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On Tuesday, June 16, 1998, YES made its first presentation to a corporate audience. Martha Fugate, Director of YES, was the featured speaker for a lunch crowd of nearly 200 employees of Central Shops at Disney World, in Orlando, Florida.
Though a good number of people showed up at the presentation to express anger and disapproval of the topic, the presentation was ultimately praised as the best diversity training ever given at Disney. Management doubled the speaker's payment as a gesture of thanks.
YES's First Corporate Presentation at Walt Disney World
By Bob Oldakowski
On Tuesday, June 16, 1998, YES Institute made its first presentation to a corporate audience. Martha Fugate, Director of YES, was the featured speaker for a lunch crowd of nearly 200 employees of Central Shops at Disney World, in Orlando, Florida. The presentation was part of a series focusing on diversity; previous topics included African-American and women's issues. Disney has demonstrated its commitment to diversity in the workplace by encouraging the sharing of ideas among its employees. I attended as the chair of the board of YES.
The topics was Gay & Lesbian Pride, placed on the agenda by a Central Shops employee who sits on Disney's Gloal Diversity team and encouraged management to include sexual orientation in its diversity series. The entire Diversity Team interviewed Martha via conference call prior to agreeing to include her as speaker for their diversity series. When we arrived, they were pleased to see us but a little nervous about how the presentation was going to be received. Disney knew this topic was a hot button issue for all employees and faced a critical and potentially volatile review. Signs announcing the presentation were first turned around to face the wall, and ultimately stolen, by some employees who were angry about the scheduling of this topic.
In fact, a good number of people showed up at the presentation to express that anger, along with their disapproval of homosexuality in general. Others seemed genuinely interested in hearing about a subject that is not often discussed in our society. Martha began her presentation with some facts and figures about homosexuality throughout history, including the modern gay rights movement. In the question and answer period that followed, everyone was encouraged to express their opinion. Using the YES model of communication, Martha succeeded in keeping the discussion on purpose. One hour had been allocated for the presentation, but it ran over time, and numerous people stayed afterward to talk to Martha personally. The management team, along with representatives form Corporate Disney who were in the audience, were extremely pleased with the presentation, and said it was the largest crowd they had ever had for their diversity series.
At the end of the presentation, as we were walking back to the offices, employees who had not spoken during the question and answer session, came up to Martha and shook her hand, thanking her for her words. It was a touching moment for Martha, and a testimony from silent members of the audience. At lunch afterward with the management and diversity team, there was great jubilation that the presentation went so well. YES is proud to include Disney in its outreach resume.
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