DISQUS

anildash · 6 months ago

Angela, thanks for posting this and helping get the word out. You get to the core of it when you say "I really think it is important for us to feel the same level of comfort when submitting to speak at conferences like the Web 2.0 Expo as we feel when submitting to speak at “our own” conferences." Right now, looking at the submissions for the Expo so far, I hate to say it but the tired old excuse of "well, we didn't get many submissions from people of color/women/your community" is actually true. I'm glad that a lot of us have our own events and conferences to go to, but we owe it to our communities to represent at the traditional shows, too.

Suzanne Axtell · 6 months ago

What Anil says, Angela--thanks so much for your post. I hope many of your readers will take you up on your call to action. Good luck with your proposal!
Suzanne, O'Reilly Conferences team

Lynne d Johnson · 6 months ago

I'm happy to see this post as well and applaud your continuing to carry the banner and raise the torch and all of that good stuff. As one of the few African-Americans or women, who does get to represent at conferences like these, I can only say that we need more diversity across the board. Happy to see blackweb20 rep in this regard and here's more well wishes for your proposal.

I'd love to go to a conference and not just bump into people like myself, Anil, Charlene Li, and Jeremiah over and over again. I think SXSW showed a great representation of ethnic/race topics, gender politics, and even lgbt. I'm feeling confident that what's grown at SXSW will carry over into some of these more, often considered elite, conferences.