Things are heating up on the “Diversity” and conference Speakers front again and I have decided to blog about a few things that have run around my head for awhile. I will sum it up to start: SXSW Interactive is…

- Cost. Whether it’s covered by me personally or my company, hotel and travel expenses are not insignificant.

- Lack of interest in the topics I most want to talk about. I could go on for hours about Dreamweaver extensibility, but most conference organizers find such a topic to have a too-limited audience.

- Lack of incentive. This is somewhat related to the last point. I love what I do and can talk about it enthusiastically with other conference attendees when I *do* get to conferences, but honestly, there’s not much benefit to me personally in getting in front of a large group and giving a presentation. It adds stress to my life that I don’t need, and I take any negative feedback to heart (and it haunts me for YEARS). Why take the time to find a topic that conference organizers/attendees would get excited about when it just means more work, stress, and time away from doing what I really love?

- Lack of confidence. I always assume that because I’m not Eric Meyers (or Drew McLellan, for that matter), I have no business talking about CSS. I forget that though I know less about it than many gurus, I know more about it than probably 75% of attendees (at some conferences, anyway).

All that said, the reason I probably *will* be speaking at a couple conferences this year is that (a) it will help my team to get someone out there in the community, (b) none of the male engineers want to speak (!), and (c) a colleague is doing a lot of the legwork for me. (I’ll still have to write and give the presentations, obviously, but she’s finding the conferences and making the pitches for me, which is something I wouldn’t bother to do on my own.)

Thanks for posting on this topic. I have been wondering for some time now about why women don’t attend as many events. I have always been keen to attend events and I have had the advantage of always knowing people. If I did not know people and go with people I may not have attended so many events. The out of place feelings may be amplified when the event is male dominated. The Girl Geek dinners are a great idea to get women meeting other women in the industry.

I commend you for putting your daughter first. It can be so easy to let work dominate ones life.

Niqui

Beyond the child care issue Rachel talks about many of us are stuck in that in-between generation with elderly parents not in the best of health to take care of as well. Both my husband and I are in that situation. Niether of our parents live in the same part of the US we do which means travel to take care of their needs as well.

The second is cost. In additon to conference fees, many developer conferences cost in the four figure range before you add in travel and hotel expenses. Those of us who do not work as salaried employees also face loss of income.

I did attend the Webmaster Jam Session conference in Dallas last week where Andy Budd raised this same topic of the scarcity of women at conferences both during his presentation and in discussions in the halls, etc. I was able to attend that conference because it was semi-local (I’m in Houston) and a reasonable cost. The speakers like Andy and Eric Meyers were ones I wanted to hear. It was interesting to see Rachel’s reference to SXSW since Andy Budd was urging me to attned. While it is another semi-local event for me it is not local enough to make dropping in and out of a 10 day event feasible.

As for speaking on web design or development topics my presentations have been restricted to user groups and other local groups primarily for the reasons Rachel states.

I will admit to having been tempted last year to go to a web accessibility conference held in Scotland in part because it offered child care but my children start school earlier than in the UK so they were back in session. Had it been during our school holidays I would have been very tempted if I could have scheduled additional time as a family vacation.