In a “blog post” listing the top ten social media speakers, The Speakers Group (TSG) listed voices for “your consideration.” Not one of the speakers was a woman, highlighting a much larger social media services industry problem where women are often overlooked for top speaking gigs, and don’t rank as well as men.
Ironically, this topic first came to mind last week when Allyson Kapin — a.k.a. @womenwhotech — led a spirited DC Media Makers session (pictured below) on the same topic. So when I saw the TSG post, I felt compelled to write. I come to this discussion as someone who organizes BlogPotomac, a successful, regional social media conference that intentionally highlights female speakers; as a blogger who has discussed the social media and PR industry’s glass ceiling both in the office and in the blogosphere; and, yes, as a man who speaks frequently on social media.
There are three problems in the TSG post: 1) A lack of transparency and professional responsibility in the blog post itself; 2) the complete snubbing of women in a highly questionable top ten list, and 3) the larger industry issue that conference organizers apparently want male speakers more than women. For those of you who are used to short posts, I apologize in advance. I am going to handle each of these three issues independently.
No Ethics In This Post
Section Update: Several listed men have stated they don’t have formal relationships with said TSB agency, making the gender point even worse. – 3:45 p.m. EST, 7/29
Section Update: Formal relationships have now been verified as non-exclusive email agreements, as noted below by Chris Brogan. – 8:45 a.m. EST, 7/30
The word “Our” in TSG’s post title is the real clue. Because the entire roster of speakers, which does include four names who are actually recognizable by me, including friends Brian Solis and Chris Brogan, is represented by TSG. But they never disclose that in the post.
Instead, we get this piece of sales BS:
We have scouted books, articles and conferences for the leading authorities and we have assembled a “top ten” list to help you in your pursuit. What are the qualifications to be listed in our top ten?
1. The individual must be established as a uniquely successful practitioner of social media and/or be frequently called on to share his or her expertise in the field — specifically as it relates to corporate and association social media practices.
2. The individual must have a proven ability to discuss social media in a way that is easily understandable and relevant to each unique audience.
3. The individual must be able to effectively engage the audience (every “expert” who writes an article is not necessarily someone you want on your platform as a speaker).
OK. If one is true, why haven’t I heard of more than half of this list, and I am Highly Active in the business? Of the top ten, only two (the aforementioned) really seem to be top ten speakers. Nevermind, that none, as in zero, of the ten are women. But more on that later. Ethical blogging first, then the bigger civil rights issue.
No, what we have is sales drivel. And given that these speakers are supposed to be social media experts, it’s ten times worse because we have unethical, undisclosed relationships at play with a disingenuous representation. How transparent and open is that?
Three years ago, such a post would have been blogged about endlessly. Now, we seem to simply accept this kind of bastardization of social media. Thus, corporate marketing has beaten us into submission as the social media sphere simply moves on and finds more interesting content rather than voicing distrust. Even worse, some of our brightest minds are represented in this particular piece of “social” BS.
People wonder why I have become disenchanted with PR and marketing’s poor use of what could be a great conversational media form. And while I support initiatives like Susan Getgood’s Blog with Integrity, I really think it’s too late and that the train has left the station with corporate’s bastardization of social media. TSG is the norm, not the exception. Now we are left with most doing it poorly, some doing it well. Just like old school corporate communications.
No Social Media Women on TSG’s List
More importantly, TSG’s weak list doesn’t even include one woman. And that’s the big slight. Because we know there are great female speakers in the business, folks like Charlene Li, Allison Fine, Toby Bloomberg, Valeria Maltoni, Beth Kanter, Kami Huyse, Jane Quigley, and on and on.
Because the list is so questionable, TSG inadvertently admits it did not seek out women social media speakers. If they had, there’s no way some of these guys could stand up against the best female leaders. And that makes TSG’s snubbing of women even more egregious.
See, in essence, the message is mediocre male speakers are better than top notch women.
TSG should be ashamed of issuing the list. Really ashamed, because not only is it an unethical post, it’s also clearly sexist. Though one has to wonder if TSG is truly sexist or if the company is catering to their clientele: Conference organizers. And that, my friends, opens the big can of worms.
Women Get Snubbed
There are exceptions to the rule, but the recently unveiled Government 2.0 Summit roster seems to represent the norm: A conference predominantly filled with men (and white men at that). Women get snubbed over and over again. And that’s a travesty, because I know a lot of great female communicators in social media that could talk about Gov 2.0 or just about anything, in general.
Conference organizers are not doing their part to highlight female speakers. That’s the real issue.
As organizer of BlogPotomac, I always highlight at least three female speakers or 43% of my roster. And I always have a lady co-emcee with me. See, its not altruism guiding this decision. Think about the communications business: It’s dominated by women! To me, as a conference organizer, I would be a horse’s ass if I did not represent my stakeholder community — which is predominantly women — accurately and fairly.
If you consider that 43% number versus what I estimate to be at least a 67 to 75% female communicator population, BlogPotomac has more work to do! Since this Fall is the last one, my next conference iteration (if there ever is one) will have to strive to meet that mark.
Yet over and over again, I watch other social media conferences trot out the new boys club (it’s new media, right?). Full disclosure: As a member of that new boys club, I reap the rewards, too, with anywhere between three to ten speaking spots a month. I rarely submit proposals for engagements anymore. I like to think these offered spots are a result of working my butt off to be interesting and create customized content for groups, but fair is fair, and 1/3 of my share should probably be offered to women.
Conference organizers continuously snub women. And that’s just wrong. I don’t claim to have the answers to this societal problem.
Are there things women can do? Sure, I suppose they could be more assertive, but I refuse to believe the whole cause is that by their very nature men promote themselves more. A majority of blogs are written by men, but only 57% in the U.S., so I’m not drinking that kool-aid. If that was the case we’d see 43% female speakers instead of 10-25%.
We need conference organizers to acknowledge the problem first, then clear action can be taken. Until conference organizers get honest, and expose why they are choosing men over women — even if it’s sexism by oversight – we are going to be left debating the issue. Until then, I can only do my part, which is to honor female speakers with my own conference, suggest female speakers to organizers, and continue to periodically blog on this issue.
Throughout this post and below you have seen the many voices on Twitter and Facebook who have offered their opinions, too. What are your thoughts?
Thanks for the comprehensive post. It does some that, over all, women aren’t often a “first thought” when it comes to tech professionals. It’s unfortunate, too. Many of the women mentioned by your contributors are names most professionals respect and are familiar with.
Aside from burning our pink Twitter backgrounds, what can be done to change this?
It’s similar to the statistics that men follow men on twitter & women follow men and women. That automatically means men are better listened to. And that CLEARLY isn’t an issue of ‘voice’. It’s an issue of gender bias. Men just don’t expect women to be important.
As women the only thing we can do is to make sure we favor other women and support them. But perhaps men like you can mentor women? This post & what you tell us your practice is are great too :) It’s likely to help the women you mentioned after all.
But let’s face it – that post was obviously NOT about the top 10 best speakers in the business. It was about the top 10 speakers that company has to offer. They just gave it a nice title in the hopes of good search engine traffic.
Thank you, Katinka. While I may be a strong blogger, a content creator, thinker, etc., one thing I have learned about myself over the past few years owning my own company is that I am not a great mentor for women (or men, for that matter). For me, it’s better to simply share my experience, strength and hope with other means, such as this blog, and lead by example.
And yes, TSG was shameless in its self promotion.
Geoff, part of me is a little shocked this still happens.
But then again, I’ve never surrounded myself with the same people everyone else has. I wouldn’t be where I am without the awesome conversations with Kami and Susan (and of course, Wendy.)
Thanks for sharing this, Geoff. I don’t know what can be done to change the situation, but getting the word out to a lot of conference organizers as you have is a step in the right direction.
We need women as speakers because there are plenty who are qualified, because of the perspective they offer, and because empathy is a big part of there being more women in tech and social media in the future–and we empathize most with people who are like us.
Thanks for addressing this head on.
Great article Geoff! I wish more conferences would follow your lead.
You asked for suggestions on how we can fix the problem. I’m working on a comprehensive list of suggestions right now. Here’s 3. The rest will follow in a blog post I’m working on.
1. Conference organizers need to connect with women in tech and social media groups prior to the submission process. Groups like the Anita Borg Institute, Women Who Tech, WITI, Girls N Tech, Women2, etc are key stakeholders.
2. Conference organizers should have a couple members of the programming committee focus on bringing in diverse panelists.
3.Issue a a 50/50 Keynote Challenge.
Geoff, this is a fascinating discussion, and as a woman, I appreciate you using your “podium” to call attention to it.
Among those who don’t really pay a lot of attention to these things, I think the prevailing line of thinking is that women do really well in communications. As you said, just look at the numbers of women in PR. It’s almost as if there’s a “secret” glass ceiling. Whereas people know there’s a glass ceiling in many FORTUNE 500 companies, law firms, etc, they don’t realize this barrier exists in a woman-dominated field.
Which leads to the million-dollar question: How do we start to remedy the situation? Blogs like this to call out blatant sexism are a good first start. But, we each need to take it upon ourselves to pressure conference organizers. Point out the lack of women in post-event surveys. Tweet about it during the event. Also, when dollars are involved, that’s when some organizers will really take notice. Is there a way to get sponsors to apply some pressure?
Just some thoughts off the top of my head. Thanks again for starting the discussion.
Heather (@prtini)
Geoff, thanks for highlighting this issue. I think there’s the nugget of something threaded in there that’s being missed–that the path to becoming a “top speaker” is rockier for women. As Kathy Sierra noted, in her early days, she sent out a ton of proposals. She had to build up to “top speaker” status. I would guess that Charlene Li, Valeria Maltoni, Jane Quigley and others would probably say the same.
I find that, as a few people mentioned, so much of my focus is on actually executing work, that I can’t devote the time that I’d need to break through the resistance, even at smaller events, to a relatively-unknown female social media pro.
And while, granted, you can make the argument that conferences would prefer speakers who’ve built up a portfolio of speaking engagements, even that doesn’t fully hold water. Conferences bring in “new voices”–and brag about it–if they’re male.
Thanks for the frank talk (plus convo last week at DC Media Makers).
For the macro concern, thoughts toward solutions:
1) Consciousness is the ballgame.
As Allyson and others have noted, if you’re running a conference, summit, etc consciously looking at those who impact the speaker slate, the committees involved, etc is key. Consider if they recognize the scope of communities that can bring diversity to the table.
2) Making the ask.
Recently WIRED hosted their Disruptive By Design conference, the first of its kind to host – with an all male speaker slate. Due to the savviness surrounding WIRED’s team, it brings my old sales days to mind: “You always make the ask – to the customer, to the potential collaborator, etc” to at least start moving toward results. It doesn’t look like they made the basic ask of “Are we representing diverse types of successful industry leadership?”
3) More resources, useful voices
@JayWalk1 @MindofAndre @digitalsista + http://www.SocialMediaWOM.com ie Social Media Women of Color; http://www.WomenGrowBusiness.com
Again, thanks for directness with this.
Great post, Geoff, and thanks for bringing much-needed attention this issue. It’s also great to hear how much effort you put into highlighting women speakers at BlogPotomac — I hope other conference can learn from your example! I hope your post is the start of a larger dialogue with others in social media about how to fix this problem.
This is a great post Geoff and as a conference organizer that has a behind the scenes look I wanted to make sure and let everyone know that we opened our own conference speaking proposal and submissions for Blog World Expo. There were not nearly the women that submitted as men. This has spurred further thoughts about the subject with me and I am going to do some digging to see some of the numbers. I am particularly interested in the representation groups as to whether TSG themselves have many women clients?
As an organizer, I have made it a point to increase the women that are speaking. We just saw that it is simple to fill a large conference with women speakers at BlogHer. Rick Calvert, CEO of Blog World and I sat down and began listing out possible keynotes, and we specifically started the list with top women in the industry because we need to be proactive ourselves and not just asking the women to be proactive.
Great now I have another post rattling around in my head for getting out. At this rate I am never getting to the work I need to get done. Great job all and will keep up on the discussion here.
Excellent coverage on this issue as always, and there are some real gems among your suggested speakers. They are, in fact, among the best in social media regardless of gender.
All my best,
Rich
@genuine Thank you for your comment. I know you’re pretty discerning, you snubbed me for BlogWorld ;) Great insights. Looking forward to how you evolve this thing to be more inclusive of women and encourage more lady submissions.
I hate moderated comments. I posted this to the TSG “blog:” “Surprised that Dana Boyd did not make the list. http://www.danah.org/”
In any case, representation is not enough to advance this cause. The content of the conference is also an important venue to advance this issue. Here’s one for you: Are the topics of the conferences that get organized in social software gendered? I think we often believe they are not, but is that a good thing? I don’t know. I found another blog with a similar perspective and problem identification strategy. http://www.talesfromthe.net/jon/?p=957
I am once again floored that this is the same discussion we had in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999… and let’s not even talk about how bad it has been since 2000.
As always, we’ve come a long way and haven’t even taken a baby step at the same time.
In the 1990s, I attracted a lot of media attention because I started the first woman owned Internet company in Manhattan. But could I get a top speaking gig at a tech (or business) forum? You’ve got to be kidding! I was relegated mostly to the women’s conferences, the women’s business schools and women’s universities, the women’s organizations, the women’s tracks.
Today, I’ve been rejected over and over at conferences when I want to speak about topics OTHER than women’s issues online. I’ve been invited to speak at non-gender specific tech events but am asked to speak about reaching women. Yes, this is what I used to do in the 90s, but today I’m less focused on women’s tech issues and more focused on deep analysis of Internet strategy and the integration of new tools and transformational ways technology has affected the way we communicate and market over the last decade.
When Newsweek listed me as one of their 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet in 1995, I was 1 of 5 women on the list. When I called the magazine pissed off that they didn’t include more women, they said they “couldn’t find them.” Bullshit, I told them, all they had to do was ask any one of the 5 women on their list, and we’d lead them to amazing women to add.
When I founded Webgrrls in 1995 and had women-only Webgrrls events, I was criticized for “ghettoizing” women. “Do we really need events for, by and with women only? Yes, I argued, because every other forum in technology that is not gender-specific is by default all or predominantly male. I wonder today if I didn’t contribute to treating women as an “afterthought.”
I absolutely love the New Media Boys Club with good human beings like CC Chapman and Chris Brogan. But I’m still pretty annoyed that even I am hard-pressed to find women who are being celebrated in that same way. I wonder if it is partly our own fault as women: constantly apologizing for our achievements, tip-toeing around self-promotion, cringing when another woman puts herself out there boldly (“who does she think she is? Bitch!”)
I don’t have strong answers or ideas for changing something that is so entrenched but do think that continuing the dialogue openly between all of us (yes, guys, you are part of the problem AND the solution), we can make genuine change.
I’d like to think that the New Media Boys Club is made up of a new wave of males who are so secure with their own identities and place in this industry that they always reach out to others consciously – both women and men – who deserve to be in the spotlight as well. I know CC Chapman has referred to me in his podcast and recommended me as a speaker, a seemingly easy thing to do but it takes thinking about it first, broadening one’s network, then being a true and generous connector.
This isn’t a call for “affirmative action”-type guidelines. This is a call for a greater awareness of the imbalances and a conscious generosity in spreading the “wealth” and opportunities around.
Becoming a speaker for events is hard work in any case, but harder if you are a woman. It takes a ton of proactively putting yourself out there and self promotion – which men are honestly more willing to do than women.
I think Jim made a good point when he said that the submissions by women were lower overall. It jives with what I know about myself, I hate to ASK to be a speaker, I would prefer to be asked. I wonder if that holds true for many conferences? I would love to know.
The other issue is the keynote speaking slots. I have spoken at MANY conferences and get asked all of the time, but rarely do I get asked to be a keynote. I haven’t really been too put out by that, or even thought about it much, but it makes me wonder – how are keynotes chosen?
I used to work at a trade association and we looked at videos of speakers and gauged if they would be interesting. 9 times out of 10 we chose a man. And I was ON these panels. I think women discriminate against women just as much as men do. As you mention, it takes a proactive, deliberate will to do differently.
The TSG list is just a junk ad, but nice job jumping on it to spotlight this issue, Geoff. I think you and your readers are going to defacto have a great counter list of qualified women speakers (and thought leaders – it’s not all about the speaking, is it?) as a result.
I learned over several tough lessons when I was younger that life just isn’t fair. A female teacher once said to me, “If you want to be recognized and respected for your work you have to be unequivocally the best or most unique at it. Don’t make it a question. Don’t count on subjective judges, just blow them away.”
That piece of advice has stuck with me (and God knows I try to be the best I can be). It’s sort of like your issue with personal branding – I don’t want to be the quota’d woman speaker – I want to be a person who has something to offer in the room.
That’s not to say there isn’t a glass ceiling and that snubbing doesn’t take place. I’m positive that it does – most likely on an subconscious basis. I’m also positive that there are just as many great women speakers as there are men, many of whom have been called out in this post (and therefore are hopefully more well-known today than they were yesterday).
Who else would you name as a great thought-leader (not necessarily speaker) in the social media space?
I respect and admire Beth Kanter and Danielle Brigida and Carie Lewis and Holly Ross and Rachel Weidinger and Amy Sample Ward and Claire Sale and Allison Fine and Renee Hamilton and Lesly Simmons and Michaela Hackner and Robin Parker and Eve Simon and many more.
Thanks, Geoff, for this thoughtful post and for your care in planning BlogPotomac.
It’s easy to find advice on how to do diversity better, but only if you’re looking. I love the phrase “sexism by oversight” and am going to adopt it – that’s really the issue, that it’s easy not to think about whether your event is part of the problem.
Also worth reading: the recent OSCON keynote by Kirrily Robert, http://infotrope.net/blog/2009/07/25/standing-out-in-the-crowd-my-oscon-keynote/ , about attracting more women to open source development. Good example of the resources that are out there if you choose to look.
Thanks for the post, as usual, Geoff.
Kami Kuyse’s comment is insider, realistic, and interesting, because it reflects the many contradictions and difficulties with this topic.
http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2009/07/29/women-snubbed-in-top-ten-speakers-list-industry-in-general/#comment-123842
Enjoying the great resources and wisdom here. And to correct a hearty typo in my comment above:
http://www.SocialMediaWOC.com
…is a good online hub launched this year per @DigitalSista and @Glennette, striving for diversity represented in social tech conferences with an emphasis on women of color.
Thanks for the mention of Blog with Integrity, and for “outing” this top 10 list. As you know, I’d noticed it too but just didn’t have the time yesterday to do anything with it. I also know that any post I wrote wouldn’t get half the attention of yours.
Symptom of the problem, I think. Women, with a few exceptions, don’t get near the profile of men in tech/social media. Yes, there are a lot of factors at play, but facts are facts. It has been this way for as long as I can remember, and the whole a-list dynamic was one of the reasons BlogHer was founded in the first place.
I was pleased to read that BlogWorld Expo is taking the criticisms (mine included) to heart about women speakers. Not to pick on them because I know they are trying but last year, it was a total shame that there were two conflicting panels covering essentially the same topic, outreach to bloggers. One was called social media outreach or something like that, and the panel was all men. The other was called mommyblogging, and you guessed it, all women. ALL the panelists were social media or marketing professionals, but the women (myself included) were marginalized by the label.
I wish this kind of stuff would stop, but I have to admit I am just too tired to fight it anymore. That’s why I don’t often submit proposals to speak anymore. It doesn’t matter that I get high marks from attendees; I don’t have the BIG name and I won’t get the slot. Defeatist? I’d like to think not, just realistic.
As Kami said, it would be nice to be asked. Instead of having to beg.
This is a very thoughtful and obviously heartfelt post, Geoff, but I don’t fully agree… starting with the assumption in the title: that women are “snubbed”. I’m willing to go with “often overlooked.”
But I’m more concerned that well-intentioned discussions framed in this way do as much harm as good for the cause. Just sayin… if we’ve learned anything from politics, it’s that repeated talking points become “real”, and the more we perpetuate the “women are snubbed”, “tech events are uncomfortable (if not outright hostile) to women” memes, the more likely we are to make things WORSE by discouraging women from attending in the first place.
I’ve always felt (disclaimer: I speak only for my own experiences and have no special academic knowledge of women’s issues) that a big part of the problem is that we–women–are not out there in quantity paying to *attend* conferences, and that this should be a prepreq before we expect to be speaking at them.
Just heard an NPR piece this morning on loosely related issue in women’s sports — that women aren’t paying to attend the women’s sports events they’re fighting to preserve. We must support what we value, and value what we support.
And there’s another problem hinted at in this and other equally well-intentioned posts on the topic–that the women who ARE speaking are somehow “in collusion” with the men who host the events, and that we are simply the token female speakers. This charge was leveled at me more times than I can count, yet I worked my ASS off to get the chance to speak at these events. I did not work to speak at conferences because I wanted to present (I have *horrific* problems with stage fright), but because I am a conference attendee junkie, and speaking was the best way to increase my conference attendance.
The criticism I have gotten for being a female speaker–from other women–has contributed to my cutting back. It’s pretty much a no-win situation when women who DO speak at tech events are viewed not as having earned it on their own merits since–after all–the truly deserving are “snubbed.”
Painting these events as being hostile to women is not always doing women a lot of favors. Bringing up the problem of a lack of diversity is a huge issue that deserves lots of light — like this post — but I truly, deeply believe that we are just as likely to keep women away from these events when what is MOST needed is for women to… show up. We all know how powerful memes are, and every time I hear a woman repeat the talking point about how women are snubbed, etc., all I can think is how much less likely that women is to attend–and find the education and joy in these events that I’ve found over the last 20 years.
Another disclaimer: perhaps the only reason I’ve gotten so much from participating in conferences (mostly as an attendee and only recently as a speaker) is because I’m just too clueless to have noticed. If I’d “known” how hard it was for women to participate in tech events, I’d likely never have gotten so involved. Sometimes ignorance is both blissful and very, very empowering. I’m not advocating ignorance, just reflecting an alternate view…
I believe the best way to effect change at a commercial event is to vote with our hard-earned/scarce resources: to pay. Those who pay for events hold a huge amount of power over what happens at those events. Not all events, of course, there are always the invite-only highly exclusive, but really — those rare events are not where most of the world-changing education and inspiration happens.
We have a catch-22 here — but I think we must address why women don’t pay/attend these events *before* we can completely fix what’s broken. And no, I don’t believe it’s the lack of female speakers that’s keeping women away from attending events and don’t believe that simply upping the roster of female speakers will change the gender balance of attendees. This is all much more complex, but again — I applaud you for bringing it up even if I disagree with your conclusion/framing.
Thanks for the comment Susan and yes we had this same conversation in San Francisco. I just want ti clarify that we have 11 different tracks and each has its own theme and yes some of those tracks tend to have some of the same issues related to their industry. The real estate blogs and podcasts may have something they are covering that is similar to the medical blogs and both of those may be similar to the sports bloggers. So it may be that one panel is similar to another but it is because it is specific to their genre. Not all attendees have access to other tracks as they are purchasing their pass for only those sessions. Susan I may be mistaken but your name is listed as a possible panelist for a session I may not have had a chance to call you yet. ;) I think I have only a 100 more people to contact.
@Geoff I think you were bumped by Aliza and for the comment above I see we made a good choice.
A few random thoughts…
1. As an interactive media conference organizer ( albeit a very small conference) I purposefully recruited women because I wanted to make sure women were fairly represented. I had to talk many of those women into presenting because they insisted that they didn’t have the expertise. There was not one man I had to convince of his expertise ;-)
2. Social media has allowed women a way into a technical field that is not considered “hard tech.” I think it’s interesting because you could consider social media to be a feminized space, yet we still have the problem of the “new boys club.”
3. Deep down I wonder if a lot of this isn’t about how much easier it is for men to publicly admire other men for their professional skills. I think it’s harder for men to do the same with women. I need to find research supporting this but I’m sure it’s out there.
@kathysierra Thank you for coming here and commenting. Your insights are very appreciated. I cannot fathom the depths of struggle or lack there of facing women in these situations.
My style is my style, so anyone who reads this blog regularly will recognize that it’s not issue specific. So I hope you’ll take that into consideration.
On a larger note, I can only give my perspective as a man and an organizer of such events. When I look at % differences like this, I see it as a snub. The definition of snub is: to treat with disdain or contempt, esp. by ignoring. I don’t think you could call this long of a problem and this little attention anything other than ignoring. Snub is a stylistic word choice that drives my point home.
@genuine Agreed. A better choice based on this post and I support it.
Not to hijack Geoff’s comments but….
Jim — While I would have liked to see a woman on the PR track panel, the larger problem was that two panels bound to attract the same audience were opposite each other. As a result the how to talk to mom bloggers panel had a smaller audience than it otherwise might have. Why? Perhaps it was perceived as less serious, and DO NOT get me started on that.
Kathy — Speaking for myself, I don’t in any way assume some sort of nefarious collusion with conference organizers and the list of top women speakers who have worked hard to build their profiles. I do however absolutely believe that there is a tendency to take the easy route. That leads to MANY conferences having much the same speakers over and over. It’s just less noticeable with the men, because there is a larger pool of top speakers to draw from. Self-perpetuating.
Returning Geoff’s blog to him now.
Everyone knows women make the best communicators!
P.S. It was Madelyne Albright who said “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” One of the all-time best women communicators.
@susan getgood — 100% agree with: “I do however absolutely believe that there is a tendency to take the easy route. That leads to MANY conferences having much the same speakers over and over.”
That also points to a possible tip for anyone wanting to speak: how can you make yourself the “easy” choice for an organizer? My advice is to know *exactly* what a conference thinks its paying attendees want to hear/know/see, and demonstrate that you can deliver that. Video resume + recommendations from other events. Small events / small sessions DO make a stepping stone to bigger ones. Experience/job title are not nearly as important as a proven ability to deliver a session paying customers will benefit from and feel is worth their time.
I’m a big fan of Beth Kanter, Kathy Sierra, Laura Fitton, Tara Hunt, Stephanie Agresta, Danah Boyd, Tamar Weinberg, Deirdre Breakenridge (disclosure, we wrote a book together, but still think she’s great anyway), Liz Strauss, Erin Kotecki Vest, Debbie Weil, Connie Reece, Connie Bensen, Francine Hardaway, Charlene Li, Sarah Lacy, Jeanette Gibson, Toby Bloomberg, Becky Carroll, Serene Elrich, Porter Gale…and many many more!
Great post by @geoffliving, about why women are overlooked for top social media speaking gigs. Clearly we need to be better self-promotors…
As I said on facebook, if you attend a conference in the tech world, it becomes very clear quickly how much it caters to men. What do you see once registration is over? Booth Babes! If the industry were not dominated by men, catering to men and men only, that would not be a part of the event. This is a post I wrote almost 1 year ago: http://stardustglobalventures.com/2008/08/20/with-my-tail-between-my-legs/
I think your article a good one. I don’t know how to change the mindset other than in the same way change has taken place over the last decades with regard to bias of any sort. Focus and time. That’s all that will alter the way the tech sector handles itself.
Also, Cathy Brooks, Kami Huyse, Jackie Peters, Nicole Jordan, Chris Shipley, Susan Getgood…Who else do I admire at conferences? Still thinking….
As a speaker and social media consultant (who happens to be a woman) who also authored two books on the subject, both 1st to be published on New Media marketing “Secrets of Online Persuasion) and “Twitter Revolution” I found this post to be an interesting read, esp w/ all the tweets/facebook comments from the public.
It’s good to bring this to light, as it’s a complex topic.
Sometimes I see it as an issue where women are just not making themselves known to those influencers who are choosing speakers. So in the realm of personal responsibility I like to do 2 things:
1) MAke myself known to influencers in the industry I’m in, so people know I exist & will be in the pool of choices when gigs come up to speak.
2) Be very specific to the powers that be that I’m interested in speaking, primarily being the Keynote on the subject matters that I’m passionate about and “know my stuff” so I can bring extreme value over ANY other speaker (male OR female) on the same subject.
The 3rd thing is: Bringing awareness to the subject – like the author just did in this post, with 100+ comments – which helps put the issue on the table in order to find ways to learn from all the powerful women who have SO much to contribute that we can all learn from. ESP in the Social Media Landscape.
Thanks 4 putting this together!
@CoachDeb
Author of TWitter REvolution
It really is a chicken and an egg situation that Kathy Sierra brings up. If more women were advertised as speakers at an event, then more women would be inclined to attend.
And women do need to be more proactive about asking to be speakers and panelists. I have been speaking now on various topics ranging from Community Management, Social Software Training, Enterprise 2.0, and Government 2.0 to name a few for the past 3 years, blogging even longer. But I still have to submit proposals and fight to get “airtime, screen time, podium time, stage time”. Its not that people don’t see me as an expert, I know they do. But the planners might not always see that. So I believe that my story is indicative of many. Because while we do have great women speakers in the fold of some major events, that small percentage. We need to be aware of not making it a “New Girls Club” if and when we ever get to a 50-50% ratio representation. Not only are we pushing for diversity in the speakers in general, we need to make sure as a community we are elevating up and coming women speakers.
Now I am not as called to speak as Geoff. I average about 1 event per month, internally and externally. As I serve a large internal community as well as the global community in my ideas. But there needs to be a mechanism for Subject Matter experts to get out their expertise, if they so choose to want to go the speaker route.
I had more to rant on, but I have to run to our SMC-DC event, in which we are introducing our leadership team to the community. A team that is actually more women than men. Why, because more women volunteered, submitted, and following the rules to apply for the positions.
Totally agree, however there is light at the end of *some* tunnels. I spoke at Community 2.0 this year and the women definitely outnumbered the men in speakers and audience make up.
Um, I’m not represented by ANY speaker’s group.
Wow, it is clear that this subject has really touched a nerve based on the many well-formulated responses.
I really appreciate what @KathySierra said,
“how can you make yourself the “easy” choice for an organizer? My advice is to know *exactly* what a conference thinks its paying attendees want to hear/know/see, and demonstrate that you can deliver that.”
There are lots of opportunities to speak at the local level and I recommend that if you hope/aspire to be a speaker that you take those opportunities whenever you can. If someone asks me to speak in my hometown my answer is always yes.
My concern is as follows. Though it would seem that women need to do a better job of promoting themselves, the sticking point is that people don’t like it much when they do. They come off looking like they are grandstanding.
For instance, if I told you about all of my speaking gigs and listed what I was great at in this post, more than a few of you would roll your eyes and think of me less. Maybe you would think that way about a man too, but probably not as readily as you would for a woman.
I am reading a book right now, “Pitch Like a Girl” that really gets to the heart of this issue. I recommend it, even though it is a hard read (violates the PC rules we all live by on this subject).
That brings me to conferences like @Genuine’s Blog World Expo. I didn’t even apply to speak at that conference, it didn’t occur to me, or I didn’t hear about the process being open. I think that happens a lot too.
That said, no one applies to be a Keynote speaker. Those are always asked. I would daresay that Kathy, for instance, worked a lot harder to get to that status than most of the men that Keynote. But that doesn’t give us a right to whine about it either.
It’s complex.
I agree with Andrea Baker, who wrote, “If more women were advertised as speakers at an event, then more women would be inclined to attend. ”
One data point –> I have specifically stopped attending conferences where it looks like (or where I know) the majority of attendees and/or speakers are men. I’ll probably go back to those tech conferences eventually. I really enjoy the gel conference (http://gelconference.com/) which is half-techy and has always had a good diversity of speakers and attendees — which I think is due to the organizer, Mark Hurst, paying attention to the speaker roster.
I know my initial reply probably seemed flippant, but I think there really is something to be considered when you look at basic brain chemistry – hard wiring is really difficult to overcome with these things.
Also, I want to thank you for bringing this up for two reasons:
1. I realize now I have been very lucky in the cases where I have actually been invited to speak — which has been all of them.
2. I have never tried to submit a proposal to speak and now I really believe I should start doing this. I think this is something I need to work on and that I should start being more proactive in deciding upon the direction of my career.
Thanks again!
Geoff,
I’m glad to see the post and the response. But are we all so shocked? I can look to local events in marketing and PR here in Atlanta and am continually amazed that women are not represented well (or at all) as panelists, speakers, moderators, etc. For example, a recent PR professional luncheon of ‘living legends of PR’ featured a panel of all men, moderated by a male. Incredible to think that not one women in the profession made is on to the dias. When I bring this up with organizers or event hosts, you can hear crickets, followed by a littany of excuses.
For my part, I speak frequently to local, regional and national audiences. Trying to present a perspective from my unique experiences and professional background. Also, I make an effort to have a balance of presenters for the professional events I organize – not only gender, but race, industry, specialty area, etc. While it may not be noticeable to the audiences, it usually makes a more lively presentation and more people take away value from the diverse folks presenting.
Thanks for starting something here, truly a spark-inspiring post. Jenny @cloudspark
I also just sent a note to Valeria,she is on my wish list to see…
Geoff – adding my appreciation to you for this post – and your kind words about me. I suppose it’s TSG’s party/blog and they can post what they want (and conduct business as they see fit). However, in the spirit of social media, which is build on transparency and honesty the disingenuous nature of the post is to me even more skanky than the list itself. Based on that and all of the comments and tweets in this conversation, I’m wondering what women would now want to work with them – should they be singled out as fitting the profile.
Oooops, a recorrection. I guess somewhere back in January, I agreed to be listed non-exclusively with TSG. It’s more of a directory-level thing, but didn’t realize that I guess to them, I am an “our speaker.”
Sorry. Didn’t know until last night.
This might be your most poignant and relevant post ever Geoff and sadly, it’s not a new topic broadly speaking, yet it’s consistent within social media. For those on the outside to ignore the talent we have walking the hallways is a travesty. To put it in perspective, Our #socialmedia sessions every Tuesday were “launched” with Beth Harte, and that decision in and of itself to me was a no-brainer as I think she is one of the brightest stars in our universe.
I’m also very proud of the lineup we have coming up over the next 6 weeks. Ann Handley, Connie Reece, Shannon Paul, Valeria Maltoni,Liz Strauss and Kami Huyse not to mention Rachel Happe and Jennifer Leggio who have already hosted. Are you kidding me? These women collectively bring it each and every day. How could these awesome women be snubbed or ignored? I know the answer. They are ignored because the people making the decisions have no clue. I think it’s great that you’re pointing it out because though nothing will change initially, it does get people talking “again” and maybe just maybe, we can collectively right this wrong.
Stop whining and DO something about it. Be a part of conference org teams. Don’t take no for an answer. Don’t wait to be asked.
Above all, stop bitching from the sidelines. You want in the game? Act like you belong NOW. There are plenty of us completely willing and excited to stand beside or behind you. Find them. Stop relying on JUST other women.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAH
… and just like that, the level of discourse drops from thoughtful, impassioned, yet rational to the high school locker room level. Go back to the playground, boys. The grown-ups are talking here.
Tyler: Thanks for your comment. I get where you are coming from as a lot of my self-talk is about “manning-up,” powering through, toughing it out. In my opinion, that kind of self talk, while OK for the chips are down, let’s get up motivational bit, is not productive for this kind of conversation.
Instead of asking women to act like men, both parties need to find common ground and ways to communicate. There needs to be a more equal selection criteria that caters to human competency, not men or women. Creating processes and means of notifying people so everyone gets and wants a shot is the challenge. I don’t have the answer.
I would also suggest in the future when talking about such matters to not use the word “bitching” as it completely invalidates your argument.
Jay: Thank you for demonstrating how men continue to hold women back. Bet you thought I wasn’t going to approve that, but instead your example validated the post, and the fact that there really is a problem. So in reply, “Boooooo!”
I do quite a bit of speaking and want to do more. I’d like to branch out of what I have been doing – focused on my industry and technical expertise – to broader topics. My challenge is one I have not seen mentioned here yet. Getting asked to speak (which happens to me a lot) or having a proposal accepted is one thing. Getting paid for it is another.
As I move to a model where want to be paid more, and more often, for speaking, I am finding it difficult to dispel the idea that everyone wants to and is willing to speak for free or peanuts just to promote their consulting or agency business. I want to speak to speak, because I have some thing that people want to hear and they want to hear me say it. With the challenges all the conferences – and I mean all- have now to get sponsor’s dollars, who speaks and whether they get paid is very much dependent on whether the sponsor or potential sponsor thinks the content and the speaker will draw a crowd and exposure to their products/services.
So, in my case, I am tailoring my pitch, and I do pitch aggressively, to the fact that sponsors matter. If I don’t deliver a a big audience and an audience that will pay attention to the sponsors, no amount of “deservingness” is going to get me to the podium. I won’t let my feelings be hurt by that. I’ll just move on to the the next one. Or make my own.
As an event and conference professional that has hired more than 2,500 speakers in the past 10+ years, diversity is always one of my top priorities when selecting speakers. I may draft an initial event schedule with speakers and will play with it for days trying to ensure that I have a balance of male, female speakers as well as many races as possible. I don’t always get the right balance but I try.
First, I would submit to you Geoff that it’s unfair as a social media expert to expect mainstream audiences, speaker bureaus and event organizers to know the “Who’s Who” of social media experts-male or female. The professional speakers and events industries are probably foreign to most social media explorers and bloggers. Just as the social media industry is foreign to most meeting and speaker professionals. So it will take both industries reaching out to each other so that a broader diversity of speakers on conference agendas can occur. That’s the win here for conference and event attendees.
To further illustrate my point, how many of these social media strategists, both female and male, have a one-sheet, a short marketing video, headshot, presentation descriptions, fee schedule and marketing materials about their presentations ready to deliver now, to the next event professional wanting to secure a speaker? These are all necessary tools within the professional speaking industry just as a computer, web-hosting company, domain name and blog account are a necessities for bloggers. Speakers that want to cross social media conference boundaries and speak for other types of audiences need to have these tools prepared. It’s not just about submitting proposals as many conferences do not have calls for proposals. It’s about making oneself known to the right audiences.
In an attempt to try to educate three distinct communities: social media industry, the meetings and events industry and speakers bureaus, I’ve written more about the issue here. http://jeffhurtblog.com/2009/07/31/time-to-build-bridges-create-new-media-brain-alchemy/
It’s my effort, although in no way do I have the following or trive that you or any of these social media strategists do, to introduce all three industries to each other and move the discussion forward to solutions so that all parties involved can make educated decisions with the audience in mind.
Jeff:
I am glad to see your comment, and the link to your post. It’s interesting to see that you have a personal relationship with TSG’s owner, as well as proclaiming to be an avid reader of mine (though you misspell my blog’s name).
My problem with your response is it forces the conference’s existing paradigm on women, instead of changing the paradigm to create an equal playing field for all people. SO when I read, “It’s not a bureau’s fault that they are not representing more speakers or listing more speakers of a certain type. They can’t promote people they don’t know or those that have not reached out to them,” I say BS.
It’s the speakers bureau’s job, the conference organizer’s job to go find the right speakers, not the other way around. Finding qualified speakers of all genders, races, etc. means going the extra mile, not crying wolf when you don’t get apps. Not a good excuse in my mind. Instead of accepting status quo, tear it down, and create a new paradigm.
My comments on this turned into a blog post at Free Traffic Tip. I’ll send you a trackback link later. This was incredibly insightful, but that’s not a surprise coming from you.
I spoke at 49 events last year on Social Media. Have had nearly 400 go through my social media edge programs. I’m even writing a book on the subject. It doesn’t surprise me that no women are on the list. Even though it should be a 50/50 split at least. It’s a battle that’s been going on for years unfortunately.