Female Magician: Booking Under a Supplier Diversity Policy
Female Magician: Booking Under a Supplier Diversity Policy
A great many organisations have supplier diversity commitments, and almost all of them were written with professional services in mind: consultancies, agencies, technology vendors, and facilities contractors. Entertainment is rarely mentioned and rarely counted, despite being a category where the imbalance is stark.
That's a gap worth closing thoughtfully rather than mechanically. I'm Magical Katrina, an award winning magician and mentalist, and I want to set out how booking a female magician fits a supplier diversity policy, and how to do it without producing the thing everyone wants to avoid.
Entertainment Is Usually Outside the Policy
Start with why this doesn't happen automatically. Supplier diversity programs typically focus on spend categories large enough to report on, and a one off entertainment booking is small, irregular, and frequently paid from a departmental budget rather than through procurement.
That means it falls outside the reporting entirely, and nobody is asked about it. It also means the imbalance in that category persists unexamined, since a market where women are a small minority of working professionals stays that way if nobody buying ever notices. Among categories where a policy could make a proportionate difference, entertainment is unusually tractable.
Most Policies Don't Fit a Sole Trader
Practically important and worth knowing before you start. Supplier diversity frameworks frequently require certification, formal registration, or a documented ownership structure, which suits an incorporated business and fits a self employed performer awkwardly.
Plenty of excellent performers are sole traders who have never registered with a certification scheme, because it isn't designed for them and there's no commercial reason to. If your policy requires certification, ask whether an exception process exists for small engagements, since a framework that excludes every individual practitioner in a category isn't achieving what it was written for.
Quality Still Decides It
The point that matters most, and it protects everybody. A booking made to satisfy a target rather than on merit produces a poor event, and the person most damaged by it is the performer, who becomes the example somebody cites next time.
Assess a female magician on exactly the criteria you'd apply to anyone: sustained live footage rather than a promotional edit, experience with events like yours, reviews with specifics, and professional communication at the enquiry stage. If she's excellent, book her and the policy is satisfied incidentally. If she isn't, book someone else, because a bad booking sets the argument back rather than advancing it.
Widening the Search Is the Practical Step
Where a policy can genuinely change an outcome. The commonest reason organizations don't book women in this category is that their shortlist came from a local search or an agency's default suggestions, both of which reflect an existing imbalance.
Ask your agency specifically. Search beyond your immediate area, since performers travel routinely and travel is a modest component of a total. Ask performers you know for recommendations, which is faster than a directory and produces professional judgement rather than paid placement. Those three steps change what's on a shortlist considerably more than a policy statement does.
Pay the Same
Worth stating plainly, since it undermines everything otherwise. A commitment to diverse suppliers means paying them at the rate the work commands, not looking for a cheaper option within a category.
If your organization books a woman because the rate was lower, that isn't a diversity outcome, it's a procurement one. It also entrenches the problem, since a market where the underrepresented group is expected to be cheaper is a market where the underrepresentation persists. Budget the engagement properly and assess on quality, which is the only version of this that achieves anything.
Don't Tell the Performer Why
A courtesy worth extending. A performer told she was booked partly to satisfy a policy has been handed something awkward to carry into a room, particularly if she's excellent and would have won the booking anyway.
Book her because she's the right choice, brief her like any supplier, and leave the reporting to your own systems. Nobody performing at your event needs to know which internal box the engagement ticked. That's true of every supplier and it's especially worth observing here, where the alternative is genuinely uncomfortable.
Repeat Booking Is Worth More Than a Single One
The point that distinguishes a commitment from a gesture. A single booking satisfies a target for a year and changes nothing structurally.
What changes something is booking the same performer again because it went well, recommending her to colleagues, and adding her to whatever approved supplier list your organization maintains so the next event doesn't start from a blank search. Visibility and repeat work are what build a career, and they're both within an organization's gift at no additional cost.
Mention It to Your Agency
Practical, since many corporate bookings go through intermediaries. Agencies propose from their own rosters, and those rosters reflect the market rather than your policy.
Telling your agency that you'd like women included on shortlists is a straightforward request that produces different suggestions immediately. It also, over time, affects who agencies sign, since demand shapes rosters. That's a small ask with a disproportionate effect and considerably more useful than a policy document nobody outside procurement reads.
Why Book Magical Katrina
If you're looking at this category, here's my case on the merits. I'm a member of the Magic Circle in London and the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, I've earned multiple magic awards, and I've performed for clients including Formula 1, the Olympics, Porsche, Prada, Zapier, and the Ritz Carlton, with appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Masters of Illusion, across events in over 20 countries. I work across close up, stage, mentalism, keynote, family, and virtual formats, I handle corporate paperwork without chasing, and I'd rather be booked because I'm right for your event than for any other reason.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't entertainment usually covered?
Because supplier diversity programs focus on spend categories large enough to report on, and a one off entertainment booking is small, irregular, and frequently paid departmentally rather than through procurement. It falls outside the reporting entirely, which means the imbalance in a category where women are a small minority persists unexamined.
Our policy requires certification. Does that work here?
Frequently not, since frameworks requiring certification or documented ownership structures suit incorporated businesses and fit self employed performers awkwardly. Plenty of excellent performers have never registered with a scheme because it isn't designed for them. Ask whether an exception process exists for small engagements, since excluding every individual practitioner defeats the purpose.
How do we avoid tokenism?
Assess on exactly the criteria you'd apply to anyone: sustained live footage, relevant experience, reviews with specifics, and professional communication at enquiry. If she's excellent, book her and the policy is satisfied incidentally. If she isn't, book someone else, since a bad booking sets the argument back and the performer carries the damage.
What's the most effective practical step?
Widening the shortlist, since the commonest reason organizations don't book women here is that the list came from a local search or an agency's defaults, both reflecting the existing imbalance. Ask your agency specifically, search beyond your area since performers travel, and ask performers you know for recommendations.
Should we expect a lower rate?
No, and looking for one undermines the whole exercise, since booking a woman because the rate was lower is a procurement outcome rather than a diversity one. It also entrenches the problem, because a market where the underrepresented group is expected to be cheaper stays underrepresented. Budget properly and assess on quality.
Should we tell the performer about the policy?
Better not to, since a performer told she was booked partly to satisfy a policy has been handed something awkward to carry into a room, particularly if she'd have won the booking anyway. Book her because she's the right choice, brief her like any supplier, and leave the reporting to your own systems.
What actually makes a difference beyond one booking?
Repeat work and visibility, since a single booking satisfies a target for a year and changes nothing structurally. Booking the same performer again, recommending her to colleagues, and adding her to your approved supplier list so the next event doesn't start from a blank search are all within your gift at no additional cost.
How do I book you, and what will you need from us?
Reach out with your date, venue, event type, and guest count, and tell me what your procurement process requires. I'll send a written agreement, a certificate of insurance, and tax documentation without being chased. And I'd rather you booked me because I suit your event than for any other reason, which is the only basis worth working on.
Book Well and the Policy Follows
A supplier diversity commitment that reaches entertainment is unusual and straightforward to act on: widen the shortlist beyond a local search, ask your agency directly, assess on the same criteria you'd apply to anyone, pay the rate the work commands, and book again if it went well.
What doesn't work is booking a female magician to satisfy a target, since a poor event damages the performer more than the organization and hands the next sceptic an example. Book on merit and the policy takes care of itself, which is the only version of this that achieves what it was written for.
Reach out with your event details, and judge me on whether I suit it.