| "automatically makes you think that it is an intentional act by the event organizers to discriminate against women/minorities..." Whoa, nellie! That isn't the argument, not by a long shot. Let's take race out of this. I organize a tech conference. All the speakers are cyclists. Why? Because I asked everyone I knew personally to speak. I am not prejudiced against non-cyclists, it just so happens that because I cycle, I know a lot of cyclists socially. There is no malicious intent, but the result is not representative of the world we live in, just of a small pocket of the world. Furthermore, I have absolutely and positively overlooked speakers like Sandi Metz who are cyclists, but don't ride in Ontario, or Pete Forde, who lives in Toronto but doesn't ride. Whereas, if I sat down with the plan from the start to canvas the best speakers available, I would have cast a wider net than just my personal friends. OI have no idea what process those organizers used, but judging by the result, it did not include reaching out to a large number of qualified speakers. So I raise my hand and ask, "Could this process be improved?" No accusation of deliberate malice or even incompetence, just asking how we can do this better. |