Transcript:
Erica D'Eramo 0:07
Hello, and welcome to the Two Piers podcast and our first episode of Season Two. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo, and today's episode will be a short one. When we last spoke, it was spring of 2020, at the end of April, actually, and little did we know what the rest of 2020 had in store for us.
Our final episode of season one discussed stress in times of confinement, and for most of us 2020 still had plenty of challenges, isolation and turbulence left to it. The Summer of 2020 saw nationwide, in fact, international demonstrations, protesting the deaths of unarmed Black citizens at the hands of law enforcement and others. We learned the names of some of those lost such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, joining those that have already entered our societal awareness like Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, and countless others. We saw awareness increasing about institutional racism and the American carceral system. We saw lots of companies declare that Black Lives Matter and commit to doing more. Less than a year later, after a summer of societal upheaval and promises of change, it's not entirely clear how much the system has actually improved. 2020 also saw the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of our icons, and a presidential election that felt like it lasted for months.
So what have we been doing in our corner of the world? And what are we up to now? 2020 was a year of change and growth for us as we redoubled our commitment to our mission of creating diverse and reflective workforces, based on equity and inclusion. While we're hopeful about the promises that many companies have made committing to lasting change, we're looking forward to seeing some of the follow through on their words, and we're here to help make it happen. While we dearly miss in-person events, such as conferences and workshops, we've actually enjoyed the flexibility that we've gained by transitioning many of our offerings to virtual platforms. Events that had previously been scheduled for Houston, and in-person events, such as the Women Offshore annual conference, or a recent corporate workshop that we held on Self Advocacy, were instead opened up to a global audience with attendees from all over the world who brought their own unique experiences and perspectives. And some of it has been a learning curve for sure, I can safely say that I can now facilitate several hours' worth of workshops via Zoom without putting anyone to sleep, but it has been a process.
So what do we have in store for you in Season Two? Well, we've got some great guests joining us to explore a wide range of topics such as the impacts of COVID-19 on underserved communities, or one chairman's story of diversity on the board. We even have an episode about blockchain for those of us that want to learn a little bit more. We're looking forward to sharing this next season with you. And as always, we invite you to reach out via our website at twopiersconsulting.com or via any of our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you over at Episode Two.