The Impact of Underrepresentation at Tech Events
And 10 Ways Event Organizers Can Host More Inclusive Events
Think back to the last tech conference you attended. More specifically, think back to the speakers at the event. How many of those speakers were women? How many were people of color? If this was a typical tech event, chances are there wasn’t an equitable gender and racial split — even if it was an event about diversity in tech.
Increased discussions are taking place about diversity, however the aforementioned generally tend to produce “colorless diversity” events and initiatives. Meaning they focus on white women and overlook the absence of other marginalized groups, especially women of color. For example, events such as Grace Hopper and initiatives such as Lean In have lacked focus on people of color and have minimal racial representation on their board, respectively.
In reference to speaking opportunities at tech events, underrepresentation impedes women and people of color from advancing within their careers. Speaking engagements can boost a person’s credibility, which brings them into the spotlight among their peers, and may lead to additional opportunities, career advancement and higher-paying salaries. Furthermore, access to other speakers can also open up many other doors. And, if being paid to speak, these engagements become a source of income in and of themselves.
Until more decision-makers in the industry start making a concerted effort to provide opportunities with an intersectional lens, members of marginalized groups will continue to be overlooked.
On an individual basis, those who wish to see their careers flourish can be held back by the lack of visibility and networking opportunities that such public speaking engagements may offer. For those within the field, not being represented by people of their respective demographics can discourage them from attending conferences or reaching out for opportunities themselves. As a result, many drop out of their career paths or never grow beyond early career positions.
In early 2016 I started a personal initiative, Women and Color, as a result of feeling frustrated with these occurrences. More specifically, I came across a tech event that was organized by a person who advocates for women in tech. With this in mind, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that of the eight speakers, only one was a person of color. It became clear that until more decision-makers in the industry start making a concerted effort to provide opportunities with an intersectional lens, members of marginalized groups will continue to be overlooked, even by the very people and organizations striving for diversity in tech.
How Event Organizers Can Host More Inclusive Tech Events
Now, if you ask most event organizers in tech why equal representation of speakers is lacking, you may receive any one of the following excuses: 1) “We couldn‘t find any,” 2) “We contacted so and so, but they weren‘t available,” or 3) “We don‘t pick speakers based on gender or race, we focus on the quality of their content and their overall experience.” Sadly, these aren’t the only excuses. This lack of representation is such a recurring issue that there’s even a female conference speaker bingo card — a bingo card full of excuses for not having more women speakers at STEM conferences.
It’s easy to give in to nepotism and call upon your friends and colleagues, and then turn around and say that you couldn’t find any women or people of color to speak. Or that you sent out an email within your network, posted a call for speakers on your social accounts and that you did the best you could. While it may be harder to take the time and put in the effort to find and reach out to women and people of color for speaking opportunities, it’s critical and should be seen as part of an event organizer’s job.
Speaking from experience, I can assure you that it is not impossible to find women and people of color willing to speak at events. Event organizers simply need to do better — starting with eradicating the idea of ‘tokenism’, being upfront about their goals, and showing sincerity in getting more women and people of color speakers by putting in the effort to reach them. Outlined below are 10 simple steps on how you can get started.
1. Publicly acknowledge that you have an issue. This is especially important if your previous events have had little to no women and people of color speakers. Take the time to explain to public why there’s been a problem with your events in the past, and how you’re planning to go about changing the ratio.
2. Put together an organizing team that is equally as diverse as the event you want to produce. The inclusion of women and people of color in your organizing team can help attract more similar people which can lead to more diverse events — this will translate to your attendees, too.
3. Start by inviting women and people of color speakers to each of your events. If you focus on reaching out to women and people of colour from the beginning, you’re much more likely to have a diverse speaker list — which can lead to more attendees.
Consider using LinkedIn to search for people as if you were looking to hire someone. If that doesn’t work out, reach out to local communities advocating for women and people of color in tech. If unsuccessful, you can try some resources which have a great list of people for speaking opportunities: womenandcolor.com, 5050pledge.com and yesequal.us. And if that’s still not enough, look up the article “100 Women in Tech and Founders to Follow on Twitter” by Allyson Kapin, as well as other similar industry lists.
4. Ask for help. Reach out to local communities that cater to women and people of color and ask them for support and feedback. Perhaps there’s even opportunity there for you to build a partnership which can lead to more visibility in these groups. Remember: Don’t expect others to do the work for you; the onus should never be on these communities to champion diversity for your event. Be sure to contribute to the community in return, notably by compensating these groups financially.
5. Invite women and people of color to speak about the topic or theme of the event. Asking women and people of color to speak about diversity at an event that’s about anything but diversity is demeaning. If your conference is about Javascript and you expect all speakers to speak about Javascript, then there should be no reason for you to ask anything different from speakers who are women and people of color.
6. Encourage sponsors and partners with stage time to have women and people of color from their company speak. Just because a number of events provide speaking time to their sponsors and partners, doesn’t mean that their representatives need to be white men. Encouraging sponsors and partners can create opportunities for women and people of color within those companies and create a more representative event for your attendees.
7. Pay all of your speakers the same. There should be zero excuses as to why you would pay one speaker more than the other for the same speaking engagement. Providing equal pay to all speakers ensures there’s no room for negotiations and every speaker understands that they are valued equally. Of course, some speakers may live further away than others, and as such their cost of travel may be more and should be compensated accordingly, but that should be a separate line item and shouldn’t be lumped together as part of a speaker’s fee.
8. Create a code of conduct and be prepared to enforce it. Unfortunately, harassment at conferences is far too common. Having a code of conduct can set the expectation for accepted behaviour at your event and welcome people who may have had a bad experience at a previous conference. Furthermore, it provides your team members with instructions on how to promptly manage harassment complaints.
You can create your own by using an existing template, such as the Citizen Code of Conduct or the anti-harassment policy on the Geek Feminism Wiki. Remember, efforts to create inclusive events don’t end with finding speakers who are women and people of color. Organizers need to proactively review the event structure and ensure it makes attendees who are women and people of color feel welcomed and included.
9. Review your marketing material to ensure equal representation and gendered language. Update all imagery to include women and people of color and remove all mentions of gendered language from your marketing material — including call for proposals (CFP) — that refer to speakers and attendees.
10. Offer scholarships and student tickets. Not everyone can afford to attend costly events, which can then impede on their ability to grow within the industry. Offering scholarships is a great solution for making your event accessible to more people. Furthermore, student tickets are great way to offer learning and networking opportunities for those looking to enter the field.
Creating inclusive events requires event organizers to think differently. It asks for event organizers to better understand the issues that women and people of color face throughout their careers. It demands organizers to truly empathize with their speakers and attendees and see things from a different perspective.
While it’s great to see more discussions around diversity in tech, it’s important that we increase our efforts to further these discussions, and take action by applying the recommendations outlined above. Speaker lists that better represent women and people of color will not only bring in new attendees, but create opportunities for new ideas to be shared and developed among a community that’s supportive of all members, regardless of race or gender.
Simply being around people who are different from us can make us more creative, more diligent and harder-working. If we’re all looking to be more innovative in tech, supporting women and people color is a fundamental step. I truly believe that the best way to use your privilege is to give those without it an opportunity.
This article was originally published in the 2016 Q4 print issue of Model View Culture. Thank you Shanley for all of your help and support.
