March 2016: The Good, The Bad, The Limbo
March is Women’s History Month — will we see women onstage making history at this month’s tech conferences?
Last month our friends at Innovation Women challenged us to take a closer look at the gender ratios of some of the top tech conferences in 2016. For the rest of the year, we’re kicking off each month with GA Tally breakdowns of the upcoming tech conferences.
Join us: Download the GA Tally app today and start creating and sharing your own tallies!
When we raise our voices together, we create change together. Click the Tally links below to share them on Twitter and Facebook and shine a spotlight on tech conference gender ratios this month.
HALL OF SHAME (0–29% women)
Clean Equity Monaco
March 3rd
Clean Equity Monaco says they’re “the world's leading emerging cleantech & resource efficiency forum.” Women belong at the table for these critical conversations about cleantech, yet only one woman appears in their speaker lineup out of 18 total speakers.
Forbes CIO Summit
March 6th
The tagline for the March 2016 Forbes CIO Summit is “Transform, Disrupt, Accelerate: The New Roadmap for Technology Leadership.” Does a Hall of Shame gender ratio sound transformative or disruptive to you? The speaker lineup for this event is 28% women. Forbes hosts multiple events throughout the year, so they have time to do better in 2016. Click on the tally to share it and give them a push to prioritize women speakers at their upcoming 2016 events.
Exec I/O Fintech
March 8th
Exec Fintech says that their scheduled speakers are an “international line-up of high class speakers from the corporate, startup and investment world.” It’s also nearly all men. There are only 10 women speaking at Exec I/O Fintech, giving the event a disappointing gender ratio of just 20% women speakers.
Structure Data
March 9th
“Structure Data is bringing together the world’s top computer scientists, software executives and business users to discuss how advances in data technology are already reshaping our world,” but women are barely included in this critical conversation. Out of 63 speakers at Structure Data, only 14 are women.
Startup Camp
March 13th
Startup Camp Berlin “bring[s] together founders, entrepreneurs, investors, and students from all around the world” and “serves as the largest early stage startup event in Berlin.” Unfortunately, women are barely a part of their extensive lineup. Out of 171 speakers, only 36 are women. Click on the tally to share this ratio and to encourage this conference to do better next year.
The Connected City Summit
March 16th
The Connected City Summit promises that you will “hear from the world's leading innovators in technology and urban planning.” Nearly all of the innovators speaking at their event are men; women make up only 19% of their speakers. There’s still time for them to make a change. By adding four women speakers, The Connected City Summit would move into Limbo (between 30% and 40% women speakers) and leave the Hall of Shame.
Adobe Summit
March 20th
Adobe Summit is on the cusp of leaving the Hall of Shame and entering Limbo with their overall lineup. The conference currently has 29% women speakers and three weeks left to add more women to their lineup. Click on the tally and encourage them to prioritize adding women speakers in these final weeks before the Adobe Summit.
Even as they near Limbo, we can’t ignore their egregious lack of women keynote speakers. Out of 13 keynote speakers, only three are women. We’re keeping an eye on this conference. Follow us on Twitter where we’ll continue to share updated tallies about the Adobe Summit lineup.
Digital Innovators Summit
March 20th
Can you trust innovation advice from a conference that, in 2016, includes just 20% women onstage?
ConversionXL Live 2016
March 30th
With 29% women speakers, ConversionXL Live 2016 is hovering extremely close to Limbo status. One additional woman speaker would move them into Limbo, while three women speakers would boost their gender ratio into the Hall of Fame. ConversionXL starts on March 30th, which means this conference has an entire month to leave the Hall of Shame. We hope that they do — in the meantime, we’ll be watching and tallying.
LIMBO (30–39% women)
Events and lists land in the GenderAvenger 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 40% or more. The 10% in between is Limbo, 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.
Intelligent Content Conference
March 7th
The Intelligent Content Conference currently has 33% women speakers. To move into the Hall of Fame, they would need to add four additional women speakers. The conference does include one important Hall of Fame ratio: 50% of their keynote speakers are women.
SXSW Interactive
March 11th
So far the lineup for featured SXSW Interactive Speakers hasn’t budged. We’ve been tracking it for the past month and it’s still firmly in Limbo. Will you be at SXSW this year? Click here for a new, and definitely old school, GenderAvenger tool that you can use to promote gender balance at the conference
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Smashing Conference
March 15th
Smashing Conference asks “Why do you come for a conference in the first place? To learn, to connect, to share, to be inspired.” We would be inspired if we saw this conference move into the Hall of Fame. With just one additional woman speaker, Smashing Conference would reach 40% women speakers. We know they can do it, and we’ll keep an eye on the lineup and celebrate their Hall of Fame tally if they make that move.
HALL OF FAME (40%+ women)
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!
DENT
March 19th
“Dent explores the magic and science of visionary leadership and groundbreaking success,” and they explore it with 62% women speakers. Kudos Dent 2016!
Interaction 16
March 1st
A March 1st Hall of Fame conference is a great way to kick off the new month! 50% of the keynote speakers at Interaction 16 are women, and women make up 42% of the full speaker lineup.
Montgomery Summit
March 8th
Kudos, Montgomery Summit! 40% women speakers lands this conference in the GenderAvenger Hall of Fame.
An Event Apart Nashville
March 13th
“An Event Apart Nashville is an intensely educational learning session for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design,” and it features a Hall of Fame gender ratio! 5 out of their 12 total speakers are women.
Share this GA Tally!
Transformation
March 22nd
Transformation 2016 brings together “leaders from technology, media, advertising and marketing,” and we’re happy to see that this assortment of leaders is gender-balanced. 40% of the speakers on the Transformation 2016 lineup are women.
Share these GA Tallies!
Give kudos to the Hall of Famers, shine a light on the Hall of Shamers, and give the Limbo conferences the push they need to move into the Hall of Fame. 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!