B.L.N.D Virtual Diversity Event

B.L.N.D. stands for Beauty, Lifestyle and Nurturing Diversity, and is an annual panel/networking event concepted, executed and hosted by Agency Guacamole. Bilal Kaiser, Agency Guacamole founder and principal, moderates a panel featuring industry leaders from different areas of the business, amplifying diverse voices and creating space for real conversations around the on-going challenges, opportunities and inspiration in the beauty and lifestyle world.

We’ve previously hosted B.L.N.D in New York and Los Angeles, but this past year–due to COVID-19–we took our third annual B.L.N.D virtual. Though not in-person, our vision for this important initiative remained the same: to highlight industry perspectives around diversity and inclusion, and leave with actionable insights for a brighter, more inclusive future.

Our virtual event theme was: Showcasing Black Voices as the Industry Evolves, and our phenomenal panel featured some of the coolest and brightest people in the business. We featured well-known comedian and TikToker, Jazmyn W., Barbara Jacques, creator of plant-based beauty brand Jacq’s Organics; Saleam Singleton, writer and content creator who specializes in beauty and men’s skin care, and Sarissa Thrower, communications lead of entertainment music and creators at Instagram with 15 years of experience in strategic messaging campaigns for top-tier brands in the beauty and entertainment space.

The event was a huge success. With genuine conversation and important takeaways surrounding the topics of starting out in the beauty business as POC, how the current climate has affected the beauty space and the beauty industry’s current state of diversity and inclusivity.

Also, our friends over at WWD did a full recap and writeup of our event here!