Five women have come forward saying they were sexually harassed and experienced aggressive behaviour from two men attending the TED17 conference in Vancouver.
Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) confirms the incidents did occur and they’ve since banned the two men responsible from attending any of their future events.
“We were alarmed by what we heard and immediately conducted a full investigation to understand the context and impact of what happened,” the conference stated in a release.
TED says it will be implementing new anti-harassment policies to make it easier for women to report incidents of sexual harassment, including publicizing the means by which attendees can report problems.
TED says any attendees caught violating their code of conduct will be removed from their conferences and face possible lifetime bans from any future events.
The allegations aren’t the first time TED has faced sexual harassment claims as women have spoken out in the past about negative experiences at previous conferences.
TED says it takes all claims of sexual misconduct seriously and wants to ensure their conferences are safe for female attendees.
“We are determined to continue to increase the number of women who come to TED and to ensure that the conference experience is one where all attendees feel safe and respected,” stated the release.
The next TED conference is called The Age of Amazement and will held in Vancouver in April 2018.