The speaker and the attendee perspective
Recently I shared my feedback to a few conferences about their speaker lineup (almost 100% men). First of all I respect all the work they did and their good intention to make a good program. My main goal through this blog is to raise awareness about why it’s important to work on diversity in conferences, and give some tips for improving it.
In the meantime, I received a question “Is it better to have high-quality conferences or to focus on gender parity?” which frustrated me a lot, because it clearly means that diverse conferences don’t have high quality programs which is absolutely wrong, it’s even the opposite.
This blog post was written in collaboration with a few of my fellow conference friends and speakers Lena and Jenna, to cover the same theme “diversity in tech conferences” and share our own opinions, everyone from his personal perspective.
- Lena shares the perspective of being a program chair and part of many program committees from both developer conferences and several testing conferences.
Link: “The organiser, program committee and program chair perspective“ - Jenna‘s shows the perspectives of being a speaker as well as a sponsor.
Link: “The speaker and sponsor perspective” - Mine focuses on my experience as both speaker and participant. I’ll also cover other key aspects that contribute to a positive conference experience.
What’s “Diversity” in tech conferences ?
“Diversity in tech conferences” means having different kinds of people, like men, women, people of different races and ages, all coming together to share their ideas and experiences in a safe space and learn from each other.
The goal is to make sure everyone feels welcome and included, so we can all learn from each other and make the tech industry better for everyone.
Let me share my reflection beyond that definition as a speaker and then as an attendee.
Why does diversity in tech conferences matter so much to me as a speaker?
Let’s start with a simple question: Have you ever found yourself in a crowd where everyone looked different from you? It can make you feel a bit uncomfortable, right?
As a speaker, diversity matters a lot to me. For instance, I don’t want to be the only woman on the agenda just to fulfill a “diversity requirement.” I believe it’s crucial to have a diverse agenda.
When people of different ages, genders, and backgrounds come together to share ideas, it’s like opening a treasure chest of creativity. Everyone brings something special to the table, making the exchange of thoughts more exciting and interesting. This mix of perspectives makes everyone feel included and valued, making the experience better for everyone. So, having a diverse group of speakers isn’t just nice—it’s what makes events awesome for everyone involved!
When submitting a paper to a conference, diversity plays a crucial role in shaping the event experience from a speaker’s perspective. A diverse conference is characterized by various elements that collectively enrich the atmosphere and enhance participation.
The conference looks diverse for me when :
- Inclusive program committee: a diverse group of people picks the talks, making sure everyone’s voice is heard. It would also be good to include some new people in these committees to bring a fresh point of view and more ideas.
- New topics: the conference talks about things that are happening now, so it stays fresh and exciting
- Different speakers: there are speakers from all sorts of backgrounds, ages, and genders. This means there’s a lot of different ideas and perspectives to learn from.
These things make the conference more fun and helpful for everyone who attends.
Why does diversity in tech conferences matter so much to me as an attendee?
As an attendee, imagine if all the speakers represented only one single group, non-diverse (for example, 100% men). Although I have no doubt about how skillful they are, this could be embarrassing for certain attendees. Some of them will not find themselves represented, and this will create some frustration.
I personally started my first conference at 27 years old. Luckily, I got inspiration from other speakers who did the same thing as me, and they inspired me to take a step further. I can’t imagine myself having the courage to start such an adventure (after attending a conference) if all the speakers belong to a completely different group that I can’t identify myself with.
If all the conference speakers represent only one color (same age range, same years of experience, same gender, same background, same other criterias), this will break the accessibility and the dream to speak on their stage, mostly if we speak about newbies, new generations who started their professional journey and who are looking to find a role model that they could identify themselves in their shoes.
So, diversity is more than just parity between women and men; it needs to be covered in many aspects.
To sum up, I consider a conference diverse as an attendee when it represents:
- An inspiration for all: seeing people who are like you on stage can be super motivating. It shows that anyone, no matter their background or culture, can succeed in the tech world.
- Fresh ideas coming from a diverse lineup of speakers: when people with different backgrounds and experiences come together, they bring unique ideas to the table. This mix of perspectives leads to more innovative solutions to tech problems.
A Few tips to improve diversity in tech conferences
It all starts with how you promote your call for proposals. Let me share a few tips, but keep in mind that this list can definitely be expanded with more ideas.
- Make a special track for “NEW VOICES”: Encourage beginner speakers to submit their papers and help them craft their stories. Some conferences offer coaching to new voices in the preparation of their submissions by providing them early feedback. This may extend even to their slides and speaking skills. You can provide those opportunities and make them feel safe as first time speaker by doing one repetition to gather feedback and be fully ready and energized to do their talk
- Reach out to different tech communities and known speakers that are related to your conference theme such as “Testing”, “Devops” or others .. that could redirect you to the right channels to find the target audience you are looking for to bridge the gap and get a good diverse response for your call for proposals
- Enlarge your network and send personalized invitations to encourage people to submit their ideas into your submission link, this will increase the number of submissions and therefore the probability to design a diverse program will automatically increase. Another idea, you can attend other conferences or stay updated with other conference programs announcements. This will help you identify potential speakers and the topics they are speaking about which will give you a better idea to whom you can reach out.
- Diversity in leadership: make sure your program committee is diverse and ask them to actively promote the call for papers. Encourage them to share the announcement with their network, leveraging their diverse backgrounds (age, gender, origin, etc.) to attract a wider range of submissions. This ensures that diverse perspectives are represented in both the committee and the papers selected.
- Collect and act on audience feedback: gather feedback from attendees and speakers to continuously improve diversity efforts and address any issues or concerns raised.
- Promote diversity: commit to promoting diversity and inclusion not just during the conference but throughout the year in all aspects of your organization’s activities and highlight previous good achievements coming from diverse participants.
- Inclusive code of conduct: establish and enforce a code of conduct that fosters a welcoming and respectful environment for all participants, regardless of background.
- Offer travel expenses and accommodation: provide financial assistance or travel grants to all speakers, some speakers could face barriers to attending conferences due to financial constraints if they are obliged to pay for their own travel.
- Share advantages: Why Speaking or attending as a professional to this conference? raise awareness about the importance of learnings and the benefits that both participants and companies could get while attending or speaking at your conference. Some attendees or speakers don’t even have the courage to ask their managers to get learning days or they don’t even know that this is considered as working time. So help them understand and visualize the advantages in return after taking those learning days. This will implicitly help diverse people have the right arguments to convince their managers why it’s important to participate instead of seeing it as a barrier they want to avoid. One more tip, if speakers still consider this a barrier in case it’s not common in their company culture to take that time and speak at conferences, you can offer the opportunity for a program committee to directly contact a manager. It’s quite an honor that one of your employees is selected! isn’t?
(On a personal note, I faced this big barrier at my previous employer where I took my personal paid holidays to speak at a conference) - Offer on-site childcare: have childcare available at the conference venue to help parents participate without worries, or even further give them the expenses they may need to be able to bring their babies with them.
- Support mental health: offer resources and support for attendees who may experience mental health challenges during the conference. This could include providing quiet spaces for relaxation and offering information on local mental health services.
Don’t forget to include the tips you decided to consider in your COC (code of conduct) in order to show your serious consideration and commitment toward diversity in your conference.
I’m curious to hear your feedback about the topic and why “Diversity in Tech Conferences” is an important topic for you?
Emna Ayadi 