non-binary people, as well as white women and non-binary people.
People from these groups are often underrepresented on conference stages in comparison to their representation in the US population - due to current and historic systemic inequities both inside and outside of the business world. By actively working to create more representative agendas, conferences lead the way to more diverse and inclusive industries.
Choir Certification™
Progress you can benchmark.
The Choir Certification™ indicates a conference or event includes and highlights the voices of people of color, women, and non-binary speakers.
There are three levels of certification: Certified, Silver, and Gold.
What does it measure?
The Choir Certification™ process happens after completion of a conference. Certification and the accompanying seal indicate that a conference has both:
- Featured the expert voices of people of color, women, and non-binary speakers at or above the visibility specifications listed below, and
- Met or exceeded all 4 standards of the Choir Pledge.
Choir Certification™ Requirements
What do the different levels of Choir Certification™ mean?
Percentages below indicate the visibility of women and people of color. The Gold Standard is for conference stages to feature approximately 66-70% women and speakers of color, similar to the U.S. population. Featuring women and people of color at this rate translates to a Choir Score of 95-100.
-
0%
39%-50% Certified
-
0%
51%-65% Silver
-
0%
66%-70% Gold
The Choir Score™
The Choir Score™ is a proprietary 100-point assessment that quantifies how well a conference highlights the voices of people of color, women, and non-binary people in comparison to their representation in the U.S. population.
What does the Choir Score™ measure?
The Choir Score™ accounts for both who is speaking, as well as the visibility of each speaking spot. (For example, a keynote speaker is more visible than a panelist in a breakout session.) Explore sample conference visibility data in the adjacent data visualization table.
What data do you use?
The Choir Score™ algorithm takes into account up to 8 distinct visibility factors for each speaking spot, then cross references that data with the combined race and gender data of the speaker, specifically accounting for the double discrimination faced by women of color.
What is the standard and who sets it?
Choir uses demographic data about people of color and women in the US population as the "gold standard" for the Choir Score™. For example, a score of 100 would indicate that a conference highlights the voices of women and people of color near or above their representation in the US population. A score of 50 would indicate that women and people of color were about half as visible on the agenda as they are in the US population.