Seems everyone is talking about gender balance in conference speaker line-ups again. I won’t re-link to all the various discussions (my next daily del.icio.us post will contain a bunch of links and quotes), but as a woman working in the technology industry, I’m going to weigh in on a few things.
- There is a distinct and definite business case for diversity. A lot has been said on this topic out in the world, but I’ll summarise as “Differences lead to different thoughts and viewpoints. The more different viewpoints you can get looking at a problem, the better your chance of solving it. Also, if you want to understand and appeal to all different types of people (you know, customers and consumers?) then reflecting them internally might be a good idea too.” Obviously this is more workplace diversity, but there are obvious parallels in the conference arena.
- Responsibility for diversity doesn’t lie in just one camp. Conference organisers (and employers and companies and governments and so on…) need to think about diversity and actively consider speakers who don’t fit their traditional selection criteria. Equally, those who want to see speaker lists more reflective of the diverse reality of our world should try to put themselves forward. Victim mentality on either side of this debate benefits no one.
- Positive discrimination is a dangerous place to play. It SHOULD be about keeping your standards high AND considering a wider pool of candidates than you otherwise would. Don’t lower your standards to benefit minorities — you’ll just reinforce the original discrimination. Equally, consider whether your “standards” are automatically discriminatory to some groups. E.g. if “is good with the senior execs” == “plays golf with us all on Sundays”, that MIGHT just be a little unfair…
Things I Would Like To See
So how can we improve the world? There are some developments I would like to see:
- Conference organisers making a clear statement of intent regarding diversity. Many companies have started to do this (in addition to other efforts) and it DOES make a difference. People are more likely to admire and aspire to be included in your conference (either as an attendee or as a speaker) if you are clear that you see value in diversity. If you don’t see the value — well, you have bigger problems.
- Already successful speakers mentoring those who would like to develop into the speakers of the future. The world of conference speaking can be rather opaque to those not already inducted. If you’re already a successful speaker, pick someone whom you think is promising and help them along — whether it be with contacts, simple advice or recommendations as to how to improve their speaking style, for instance.
- Attendees being encouraged to help improve the diversity of the audience. At my first South By “Where are the Women” panel, there was a (male) manager going “My entire team is female — why don’t they ever ask to come to these conferences?”. The response from the room: “Why don’t you ask them??”. Diversity is a great thing — it can be encouraged by anyone at any level in an organisation. Let’s encourage conference attendees to think of someone different to themselves who would also benefit from the content and then try to convince them to come along. Obviously this is easier at free/cheap conferences (such as BarCamp or SXSWi), but for those attending the more expensive conferences with work backing it might be an option too.
You never know, we might just change the world.
Posted by Meri @ 4:49 PM on February 25, 2007
Comments (13) Permalink
Comments (13) Permalink
February 26th, 2007 at 12:22 AM
Anil Dash: “Those of you who are defending this status quo are defending a culture of failure”…
The past few days there seems an opening in the ongoing conversation talking place about speaker lists at tech conferences……
February 26th, 2007 at 6:46 PM
Right on, Meri. I\’ve gotten good response from organizers about diversity commitments in the past, so now it\’s just up to everyone to mentor one another and ask new folks to the table! Perfect!
February 26th, 2007 at 10:53 PM
[…] – Please Note: For more positive suggestions on how to improve things, please see my previous post. Posted by Meri @ 10:48 PM on February 26, 2007 Permalink […]
February 26th, 2007 at 11:09 PM
[…] Perhaps the message that conferences organizers could take note of from these exchanges is that there may be good people out there who would need some encouragement to come and speak, would need to know that their input is valuable. I love Meri’s idea of successful speakers mentoring and encouraging others. It may be that some of the quieter voices out there just need some help to get started. […]
February 27th, 2007 at 1:55 PM
[…] Meri Williams […]
February 27th, 2007 at 7:31 PM
[…] I’d already posted quite a lot as part of the discussion about female speakers at conferences. One of the things I said I’d like to see happening more was experienced folks mentoring those aspiring to becoming speakers. That thought got quite a good reaction and so as a result today I set up Make Me A Speaker! […]
February 28th, 2007 at 3:02 AM
I’ve read a few blogs with some interest. What is interesting is that this seems to be something that differs from profession to profession. As a teacher, there are by far more female presenters than male. In fact, I’ve been to conferences where there are actually very few men, period. In teacher universities (Canadian), the ratio of males to females is about 20:80. I see few young men in education – maybe they’re all in the technology field. As a male, I must be very careful what I say regarding trends and how I phrase comments regarding females for harassment purposes. However, I am seeing again and again where males are portrayed in a negative light by females without there being a problem. I have to put up with “bad husband” comments from many females, who are presenting, which does grow a bit tiresome yet all the females in the room laugh. I didn’t think this was what we were striving for? I read the comment by Mr. Scoble. I don’t agree with him, he doesn’t speak for all males and I’m learning not to take offence because someone offers an opinion. As an educator, father and husband, I agree that we need to ensure fair treatment of all. However, fair doesn’t mean equal. I’ve learnt that as a father, husband, teacher and, now, as a school administrator. So, good luck with your quest for more female speakers and a greater diversity (more females) in presenters. As for me, I’ve had duds from both – give me someone who is a good speaker (more female than male in my world) and I’ll appreciate the time I spend with them.
March 6th, 2007 at 7:22 AM
I’m glad the thread is back. I am not speaking at SXSW this year for the first time because of the open voting process used to select the panels.
There are plenty o’ chicks in the show I’ll do there
http://upcoming.org/event/149432/
and nothing but diversity in the interactive talk show I do (www.heathergold.com) because that is the most essential ingredient to making the show *good.*
Contrast is necessary in order for connection to be visible. This is a problem of design. Those on the thread seem to see Diversity as a Nice to Have add on to the conversation now known as a Panel or Speaker.
Then people quibble about Quality and Diversity as though they are an either/or thing or even the only framework from which to see this
I see a structure for successful engagement of an audience differently.
1> Presentations are Passe
-we all hate Powerpoint. The entire form of Presentation is one-way, not interactive.
2>Caring at the Centre, rather than Known-ness
-most events market by fame. Being known doesn’t make you an interesting speaker, know how to engage a crowd, or have anything new to say. Are you creating a conference to create a good experience or merely to sell sponsorship. Quailty experience doesn’t have to lose you sponsorship at all. It ensures the experience is what things are built around.
3> You have an audience, doubtless more diverse than the speakers. Walk your wisdom of crowds talk. If you don’t know how to do an open source conversation or emcee/host effectively to get the best out of guests and the audience, hire someone like me who does.
4>If y’all love “users” so much, invite em on stage.
Ok Meri, I clearly have too much to say for a blog comments,cause my good typing arm must rest now.
I will have news on the conference/diversity front soon.
Hope to see you at SXSW!
heather
July 16th, 2007 at 12:07 PM
Diversity is a wonderful truth about good business, and good leadership. I think your three points are valid – most notably, positive discrimination. The point is, if all the best speakers ARE men then there should only be men. If all the best speakers are only women, there should only be women. But we know this isn’t the case – speakers vary all across the gender and colour barrier (as if, there is supposed to be a barrier) and so the best way (I think) to encourage diversity is to get people excited about the future of the world (so to speak) and not just the future of their bank balance. This way, they will always want to only put on the best at conferences – and only hear the best at conferences – and the best will always be men or women.
Also, you’re right, there should be a lot more mentoring going on and the only reason why there isn’t is – yet again – the concern of people over their pocket rather than the future of our world.
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:53 AM
Good post! This reminds me of the past couple of conferences I’ve been to. The first one was like conference-for-the-experts-alone. I was thinking that a conference discussion calls for questions especially from people who haven’t tried doing on a certain thing. But in this conference, questions from the inexperienced ones were not welcome. Huh? I guess intelligent people really have no time for slowpokes. The second one was really discriminating and clannish. They don’t seem to listen and give attention to the opinion of people from the lower class countries.
Another thing is, if the speaker is from a not so rich country few people only register to attend his talk.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:38 PM
I’m glad the thread is back. I am not speaking at SXSW this year for the first time because of the open voting process used to select the panels…
Joern
November 7th, 2007 at 1:06 PM
[…] I think back to the ongoing “Where are the women?” conversations in the geek conference space, where some claim it’s impossible to get women to attend, it was […]
January 2nd, 2016 at 2:05 AM
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