Very interesting information! Thanks!

Bye

Really wish i could go, but, we moved to Toronto at christmas :( Gonna hawk it to a few friends tho :D

You guys rock!

Ryan, I have always been amazed at how well you do things. I think this post shows how much time and effort you put into the speaker lineup. I think you went above and beyond the call of duty. Hats off to you and the whole CS team. Can’t wait to FOOA, and hopefully FOWA NYC this Sept!

Of course I understand that everyone wants to meet/listen to the Mickey Mantle’s of the web, not the newbies. Tickets go quicker for the Mickey’s.

I had a great conversation last night with two very talented female developers. We agreed that one of the major problems with getting more women on stage is that women often don’t promote themselves to conference organisers.

This sample set of two plus your sweeping generalization, coupled with Matthew Pinnell’s comment regarding how woman just “get on with it” is really quite amazing.

In between saying “you’re right we need more women” and saying “sure women, come on out and show yourselves if I don’t find you” you manage to get out of your own conference shortcoming by saying “hey women, you’re not aggressive enough with self promotion, better get on that.” Talk about insult to injury.

I’m not hearing reasons as to why more women aren’t appearing at technology conferences, and creative conferences, I’m hearing excuses. Some of these excuses I might point out, are well, offensive.

If you can’t find women speakers then you’re not looking hard enough, say that, don’t say that we woman don’t work hard enough making ourselves known to you, we aren’t hiding under rocks or pushing back against your advances – you’re not looking. Say “sorry we didn’t look, we’re going to look harder next time and make more of an effort, women are an active part of the arts and technology community and have something to say.” Then after you’ve looked, (for more than three) you can write about how all the women you contacted said they didn’t want to speak because we are all inherently not self promoters.

And, actually, yes – you specifically said to me in email “send me your list of ideal speakers and I will have a look.”

You might be inclined to be dismissive of my efforts since I’ve been such a persistent critic, but it’s probably in your best interest to peruse the list I’ve been developing. It’s an excellent resource and it’s only going to improve.

Vic, the list is not specifically focused on women in tech and isn’t as strong as I want it to be in that category just yet. Women like danah boyd, Caterina Fake, Mena Trott and Meg Hourihan are already included, and we’ve gotten many suggestions for excellent additions since Kottke put up his post last week. For the time being, the names are listed below in comments. We’ll integrate those suggestions into the main list in the near future.

Again congrats on a great event. I noticed more female attendees and speakers this year at FOWA07 so good job on that front.

Before we start delving into the diversity debate and throwing random numbers around – has anyone established a baseline for the % of female geeks that make up the geek universe? Until we do that how can anyone judge whether or not FOWA was as diverse as the real world or not.

It would seem to me that if say, female geeks make up 10% of the total geek population and more than 10% of your speakers and attendees are female then you are accurately reflecting real world diversity.

Lets not be too random here and say “well half the population is female thus half of any population for any given event should be female”. Perhaps gender distribution in the population is not an accurate indicator of gender distribution amongst geeks?

(Positive discrimination aside) The most anyone can say is that it’s a very good idea to be fair and equitable in your decisions about who the speakers will be and to not base that on gender. Frankly I don’t care if the speaker is male or female – I just want to see a good speaker.

Cheers,
Eben

It’s about time that this issues was raised. There were just not enough hot women at FOWA. True, the number of hotties was up on last year, but please, you can do better than that.

But, I after looking at the posts in the blogosphere on this issue, its probably best to invite women who happen to work in those companies with recognizable talent and responsibilies.

In Jen’s list of women speakers, I notice some (like Caterina Fake of Flickr) but of course, I dont expect Ellen DeGeneres as a speaker at a conference like FOWA.

Maybe if Ryan works along this line: look out for women and diverse talents in those companies and invite them. Perhaps this could work and make everyone happy(ier).

We agreed that one of the major problems with getting more women on stage is that women often don’t promote themselves to conference organisers.

I think that this is at the heart of the problem. There is a fundamental difference in the way that women and men see their relationship with the world; men are more competitive, they want to be the best, and they want other people to know it. So, they blog to get attention and they aggressively market themselves because they KNOW “hey, I’m the fuckin MAN!” – thus, they’re the ones everyone knows and will come out to see, and they get booked for the conferences.

Women, on the other hand, just get on with it; they don’t need their ego constantly stroked by links and conference invites.

Ryan, as stated above you’re the one running the conference – the onus is on you to come up with solutions

Exactly why I’ve stated we’re doing the above two things.

Rather than peruse that list yourself, you suggested to me via email that I send you my proposed speaker list.

Jen, I never asked you to do anything. I want to hear from potential speakers. Not people who’ve compiled a list of women.

Also, let me state (again) that we are going to be pro-active in seeking out quality women speakers. Asking women to contact me is merely meant to help me discover talent that I don’t know about.

If you cared, you’d have more women on your speaker rosters. If you cared, you’d be pro-active rather than reactive.

I’d expect that the latter option will have a more favorable effect on your company’s public image.

I’ll also note: I personally haven’t merely voiced complaint, but rather I’ve created a List of Woman Speakers for Your Conference, and while that list has its shortcomings, it’s a start, and it’s been well-used thus far.

It’s a list I know you’re well aware of. Rather than peruse that list yourself, you suggested to me via email that I send you my proposed speaker list. I find that rather galling.

Julie Howell (http://www.juliehowell.co.uk/), she is primarily an accessibility person, But she is one of the most inspiring people i have ever seen talk. Rather than talking about standards and ticking your legality boxes she focuses on the human aspect and carefully talks about individuals and the real issues they face.

I know you guys already cover accessibility and usability, but, i think your attendees would be really missing out if you could get Julie.

http://blog.meriwilliams.com/2007/02/26/more-to-it/

And I also have some more suggestions of how everyone can get involved in improving the situation:
http://blog.meriwilliams.com/2007/02/25/conference-diversity-the-permathread-returns/

I’ve read any number of prominent women addressing this question, women who write books, women who lead teams that implement standards-compliant web sites for Fortune 100 companies. But they’re not on your radar, apparently. And that’s why you get roasted to a crisp.

A totally separate issue is diversity. Clark has hit it right on the head with that one; in our industry there is less reason to emphasize diversity than in almost any other. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection can learn to do what we do.

I will say that a more gender and ethnically diverse set of speakers may bring in a few new perspectives which would be helpful, but that brings us back to the first issue. It’s important to involve people with new ideas, but that doesn’t require diversity in the traditional sense.

Organizers should be seeking out folks with great ideas. I predict that finding lesser-known people to share their thoughts on stage will be important for upcoming conferences. These new faces might not all look the same, but if they do it won’t be the end of the world.

so it’s kind of rich for you to complain that people are voicing their disappointment rather than pitching in to improve the event next time

I welcome the criticism – but only if a solution is also offered. What’s the point of saying you’re not happy with something, unless you offer a way to make it better?

And why should Kottke, or anyone else, “get the full story” before having an opinion?

Because that’s the responsible thing to do. Also, isn’t it crazy to “have an opinion” about something if you don’t have all the facts?

Like you said, people should think of how to resolve/act on diversity issues, instead of pointing fingers at you. After all, the FOWA and Carson System team is mostly women (your wife, Meg and Lisa) so its obvious that you have nothing against women as work mates nor speakers at conference. The truth is, you can’t change things. Things have to change itself.

Women and racially-diverse people have to make themselves available and then things can happen.

And why should Kottke, or anyone else, “get the full story” before having an opinion? You only had one woman speaker; you had shitty wi-fi. Okay, so you invited more women than that, and you’d organised less shitty wi-fi, but things didn’t go to plan and you didn’t have contingencies so the result was bad. Where are the details going to get anyone? If you want sympathy for your misfortune then that’s fine, but ultimately FOWA is going to be judged on the results just as much as any other conference is, and heartwarming stories about exactly why it wasn’t your fault that things got screwed up doesn’t put money back into people’s pockets or hours back into their lives.

I thought FOWA was a superb event with some excellent speakers and I have to say I enjoyed Tara’s more than many!

You know this already I’m sure but I think FOWA is pushing the UK web scene down the right path and I look forward to next year and many more.