Code of Conduct

Everyone participating in the Birmingham Design Festival  and Birmingham Design community — including, but not
limited to the Birmingham Design Festival events and BD Slack channel — is required to agree to the following
Code of Conduct. This includes all attendees, speakers, performers, patrons (sponsors), volunteers, and staff.

BDF/BD is dedicated to providing a harassment-free  experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender
identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age,
race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of or by participants in any form.

Be respectful of all participants. Understand and respect the boundaries of your fellow attendees, speakers, sponsors, venue staff, and volunteers. For example, if approaching someone that you’ve only known online, ask before initiating physical contact (e.g., “May I give you a hug?), acknowledge, and abide by their response. Anyone who violates this Code of Conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the BDF/BD organisers.

Harassment includes:

Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion. Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment. Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names. Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate, especially without warning. Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, descriptions in DMs) without consent or after a request to stop.

Threats of violence.

Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.

Deliberate intimidation.

Stalking or following.

Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.

Sustained disruption of discussion.

Unwelcome sexual attention.

Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/ assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others. Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.

Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect other BDF/BD community members or other vulnerable people from intentional abuse.

Publication of non-harassing private communication without consent by the involved parties.

BDF/BD prioritises marginalised people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. BDF/BD reserves the right not to act on complaints regarding:

‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’.

Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.” Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial.

Criticising racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behaviour or assumptions.

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, BDF/ BD may take any action we deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all BDF/BD spaces and identification of the participant as a harasser to other BDF/ BD community members or the general public.

Reporting and Enforcement

If you are being harassed by a member of the BDF/BD community, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact us immediately via email at hello@birminghamdesign.co.uk

At BDF/BD events

If a participant engages in harassing behaviour at our events, the BDF/BD Directors and pre-selected BDF/ BD team members may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event (with no refund). If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the BDF/ BD immediately. At the events, BDF/BD members can be identified by badges, lanyards, stickers, or shirts (this may vary from event to event) and will be trained in how to address and report any incidents that attendees bring to their attention. You can also email hello@birminghamdesign.co.uk to file harassment reports at any time, including after the event has ended.

BDF/BD team members will be happy to help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event.

Slack & Online

Please contact an admin or moderator via direct message.

If the person who is harassing you is a member of staff, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident.

All reports will be handled in the strictest confidence. We will respond as promptly as we can.

Important Contact Information

BDF/BD Directors: dan@birminghamdesign.co.uk & luke@birminghamdesign.co.uk
BDF/BD Team: hello@birminghamdesign.co.uk
Emergencies: 999

Thanks for helping us make BDF/BD the amazing community it is! This policy was based largely on resources provided by XOXO, which in turn was based on those by Geek Feminism, and borrows heavily from similar open source policies authored by JSConf AU and Django. This policy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, and is available on GitHub. We encourage other events to adopt (and enforce) similar policies by using and remixing ours.