February 2016 Tech Conferences: The Good, The Bad, The Limbo
Will women be onstage at major tech conferences in 2016?
Discover the best #tech conferences happening this year at the link: https://t.co/0ukCszMLFj #startups pic.twitter.com/PlRgly6bF3
— Bizzabo (@Bizzabo) January 31, 2016
@Bizzabo how many of them will offer #genderbalance? cc: @GenderAvenger
— Innovation Women (@WomenInno) January 31, 2016
Our friends at Innovation Women found a list of the top tech conferences for every month in 2016, and they wanted to know the gender balance for the biggest conferences of the year.
GA Tally to the rescue! We tallied every conference in February 2016 to find out who landed in the Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame and who is still lingering in limbo.
New to the GA Tally? The GA Tally is a free app available for iTunes, Android, and desktop that allows you to breakdown gender ratios for lists, conferences, and more. Just type the number of men and women into the tally, and then hit "Chart It" to create a pie chart that you can instantly share on Facebook and Twitter. It’s free, easy, and powerful.
When we raise our voices together, we create change. Click the tally links we've entered below to share these tallies on Twitter and Facebook and shine a spotlight on the gender ratios on tech conference stages this month.
February 2016
HALL OF FAME TECH CONFERENCES
Ever heard an excuse for why a tech conference barely features women speakers? These conferences prove that a gender-balanced speaker list is possible. Click on the tally images below to share these tallies on Twitter and Facebook and give conference organizers kudos for creating Hall of Fame conferences this month!
These GA Tallies are inspiration for other tech conferences and proof that a balanced gender ratio is possible!
Webstock:
February 9, 2016
Happy 10th birthday, Webstock! This New Zealand-based tech conference promises that their 2016 event will be “intensive, edifying, challenging, enlightening, exciting, delighting, celebratory and truckloads of fun.” A Hall of Fame gender ratio is a great start!
Wisdom 2.0:
February 22, 2016
The focus of Wisdom 2.0 is on how “not only [to] live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world.” These crucial conversations are richer when women and men are part of the dialogue, and we’re happy to see that Wisdom 2.0 has a nearly 50/50 split between male and female speakers this year.
Social Capital 2016:
February 23, 2016
Social Capital brings together “the brightest nonprofit and corporate minds for a candid exchange on growing strategic partnerships.” Because we focus on gender-balanced speaker lists, we don’t typically feature conferences with more than 60% women speakers in our Hall of Fame. But it is rare and refreshing (especially after tallying the many, many Hall of Shame qualifying conferences below) to see a list of speakers with such a high percentage of women when the conference is not explicitly for women.
February 2016
TECH CONFERENCES IN LIMBO
At GenderAvenger, events and lists land in the Hall of Shame when they have a gender ratio of less than 30% women.To qualify for the Hall of Fame, women must be featured at a 40% or higher level. The 10% in between? Limbo… but it is a designation that often takes just a small amount of effort to transcend. Click the GA Tally links below to share these tallies and give Limbo conferences the push they need to move into the Hall of Fame.
Lift Conference:
February 10, 2016
Lift Conference only needs one more woman speaker to move them into the Hall of Fame.
TED 2016:
February 15, 2016
We’re happy to see some progress from TED since 2015, when their speaker gender ratio landed them in the Hall of Shame. This could be the year that they move into the Hall of Fame: TED 2016 only needs four more women speakers to reach 40% women onstage at their event.
Marketing.FWD Summit:
February 22, 2016
VentureBeat, the company behind Marketing.FWD Summit, has previously appeared in the GA Hall of Shame, and we’re happy to see that they’re making progress in 2016. With three more women speakers, VentureBeat could move this event into the Hall of Fame.
StartupGrind:
February 23, 2016
StartupGrind currently has 35% women speakers in their lineup. By adding five more women speakers, they could move this conference from Limbo to the Hall of Fame.
February 2016
HALL OF SHAME TECH CONFERENCES
Search Engine Strategies Conference:
February 4, 2016
The Search Engine Strategies conference was this week, and it included only 25% women onstage. Out of 44 total speakers, only 11 were women. Click on the tally to share this ratio and to encourage this conference to do better next year.
Traction & Conversion Summit:
February 9, 2016
Traction & Conversion Summit 2016 calls their speaker lineup “the smartest marketers in the room” while only featuring one woman speaker. Women “drive 70-80% of all consumer marketing”, and yet they make up just 12% of speakers at the Traction & Conversion Summit.
DeveloperWeek:
February 12, 2016
DeveloperWeek 2016 managed to bring together 1,000+ attendees), 800+ hirable developers, and 50+ hiring companies… yet they are only putting 15 women onstage for their entire week-long event. Their speaker lineup has a dismal 23% women.
Apricot 2016:
February 15, 2016
Apricot 2016 boasts that they have a great lineup of regional and international speakers”… which is nearly all male. Women speakers make up just 11% of the lineup at this conference.
Casual Connect Europe:
February 16, 2016
Casual Connect Europe 2016 invites you to “Join us in Amsterdam to explore how your creativity and business can merge to create beautiful games.” Unfortunately their exploration of creativity and business will be lacking, since it includes nearly no women’s voices: Out of 217 speakers, only 31 are women.
Mobile Trends Conference:
February 17-19, 2016
With 27% women speakers, Mobile Trends Conference 2016 is hovering near limbo territory. In fact, they would only have to add three more women speakers to cross over from the Hall of Shame into the Hall of Fame. Make sure to click the tally and share it on Twitter and Facebook to give Mobile Trends the push they need to create a gender-balanced lineup.
Disruptive Technologies and Innovation Summit:
February 22, 2016
Does this gender ratio look “innovative” to you? We don’t think so either. And the keynote speaker tally doesn’t look much better.
RSA Conference 2016:
February 29, 2016
RSA Conference brings together hundreds of speakers, yet only features an infuriatingly low 14% women onstage.
Join us in sharing these GA Tallies to spread the word about the good in our Hall of Fame, the bad in our Hall of Shame, and those in between in limbo. Celebrating conferences with good gender balances and calling out those that fall short works to ensure that women's voices stay in the public dialog.
Thank you for taking action!