[xrd]

You sound really frustrated with this outcome.

What would you propose those speakers do differently?

A follow up question: why do you say that would be more effective than what they did?

(And, I would ask you, is that something that still maintains their commitment to diversity, since they all mentioned that was more important than speaking opportunities?)

[EdwardDiego]

> What would you propose those speakers do differently?

I always find in life that you get better traction when you approach people with a solution instead of just a problem.

So perhaps they could've said "Hey, I think it'd be good to increase speaker diversity, and I really recommend person X, she's amazing at Y, I could approach her and ask if you'd like?"

Instead of just yelling "There's not enough women!"

[sagichmal]

But that is exactly what the second speaker did. The organizers refused.

[elp]

The organizers said that call for papers had already closed. I.e this was late in the planning stage. (conf is 4 Oct) The speaker wasn't offering to help for the next conference.

I hope other conference organizers take note and work to improve diversity while also actively avoiding speakers who pull stunts like this.

[sagichmal]

That is not an excuse. Essentially every conference makes major changes to line-up and program well after the CFP is done.

[EdwardDiego]

I don't see where in his blog post he approached them with names, so please quote it for me if I overlooked it.