Inclusion and Diversity are extremely important to us at All Things Open, and they have been from the beginning.

It matters, and over the years we've tried to put that into action in a number of ways:

1. By featuring speakers that are diverse and ones from diverse backgrounds, so the perspectives from which talks are delivered reflect it.
2. By inviting historically underrepresented organizations and individuals to attend the event and participate, and making that as easy as possible.
3. By treating everyone with the utmost respect and making sure they know they are welcome, safe and appreciated.
4. By (hopefully) establishing the "right" expectations by being very visible with our Code of Conduct and other policies

So, it stands to reason that we greatly appreciate our Underrepresented Sponsor every year as they make much of this possible. And in 2020 that sponsor is Amazon Web Services (AWS).

We've worked with AWS for a number of years now and we can tell you they firmly believe in inclusion and diversity, and generally enabling people from all backgrounds to get involved and participate.

This year they're a Presenting level sponsor once again, which means they are a primary reason registration is FREE for the first time ever. In addition, they're making much of the outreach to historically underrepresented organizations possible, which we hope results in greater attendance and more opportunity for members.

Finally, AWS has sponsored the Inclusion & Diversity stand-alone program for a number of years now, including in 2019. If this were a "normal" year they would be making the event's networking social possible, which is a tremendous opportunity and one that has directly resulted in new relationships and jobs for so many. We're positive they'll find additional ways to help people get involved and participate in the years ahead also - and we look forward to working with them every step of the way.

On behalf of the ATO team, many thanks to Shirley Bailes and her team for their support and partnership.