Diversity and Inclusion on display at Diggers and Dealers conference

At this year’s Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, BASF’s Mining Solutions team were keen to talk about more than just flocculants and dewatering aids. In addition to sponsoring the Women in Mining Sundowner event, front and centre at the BASF booth was a large poster prompting visitors to engage in a conversation about Diversity and Inclusion. Here, Riahna Kolatowicz, BASF Senior Technical Sales Manager and D+I Council member, shares feedback from the event.

If there’s one topic that Riahna Kolatowicz loves to talk about just as much as mining solutions, it’s Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. It was perhaps no surprise then that when designing BASF’s booth for the Diggers and Dealers conference, she ensured both of her passions were represented.

“When designing our booth, I really wanted to include an element of our D+I journey and felt we should share our success stories,” Riahna explains. “As a proud member of BASF’s D+I Council I wanted to include a poster that started conversions around this topic. Knowing that other major mining companies have Diversity and Inclusion as part of their KPI’s, and have a genuine interest in this space, I wanted to share what BASF are doing in this space and encourage them to stop for a chat.”

Always one to be bold, Riahna worked with her colleagues to design a large poster with a graphic from BASF’s Everyday Sexism campaign. “To raise awareness of Everyday Sexism in the workplace the BASF ANZ D+I Council designed posters depicting a range of comments and prompting the reader to consider whether the comment shown are sexist. The idea was to encourage reflection, rather than tell them one way or the other. We used one of these poster images for our Diggers poster and included some of the other initiatives we’re working on in the D+I Council.”

Riahna said feedback from the poster was “extremely positive” with many customers sharing their own D+I journey and challenges. “I loved the BASF D+I poster and its concept,” said Tara Rout from Evolution Mining Communications. “It was amazing to see the initiatives BASF have taken in this space and it empowering to see BASF actively encourage other companies to use these ideas.”

Fellow BASF colleague Kallan Heal added that the poster was a great way to meet new people who were genuinely interested in the topic. “I found the D+I poster at Diggers very effective and you could see the topic of Everyday Sexism was drawing people's eyes. I noticed a lot of people read the poster when walking past our booth, then stay for a chat, so I think the content really made people stop and think.”

View the poster here.