Becoming the executive director of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau’s PHL Diversity is just the latest way Sheila Alexander-Reid has lived her life as a champion of the underdog. Here’s how she brings her perspective to champion how Philadelphia’s many diverse communities can bring value to meetings and events

Philadelphia, which will be hosting ConferenceDirect’s Annual Partner Meeting (APM) March 16-20, 2025, has a long and proud history of welcoming all people — as does ConferenceDirect, which includes inclusiveness as one of its core values. Sheila Alexander-Reid, executive director of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau’s PHL Diversity initiative, likes to point out that PHL Diversity started back in 1987 as the Multicultural Affairs Congress — the city was thinking about how to attract people of all colors and ethnicities long before the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement spurred other cities to set up diversity task forces.

MeetingMentor recently caught up with Alexander-Reid to find out more about what makes her tick — and why this has been such an important marketing focus for the city.

Sheila Alexander-Reid, executive director of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau’s PHL Diversity initiative

MeetingMentor: How did you get started in the meetings/events/hospitality sector in general and DEI related to those industries specifically?

Alexander-Reid: I have always been a champion of the underdog. When I was 11, my family moved from a Black, middle-class neighborhood in Cincinnati to an upper middle-class neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland where we were one of the very few Black families. At age 11, I was looking for a sense of belonging and inclusion. I came out as lesbian when I was 26 and was looking for a sense of intersectional inclusion and belonging in a world where I was topically the only Black lesbian in the room.

So I started a nonprofit for Black lesbians and we held a lot of fundraisers for LGBT organizations and the Black community. The mayor then asked me to work with him, and that eventually worked into me becoming the director of LGBTQ affairs for the mayor’s office. But I wanted to work with more than just the Black and LGBTQ communities to Hispanic, Asian and indigenous communities as well.

I have also always been a salesperson, so when this position, which combines sales and community advocacy, became available, it was the ultimate position for me. I get to sell Philadelphia to meeting planners and conveners by pointing to diversity, equity, accessibility and belonging as a value proposition.

MM: Tell us about what PHL Diversity is and what your role entails?

Alexander-Reid: Too often, people come to a meeting and just go to their hotel and the convention center. They never actually interact with anyone outside of those two facilities. As executive director of PHL Diversity, I focus on bringing Black and brown, LGBTQ+ and faith-based meetings to Philadelphia.

The first thing I had to do was to immerse myself in all these different communities, all the things Philadelphia has to offer. Philadelphia has a Black culture that’s been here since Harriet Tubman walked 300 miles to get here. Ever since, this has been the home of free Black people. There are 23 languages spoken in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. I work with the Diverse Chamber Caucus, which consists of the Chambers of Commerce for African Americans, Asian Americans, Filipinos, Hispanics and LGBTQ, to show the benefits of all these communities. Each Chamber has a member on my board so we can be sure to highlight some of the things people may not know about Philadelphia.

MM: Such as?

Alexander-Reid: Last year, the city of Philadelphia was officially designed a Certified Welcoming City by Welcoming America. This summer Philadelphia was voted the Most Walkable City in America by USA Today. Philadelphia also set the standard by becoming the first Certified Sensory Inclusive City, meaning we have 16,000 city employees who are trained in sensory awareness. We have welcoming awareness, we have sensory awareness, we have walkability, but what if you can’t walk? That’s why I’m working now on us becoming the most accessible city. If you want to stand out, you have to go above and beyond and have intentionality about what you’re doing. People can see through purely performative actions taken just to get the business. Being inclusive is who we are as a city, not just something we do.

MM: You’ve been working on various aspects of DEI for a long time — where have we made progress, especially when it comes to meetings and events?

Alexander-Reid: As recently as four or five years ago, we were not talking about bringing inclusion of all to meetings and conventions. Inclusion is more important than diversity, because having different faces is great, they also need to have the same power and status. No one was talking about accessibility 10 years ago — now our convention center has a room specially designed for those with neurodiversity issues.

This is important because you can highlight to your delegates that we are making sure all our attendees — including those with disabilities — are seen, valued and heard. And Philadelphia has been helping planners do that for longer than anyone else.

MM: What are some of the questions planners for underrepresented groups ask you when they are considering bringing their events to Philly?

Alexander-Reid: They want to know how the city is supporting their community. That’s why we developed the Diversity Guide, to answer some of those questions about where they can go to connect with the local community beyond the usual city center. It includes information about the Badass Women’s History Tour, the Black Journey Tour, the Mural Arts Tour…and also the museums, such as the African American Museum, the American Chinese Museum, the Asian Arts Initiative — there are so many more things to see and do in Philly than the Liberty Bell and cheesesteaks.

You’d be surprised at how many planners whose group missions aren’t specific to Black, brown, Asian, LGBTQ, but they have those members and want to tap into the diversity of the city to bring more attendees. Everyone wants to learn about our diversity initiatives and how we can connect them to local businesses and the local community.

These values aren’t just values, they’re also a business strategy. If you can’t sway people with hearts-and-minds stories, talk about the wallet, about how addressing unconscious bias increases your bottom line and your economic impact. If your brochure doesn’t show someone in a wheelchair, or ASL interpretation, or Black and brown people, those people you want to attract won’t feel like they belong at that meeting. We have to become aware of our unconscious biases and work to move beyond them.

It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s a business strategy that will help you get more attendees, get more attention with the press and on social media. I think the industry is catching up on that, which is why you’re seeing so much more focus on diversity and inclusion all of a sudden.

MM: What’s next for you and for PHL Diversity?

Alexander-Reid: There’s still so much to do! I really want to get students into the tourism and hospitality pipeline. I’m working with several schools to bring students to a convention or an expo, to show them all this industry can offer them. The 250^th anniversary of this country is coming up in 2026 and the celebrations will be centered in Philadelphia. We need to make sure we’re ready. And we need to make sure that everyone benefits, including people of color and LGBTQIA, people with disabilities, everyone.

If you come to a meeting and convention here and you have a great experience because we are fully staffed, you’ll come back. If you come and you don’t have a good experience, you’re not likely to come back. If we do this right, people will want to come back. So let’s make sure we involve the diverse communities of Philadelphia to make sure we get it right.