Forwards works to promote diversity and inclusion at R community conferences, especially useR!, the main R conference organized by the R Foundation.
In 2016 we made a series of recommendations, which have led to many improvements
- increased representation of women in invited roles (speakers, program committee, session chairs)
- increased representation of women in contributed program and attendees
- newcomer-focused sessions since 2017 (excluding 2020 due switching to a virtual event)
- diversity scholarships since 2016
- childcare since 2017
- code of conduct from 2016, with standard code of conduct adopted in 2020
More recently, we have been focusing on global representation and accessibility for people with disabilities.