Comments on: Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up

By: Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Commissionblueprintreviewsite.info-Articles Digest

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:23:13 +0000

[...] was reading a guest blog post by Cathy Brooks (Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up) on Brian Solis’ PR2.0 blog, and it got me thinking about the speakers at Affiliate [...]

By: Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Affiliate Marketing

Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Affiliate Marketing — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:05:56 +0000

By: Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | affiliate-ID

Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | affiliate-ID — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:03:45 +0000

By: Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Just Good Thinking

Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Just Good Thinking — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:08:32 +0000

By: Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit

Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:24:09 +0000

By: Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:39:05 +0000

[...] e-mail on the top left to get updates by e-mail.I was reading a guest blog post by Cathy Brooks (Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up) on Brian Solis’ PR2.0 blog, and it got me thinking about the speakers at Affiliate [...]

By: Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Affiliate Summit

Women Speakers at Affiliate Summit | Affiliate Summit — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:34:17 +0000

[...] e-mail on the top right to get updates by e-mail.I was reading a guest blog post by Cathy Brooks (Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up) on Brian Solis’ PR2.0 blog, and it got me thinking about the speakers at Affiliate [...]

By: Practicing Self-Promotion « PEOPLE: Online & Offline

Practicing Self-Promotion « PEOPLE: Online & Offline — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:16:41 +0000

[...] in each of our courts is Cathy Brooks‘ guest post on Brian Solis‘ blog: Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call. I am going to do my small part now. Don’t worry, though, I promise not to let the [...]

By: Cathy Brooks

Cathy Brooks — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:17:40 +0000

Brava to you for stepping up in such strong fashion. It is precisely this type of fierce, powerful engagement that I’m talking about. Of course, I harbor no illusions on this front. Some people have a harder time than others (specifically women I’m talking about in this context), when it comes to seizing their “inner power”. That sounds a California crunchy thing to say, perhaps, but it’s true. Most women I know are fierce on so many different levels, just not on the level at which it allows them to race to the highest mountain top with the objective of singing their own praises. To be clear, I’m not talking about self aggrandizing shouting, I’m talking about the critical area where many women just are less comfortable perhaps than their male counterparts – and that is speaking up and saying; “Here I am, I am an expert and here’s what I have to say.”

The women who have that comfort and are stepping up are role models for the rest … so thank you for what you’re doing! I’ll hope your panel gets picked so I get to see it!!

By: Cathy Brooks

Cathy Brooks — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:36:05 +0000

It’s amazing to see how this conversation has evolved, and I’m glad that others have been able to comment … in fact as I’m typing this I don’t know whether the comment system will allow me to post (I’ve been unable for the last several days to get the system to work)… so apologies for being “absent” from the conversation thus far … With any luck by the time I reach home this evening I can dig into all the comments and *finally* reply to all the great input…From what I’m reading it sounds like we have some great ideas and hopefully some actions we can all take together to move this discussion forward!

By: Alltop (Alltop_TW) « Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up | Brian ... « Chat Catcher

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:28:12 +0000

[...] Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up | Brian Solis: Social Media Expert.. [link to post] [...]

By: Allyson Kapin

Allyson Kapin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:54:08 +0000

Just wanted to follow up on my last point. The notion I’m referencing is when discussing diversifying conference panels. Some are associating this topic with having women speak just to fill up a speaking slot. Why are these two ideas connected? Who said or implied that women should be speaking for the sake of it? I can’t think of anyone who would lobby for such a thing.

By: Faith of Acts of Faith Blog

Faith of Acts of Faith Blog — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:01:29 +0000

Well I am an example of someone who is taking the initiative and I haven’t reached the status of “key influencer” – yet! I am a creative interested in new media, social media, technology and interactive applications along with combining advocacy with entertainment. To that end I started a blog, have engaged across multiple platforms, built my reputation started a blog and increased by blog stats by 900% in 6 months.

I blog about social justice, sexism, racism and politics with some pop culture thrown in for good measure. I am very interested in how the fill the void from the old media platforms like newspapers & magazines where there tends to be lots of gatekeepers and .0000001% diversity along race/ethnicity/gender/education/outlook. So I’m not crying over the failure of some of these models because they were so grossly exclusionary and their preferred audience has all but disappeared. I’m very interested in giving voice to things that have great impact to under-served communities and individuals.

To that end I’ve submitted a panel for SXSW on: Black Female Bloggers and the Future of Media. The buying power of black women is close to $1B and our issues are not being covered. One of the panelists I’ve invited has paid a veteran journalist to cover the story of a mother and son who were kidnapped, sexually assaulted and nearly murdered that the national media completely ignored. This is the direction of where things are heading, especially in regards to women writing more Op Ed pieces, the use of mobile technology and our thinking outside the box. By the way I’d love if people would take a few moments to vote for my panel because it’s a very important issue that will benefit a wide audience. There are plenty of brilliant women out there who may not be in anyone’s “wish list” because they’re doing things in relative obscurity. It’s time we change that!

By: Allyson Kapipn

Allyson Kapipn — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:13:50 +0000

Cathy, thanks for continuing to blog about getting more women speakers involved in tech and social media conferences. I often say that women need to do a better job of promoting themselves, submitting panel ideas to conferences, networking, etc. I also feel that women need to develop a tougher skin when conferences reject their proposal or a blog criticizes them. However, the problem with the lack of women speakers at tech and social media conferences does not solely rest on women. I know you plan on focusing on the systemic issues in future posts, but I think it’s important to discuss them as part of this post too. If we don’t discuss them together, then we only address part of the problem. Fixing the problem requires utilizing some of the suggestions you mentioned above and conference organizers doing a much better job connecting to women in tech and social media. Like I mentioned in my blog post on Fast Company, there are a ton of groups conference organizers should be reaching out to such as the Anita Borg Institute, She's Geeky, Women Who Tech, National Women of Color Technology Conference, Women In Technology International, Women 2.0, Social Media Women of Color, The National Center for Women and IT, Girls In Tech, etc. Furthermore, conferences should look at their steering/programming committees. Is it diverse? It's important for conferences to have diverse committees because at the end of the day people recruit speakers and promote conferences to their personal networks. Also, several conferences only fill a percentage of their panels with open calls, the rest are by invitation only. I have had discussions with conference organizers as well and they have shared similar responses as you have quoted above. However, when I go back and question how many women did you reach out to on your list, I get a blank stare or "a few." Are they reaching out to 5 women and 30 men? Securing recommendations for speakers (and speakers for that matter) is a numbers game. The more women conference organizers reach out to, the more women will respond. Lastly, there seems to be this notion (which you briefly touch upon in the article) that this isn’t about having women speakers for women sake. I completely agree. I have seen this blogged and tweeted about. Who said or implied that women should be speaking just to fill a slot? It would be a disservice to everyone to have any speaker be on a panel that was not qualified to speak on the topic.

By: MLDina

MLDina — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:03:04 +0000

With such a dominant male force in the affiliate industry, I’m not surprised when the majority of speakers are men. I think organizations like Girls in Tech are doing a fantastic job adding to the female audience and participants at conferences, but I agree there could be a lot more!

By: Carri Bugbee

Carri Bugbee — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:51:33 +0000

I’ve done 14 speaking gigs about social media this year, most of which were at conferences (SXSW, O’Reilly Twitter Bootcamp, 140 Characters Conference, WebVisions, OnHollywood/AlwaysOn, Cool Twitter Conference, etc.). Since most don’t pay and do require a lot in out-of-pocket expenses just to get there, I’ve turned down some great opportunities this fall because I can only do so many on my own dime. Big picture, it may be less feasible for women to justify the time and expense of getting away for events which is why fewer submit proposals to do so.

However, I suspect the biggest reason there is a lack of women on conference rosters is just plain old traditionalism. I don’t think women haven’t tried hard enough to get there and just need to try harder. I think some conference decisionmakers just aren’t choosing them.

BTW, I followed the original brouhaha about the lack of women on the roster of The Speakers Group and reached out to that organization. Have yet to hear back.

@CarriBugbee

By: Dan Patterson (danpatterson) « Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up | Brian ... « Chat Catcher

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:34:04 +0000

[...] 2009-08-27T15:32:32 I just commented "Great post,…" on [link to post] [...]

By: Ed Borasky (znmeb) « Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up | Brian ... « Chat Catcher

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:00:05 +0000

[...] 2009-08-27T14:59:48 I just commented ""If they as…" on [link to post] [...]

By: Ed Borasky

Ed Borasky — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:56:51 +0000

“If they ask, say yes”: Well, within reason! It has to be a win-win-win — for the speaker, for the audience, and for the conference organizers. And I personally think it has to be a bigger win for the speaker. Sure, it’s nice to get recognition, it’s nice to help people out, it’s nice to build social capital, etc., but you still have to earn a living. At some point, you have to stop speaking for free or for just the cost of conference admission.

By: Chris Dunlap (dariusdunlap) « Gauntlet Toss or Clarion Call: Women, it’s time to step up | Brian ... « Chat Catcher

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:34:04 +0000

[...] 2009-08-27T13:33:33 RT @thekenyeung: RT @blogworld: women who want to speak at events read this post by @cathybrooks on PR 2.0 blog [link to post] [...]