Successful Conferences: Down To Speaker Gender – or Characteristics?
Much has been written (and tweeted) this past week about a “Top Ten Social Media Speakers” list posted on The Speakers Group (aka TSG) blog. There are no women on that list. The criteria by which TSG evaluated the speakers doesn’t seem to be gender-exclusionary from the outset, and the men on that list are perfectly legitimate. So, what gives and why the uproar?
1) Tradition is a hard nut to crack. Let’s face it. The minds and eyes of those – male or female – who organize, plan and program conferences are so used to seeing “male” they don’t even realize it. To be clear: an even 50/50 gender balance, just for quota’s sake, is not REALLY what anyone wants.
2) The digital realm basically came out of the technology industry, which our society still may jokingly/wrongly perceive as “just a bunch of white, pasty guys in their basements” (whether true or not). That industry just has a male essence, and likely always will. Interestingly, social media, though it is within this masculinized digital/tech framework, is shaping up to be quite the place for excellence in previously considered “feminine” traits – like… being social. Finding a few incredible women to round out the top ten list in question should not have been hard.
3) Isn’t it really about delivering a much broader variety in speaker style? Gender is, indeed, one quick way to start to sort that out – even if there is more to it than that. If we are honest, we’d all admit that conferences can be really boring. That’s why speaker diversity – in topics, methods, skin color, life experience, presentation style and so on – is KEY! If it were possible to do a gender-blind review of speaking styles (but, too bad: voices and bodies would give it away) – I bet we’d see a more organic gender variety in speakers.
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As with much in business/marketing, gender can be an underlying “agent” for missed opportunity or subtle miscues. It remains a very misunderstood and non-discussed influence due to much grander reasons (psychology, human behavior, sociology) than what business need necessarily accept responsibility for. (And, that’s what I study – so I’ll keep you posted.) However, that is not to say we need to go to the extremes of enforcing some sort of gender equality for no reason other than to say we did. Rather – consider the feminine traits/characteristics of your choices/or consumers’ purchase influencers.
That said: In terms of a speaker – do you need “women” vs “men” or a bit more emotion/storytelling/aesthetics vs graphs/charts/facts to balance out your roster? You may well find those two style options along gender lines, but – especially with conference attendee numbers going down so significantly – assumptions are your enemies.
Characteristic-based segmentation, not simply gender segmentation, will deliver the diversity and engagement your audiences/participants seek. Mark my words.
