Conference Planners
You don’t want the conference you’re being paid to plan to become infamous on AllMalePanels.com. Conferences and convenors who actively seek to incorporate female talent are more highly regarded by both clients and delegates.
Informed Opinions is working to make it easier for you to find diverse female speakers for conference panels and keynotes.
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Top Tips for Conference Planners
- Use the ExpertWomen database to expand your expert contacts.
- Review our graduates’ opinion pieces here.
- Talk with colleagues about how these recommendations about achieving gender balance are an expectation of attendees. Achieve gender balance where possible.
- When planning your conference programme, pay attention to diversity of age and background. This makes for better content for your registrants.
- If a female source says she’s not the best person to speak, or she doesn’t have the time, let her know that male speakers typically far outnumber female, and that the conference will benefit from women’s perspectives.
- If a female source says she doesn’t have the time to participate, try to mitigate her time challenges by offering a different speaking slot, or onsite support for childcare, etc.
- Ensure that you give the same airtime and acknowledgement of titles, qualifications and achievements to female experts as you would give to a male expert.
- Encourage moderators to prevent one panel member from dominating the discussion, by asking the other panelists direct questions to ensure their perspectives are also heard.
- Choosing a male over a female speaker is often not a conscious act. Review your conferences’ track record. Pay attention to the gender balance and determine whether you are inadvertently perpetuating a no longer acceptable imbalance, or featuring qualified women.