I agree with both Danielle and you about this not being a lack of opportunity, but rather a personal decision on the part of many women. As a professional, I submit my pitches, reach out to conference organizers, and get solicited to speak. I do what my job requires for exposure and personal marketing. Do I enjoy speaking? No, I’m pretty much terrified of it, but because I am the CEO of this agency, I have to be visible. I’m sure just as many men feel the same way, we’d all rather be at home on the couch with our families, but in the roles we have, we speak to feed those families.

Amanda, the nature of the work you do doesn’t require a speaking gig, but you’re on this list because you know I think you’re awesome. You’re insanely smart, experienced and constantly share high-quality and interesting insight on your public accounts. I want to hear you speak. I also respect your decision not to because of the need for discretion with regard to competitive information. I’d wager most affiliates, especially really good affiliates, feel the same way. And if they’re speaking it’s going to be on best practices, not the latest, most profitable tactics. But if/when the time comes that you choose to speak, sign me up!

Danielle, I’d personally LOVE to hear you talk operations and team development. Maybe that doesn’t inherently seem like a good fit for a conference, but I bet more people would be interested than you think. Ultimately, we’re all working with a team. Hiring, motivating, managing, and training that team is tough work. That could also be considered competitive or proprietary information, so definitely your call on sharing the lessons you’ve learned.

On that note, I have an idea. Email to come. :)

It’s interesting to hear you mention the session pitch process, I haven’t personally given this enough TLC in the past. I think about placing myself (and by proxy, Outspoken Media) on the panels, but in taking greater control over the content, that’s a leadership shift that can help affect the change we want to see. It’s something I’ll think about more in the future and act on, thank you for the reminder. :)

Lauren Vaccarello
Alicia Navarro
Becky Naylor
Barbara Boser
Dani Horowitz
Cindy Krum
Lisa Barone
Alyssa Milano
Stephanie Cota
Amy-Mae Elliott
Rae Hoffman
Brandy Shapiro-Babin

I’m not a fan of “women’s only” events, to be honest. The goal should be for us all to be equals in a shared environment, and for those shared environments to be safe. Having said this, I’ve never been to BlogHer or a similar event, so I can’t talk about its benefits at all.

Michelle Robbins commented on my post this morning about some of the shocking behaviour she’s encountered at conferences. Sorry to link drop, Lisa, but I thought it was an eye-opening perspective from one of the industry’s leading women: http://janecopland.co.uk/2011/12/women-as-entertainment-in-the-seo-industry/#comment-1227

Michelle did something about the way she was treated, but she makes the point that many attendees wouldn’t have. In a way many speakers might not have. And she talks about what happens when people see bad treatment happening, and do nothing. Fear of being belittled, insulted further, of “causing a scene” or of pissing off the wrong people is what keeps people silent. Silence breeds tolerance of terrible behaviour. And not wanting to bother with the bullshit has made me think twice about speaking at certain events in the past. “Ugh, I could just not. I really don’t want to deal with that…”

For the most recent one, I went to the organiser and voiced my concerns about “the bullshit”, and I’m really glad I did. Good people will listen if we talk about it. Empowering people to be brave enough to speak out is the first step, however. This thread has been great for that.

So, I nearly became one of the women who turned down a conference speaking place because I couldn’t be bothered dealing with some bullshit that I’d dealt with at that conference before, and that bullshit was directly tied to me being female. I talked about it however, which I wouldn’t have done back when I was more concerned with not making a scene.

For God’s sake, I was too scared for a year to write about this sort of thing myself. It’s not a subject that’s ripe to be joked about at the moment. The five or six horrifying stories women have told me publicly and privately about their treatment at search conferences aren’t funny.

I cannot speak for the other women on this list, but as 1/12th, I agree with you wholeheartedly. As I commented above, it has never been for lack of opportunity that I have not spoken more. It has been my choice.

That said, I do think more people (regardless of gender or minority status) should lead from the front in the industry. We all know there is a deep, wide breadth of knowledge from relatively anonymous members of our community not being shared in industry publications or conferences.

We all stand to benefit by coaxing their unique perspectives and experience out of the woodwork.

I never look at a conference roster from any other viewpoint but the quality of the speakers – the gender thing does not enter the picture but then being a guy I have no idea of the other perspective

I might have left the gender out of the title and let people draw the conclusion that women are not represented well – creating the divide guarantees controversy – when will someone post the low number of African American speakers or handicapped speakers

do the women who attend the ladies dinners etc discuss getting more representation on panels?

I thought the article was praising women speakers not we want more speaker spots

and before I get more backlash here and on Twitter – I have helped more women get speaking spots than guys – and while being known for being a little wild – I treat all women in this space with respect