Hall of Shame | DICE 15 [UPDATED!]
Datacenter Investment Conference and Expo, a product of e-pub and events company Bisnow, boasts 24 speakers for its upcoming DICE 15 event on July 15th.
The number of women? ZERO.
Bisnow's team consists of 2 women and 3 men, so what's up with the speaker lineup? While their website says that more speakers will be announced soon, they would need to add 10 female speakers, and no additional male speakers, to achieve balance. And that balance doesn't erase this critical first impression — like it or not, an all male, 24-person lineup makes a statement.
So, will they achieve balance by July 15th? They've got four weeks to move from the Hall of Shame to the Hall of Fame. We're keeping an eye on the lineup, and you should too.
For now, the lack of women as speakers lands Bisnow and its DICE 15 conference squarely in the GenderAvenger Hall of Shame.
UPDATE: So DICE15 finally got around to adding female speakers! Unfortunately, their new numbers aren't much better. Three new female speakers were added, as well as four additional male speakers.
Seems like they know that there's a problem. Even though they have a nearly all male lineup, they put their female speakers in the top row on their Speaker Page. It offers the illusion that women will get some equal representation onstage.
How about instead of moving women to the top row, you add more of them to your lineup? #DICE15 starts July 15th, and their website says that more speakers will be added. Tweet to #DICE15 and Bisnow and let them know you'd like to see more women onstage! Until more female speakers are added, DICE 15 will stay in the Hall of Shame.
UPDATE: One week until DICE15! Instead of adding more female speakers, they've rearranged the ones on their page so that they don't all pop up in the top row. With only 9% female speakers, it seems like that energy would be better spent actually adding female speakers to the lineup.
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3 women out of 31 speakers at #DICE15?! Do better, @Bisnow: http://www.genderavenger.com/blog/hall-of-shame-dice-15 #genderavenger