Company: MGM Resorts International
Innovation: Inspiring Our World: An MGM Resorts International Cultural Experience
Award Recognition: Honorable Mention

In December 2012, MGM Resorts International debuted Inspiring Our World, a musical production created by employees and performed by an all-employee cast of seventy to educate our 62,000 employees about the company’s mission, core values, and commitment to leadership in diversity, philanthropy, and environmental sustainability. Originally performed in Mandalay Bay Events Center, more than 46,000 MGM employees in Las Vegas, Detroit, and Biloxi, Mississippi have experienced the show. In the coming months, a version of the production will travel to Reno and Tunica, Mississippi to complete its twenty-one-show tour debut.

Inspiring Our World complements MGM Resorts’ experiential Diversity Champion workshops, which by nature are geared to smaller-scale participation. In contrast, Inspiring Our World was conceived to communicate to a mass audience using the universal media of song and dance as well as the spoken word. The ninety-minute production features original music, world-class theatrics, exotic costumes, and dynamic choreography spanning multiple cultures. The production utilizes the creative arts talent of the employee ranks, such as the receiving dock worker who plays electric violin.

The Diversity & Inclusion segment of the show is especially compelling. It defines and demonstrates diversity as respect for the value and contributions of all individuals—the anchor of the company’s core values and culture of teamwork, integrity, and excellence. It also portrays diversity beyond superficial physical differences as openness to different ideas, perspectives, and opinions of others. The segment features gripping testimonies from multicultural employees, which highlight their personal triumphs in overcoming stereotypes and other challenges based on their differences from others.