📣🚨 ACT NOW | 2+2 = Too Many Men at Two Conferences, Cisco Live Global and GameBizCon

Later this month, there are two conferences, with two different subject matters, that do not feature enough women speakers.

Cisco Live Global is Cisco’s “world-renowned annual customer and partner conference that is designed to build the foundation for your digital future by providing you with education, connections, and inspiration,” and it has also chosen to be yet another well-attended, big name technology conference that is leaving women out of the conversation. Six of the keynote addresses will be delivered by men (one is listed as a Guest Keynote), leaving only one to be delivered by a woman. The Innovation Talks are not much better with nine men and three women, two of whom are women of color, on the speaker list. In an interesting - but you can’t fool us - twist, one of those women is delivering one keynote and three (!) Innovation Talks!

In the gaming space, things are not looking any better. The “online business matchmaking event”, GameBizCon, has a virtual mainstage that is remarkably devoid of women. Of the 31 speakers throughout the conference, only three are women, which means 90% of the speakers are men! As video game developer, computer programmer, and congressional candidate Brianna Wu says in her tweet, “the women who make your video games are exhausted.” We all are.

📣🚨 It’s time for big name conferences like #CLEUR and #GameBizCon‪ (90% men)‬ to set an example for their industries and put women on the mainstage where they belong. @CiscoLiveEurope and @BizzTech3 can do better. #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/act-now-cisco-live-global-gamebizcon