CAST 2015 shows what can be done if you give the smallest bit of support to potential speakers.
We realise that to now, we’ve been focused on using social media to spread the word. There’s limitations to that, because many of the very people we want to attract are often not on social media.
We’re starting to branch out into non testing conferences too. For example Eclipse and XP2016 are two non testing conferences on board.
How you can help
Speak to your company/organisation that you work with and tell them about SpeakEasy. Give them an opportunity to share in this initiative and demonstrate how they are supporting diversity at technical conferences.
There’s a couple of ways they can directly contribute:
Encourage Participation
Market within their organisation on SpeakEasy conferences coming up and encourage employees to sign up to tell the story about what your organisation is doing to help improve their processes. Many of the conferences offer free conference entry too, a fantastic way to learn about new techniques and cutting edge ideas on development and testing.
Sponsor SpeakEasy
In one year SpeakEasy has partnered with 11 conferences, signed up over 70 potential speakers and 40 mentors. That’s a phenomenal demand and you as an organisation can play a part in that.
We’re looking for sponsorship to help us spread this initiative even further, but we need additional finance for that. We also want to setup a fund to facilitate speakers coming to major conferences who can’t afford to pay all of their own way.
So please, contact your organisation, tell them what Speak Easy has done to date and see if your company is able to help change diversity at technical conferences
Anne-Marie and Fiona
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