Bow Valley Inclusive Events Guide

 

Creating Welcoming and Inclusive Events: Your Practical Toolkit

Planning events that welcome everyone takes thoughtful preparation, but it doesn't have to be complicated.

This practical guide gives you simple, tested tips to make your gatherings more inclusive and accessible for all Bow Valley residents, including newcomers and immigrants.

From choosing the right venue to planning activities that bring people together, you'll find everything you need to create events where everyone feels they belong.

Scroll through each section of this practical guide for tips on how to make your next event more inclusive.

Attendees at the Primary Care Network’s ‘Smores & Mores event, Community Week 2022.

  • BVIP supports community events to:

    1. Build Social Connections – Help foster friendships between newcomers and long-time residents.

    2. Promote Community Resources – Make sure your event helps people discover what support services are available in our community.

    3. Encourage Collaboration – Work with other groups or organizations to reach a wider audience.

    Events should be:

    • Welcoming and inclusive

    • Planned with accessibility in mind

    • Free or low-cost

  • Think about who hasn’t come to your events in the past. What might stop them from attending or learning about your services and resources? Look for ways to reach more people and include everyone!

    When you plan your event, think about inclusion from the start and throughout every stage of planning:

    • Generate ideas that connect people to your organization, service, or resource.

    • Identify and address potential barriers for participants and volunteers.

    • Allocate time, money, and other resources. Consider what changes you may need to make (accommodation needs) in your budget and timeline.

    • Communicate clearly about your event.

    • Evaluate your event and gather ideas to make your next event even more inclusive.

    Resource: Inclusivity Checklist for Event Planners (WAGE Canada)

  • Your Planning Committee

    To reach a wide audience, include people with different experiences and perspectives in your planning committee.

    • Identify barriers that might stop people from joining, such as conflicting responsibilities, limited access to technology, or transportation issues.

    • If possible, provide support like compensation, childcare, transportation, or language interpretation to help remove these barriers.

    Volunteers

    When you recruit volunteers and event helpers, consider the same factors as with your planning committee. Think about how to make it easy and rewarding for people to help with your event.

  • Collaboration

    Collaboration sparks creative ideas and offers new perspectives on inclusion! When you plan your event, think about whether another agency or organization can co-host with you.

    Partner with a community group that has different resources or the capacity to help. This partnership can support broader participation from both organizations and potential participants who you might not reach otherwise.

    The Bow Valley Immigration Partnership includes diverse organizations from Lake Louise to Kananaskis. We believe in the strength of collaboration, so reach out to other organizations or groups if you want to partner or co-host an event.

    Consultation

    To ensure your event meets the needs of all community members, seek guidance from groups and organizations with the right expertise and connections, including:

    • Indigenous community

    • Immigrants and newcomers

    • Language, faith, racial, ethnic, and cultural minority communities

    • 2SLGBTQIA+ community members

    • Community members with disabilities

    • Children, youth, families, and seniors

    Resource: Newcomer Serving Agencies, Cultural Associations & More

    Resource: Bow Valley Pride Network

    Resource: Bow Valley Non-Profits

    Resource: Contact Us for more collaboration & consultation support

 

Venue & Logistics

Panelists at the Bow Valley Immigration Partnership’s Workplace Inclusion Charter Celebration event, Community Week 2022.

  • The ideal venue for a Community Week event:

    • Has accessible parking, access, and facilities

    • Can be easily accessed by public transportation.

    • Has experience accommodating diverse audiences.

    • Has all-gender restrooms available. Sometimes gendered signage can be changed to make restrooms suitable for all attendees.

    • Can meet the accommodation requests you anticipate.

    You might also consider whether there is an opportunity to provide a space for quiet, prayer, meditation, or reflection.

    Resource: Inclusive Event Planning (WAGE Canada)

    Resource: Voice of Albertans with Disabilities (VAD)

    Resource: What Are Quiet Rooms? (Video, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo)

  • Many Bow Valley locals speak English as their second, third, or fourth language. Depending on your event, you may want to provide interpretation (for spoken language) or translation (for written language).

    As of August 2025, BVIP recommends considering these languages for translation and interpretation:

    • French

    • Ukrainian

    • Chinese (simplified)

    • Spanish

    • Tagalog

    • Japanese

    • Hindi

    Resource: Find a Certified Translator or Interpreter in Alberta

    Resource: Best Practices for Communicating Via an Interpreter

    Resource: Using Language Interpretation in Your (Zoom) Meeting or Webinar

  • An accommodation is a change you make to your event to ensure that everyone can participate fully, regardless of mental or physical disabilities, religion, gender, or any other protected ground. People might request accommodations such as:

    • Interpretation

    • Captioning

    • Reserved front row seat

    • Large print

    • Advance copy of slides to be projected

    • Wheelchair access

    • Wheelchair access to working tables throughout room

    • Scent-free room

    • Lactation room

    • All gender bathroom

    • Dietary restriction

    List adapted from: Cornell University Department of Human Resources

    Tips:

    • Consider what accommodations you will be able to offer.

    • Consider the timeline you’ll need to confirm accommodations.

    • Adapt your budget as needed.

    • Be prepared to share information with attendees about accommodations you can and cannot offer.

    Resource: Duty to Accommodate (Alberta Human Rights)

  • All events should have a health and safety plan. Assess the risks and take steps to reduce or respond to those risks for hosts, volunteers, and attendees.

    As you plan your event, consider inclusion and the barriers people may face, such as:

    • Understanding communication about health and safety policies or changes to your event plan

    • Accessing or exiting facilities during an emergency

    Follow your organization’s guidelines, or contact us for support.

  • Hosting a zero-waste event shows your commitment to sustainability and helps educate people on how to reduce waste. It also supports local municipalities’ waste reduction initiatives. Events offer a fantastic chance to explore ways to make all your events 100% fun and waste-free.

    Resource: Banff Zero Waste Trail

 

Advertising Your Event

Attendees at the Town of Banff’s Community Table Lunch event, Community Week 2022.

  • Consider whether your communications and marketing materials welcome and respect everyone who might enjoy your event.

    • Include information about what to expect, such as pricing (Community Week events should be free or low cost), availability of childcare, whether the event is family-friendly, and any other relevant details.

    • If your event will include visual or auditory stimulation, like bright lights, flashing lights, loud noises, loud music, or sound systems, mention this in your event description. This information helps attendees with disabilities prepare their own accommodations (e.g., bringing noise-canceling headphones) or inquire for more information.

    • Explain how attendees can request accommodations. You can ask, “How can we make this event more accessible to you?” in your registration form. Clearly state how to request accommodations and provide the name and contact information of a team member who can assist. You can also list the accommodations you are able to offer in your advertisements.

    • If your marketing images include people, choose photos that reflect the diversity of the Bow Valley. If you use your own photos, ensure the people in them have given you permission to use their images for marketing.

    • Clearly state that your event is inclusive. For example, if you host an event designed for women, specify that individuals who self-identify as women or non-binary individuals who feel comfortable in women’s spaces are welcome to attend.

  • Use gender-inclusive language in all event materials and communications. Avoid making assumptions about gender or sexual orientation.

    • Write in plain language. Plain language helps your audience understand information the first time they read or hear it. It improves communication and helps people find the information they need quickly and easily.

    Here are some tips for communicating in plain language:

    • Use headers and sub-headers to organize information.

    • Place key information first, followed by details.

    • Choose everyday words.

    • Use strong verbs and an active voice.

    • Write in short sentences.

    • If you need to use technical terms, abbreviations, acronyms, or jargon, explain them on first use.

    • Consider translating written materials into additional languages. (See Translation & Interpretation). If you translate advertising materials, think about offering interpretation at your event.

    • Provide important information as text that can be copied for translation. Use images to reinforce or clarify information, but avoid using them to share key details.

    If you include important information in an image, repeat the text somewhere that can be copied for translation or read by a screen reader. For example, if you share event details in an image file on Facebook, repeat the information in the post description.

    Resource: 27 Tips for Plain Language Documents

    • Reach out to equity-deserving communities and groups when appropriate. Be careful not to overwhelm volunteers and contacts with outreach requests.

    • Use multiple channels to expand your outreach. For example, use email, social media, websites, posters, and messaging apps.

    Resources: See Collaborating & Consulting in the Getting Started section above.

 

At the Event

Attendees at the Biosphere of the Bow Valley’s Beers & Networking Night, Community Week 2022.

  • It’s essential for everyone helping with your event to understand your values, expectations, and plans. Make sure they know about any accommodations, health, or safety measures they should pay special attention to.

    Talk to your team about:

    • How to greet and address attendees (check out the Welcoming Language section).

    • The importance of respectful behavior for staff, volunteers, and attendees.

    • Your plan for dealing with any incidents of discrimination or harassment.

    • If needed, the reasons behind any rules or procedures that may be new to your team.

    • Who to contact for support during the event.

  • Consider offering a written or spoken land acknowledgment to welcome and open your event.

    Land acknowledgments can spark transformational change. They create space for us to reflect on how we work, interact, and engage with one another, as well as our role in reconciliation. As you think about your land acknowledgment, consider these questions:

    • Ancestry & Identity: Who are your ancestors? Where do you come from? What aspects of your identity do you want to share?

    • Location & Acknowledgment: On whose lands did you grow up? Whose lands do you live on now, and how did you arrive here? How can we change the way we acknowledge these lands?

    • Connection & Relationships: How are you connected to colonization? How does colonization and discrimination affect your relationships? How are you creating space for different narratives and shared histories to exist?

    Resource: An Introduction to Land Acknowledgements (webinar)

  • Event organizers can help to celebrate and affirm the full diversity of community members by:

    • Addressing people the way they want to be addressed: Promote the use of personal pronouns to avoid people being misgendered, ask staff and participants to use pronouns when introducing themselves.

    • Avoiding assumptions about gender or sexual orientation and words like ‘sir’, ‘ma'am’, ‘guys’, ‘girls’, and ‘ladies’.

    • Providing name tags for events with a template that shows name and pronouns.

    Resource: Diversity Welcome (Training for Change)

    Resource: Learn more about the importance of using personal pronouns (Makaylah (they/them), Frankie D’s Donuts)

  • BVIP events aim to:

    • Create opportunities for new locals to build social connections in the Bow Valley.

    • Improve availability and accessibility of settlement and community resources.

    • Ensure foreign-born locals feel seen, heard, celebrated, and valued.

    • Increase community awareness of the diversity of the Bow Valley.

    • Strengthen Bow Valley residents' sense of connection to the community.

    To help measure whether we achieve these aims, you could create a questionnaire you can share with your event attendees.

    You may wish to include questions about how to make your next event more welcoming, inclusive, and accessible.

 

Want to learn more? We would love to hear from you!

Contact BVIP
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Inclusive Emergency Response Planning