As one of the mesh conference‘s organizers, an issue that we’ve been very sensitive about over the past year is making sure we have a healthy representation of women. Given this philosophy and commitment, some people have questioned why our keynotes are all men. The truth is we wanted women keynotes, spent a lot of time compiling a list of excellent candidates and tried to make it happen. But, for a variety of reasons, we couldn’t make it work. We are committed to creating the most diverse mesh possible and will continue to focus on attracting top-notch people – many of whom will be women. For more, check out the mesh blog.
Off Topic :: mesh: a conference by, for and featuring white men
[...] Last year, there was a certain amount of noise about the fact that the mesh organizers managed to find only a tiny number of women speakers – 6 out of 50, or some such ridiculous ratio — and this year is not shaping up to be any better, with exactly zero women keynote speakers. It appears, however, that they’re trying to head off the protests via a somewhat disingenuous post on Mark Evans’ blog: The truth is we wanted women keynotes, spent a lot of time compiling a list of excellent candidates and tried to make it happen. But, for a variety of reasons, we couldn’t make it work. [...]