A SOFTWARE conference aiming to improve gender diversity in the technology industry has seen a huge upsurge in female speakers and attendees.
Initiatives put in place by organisers of the Scottish JavaScript Conference (ScotlandJS) saw a 50 per cent of speakers and 30 per cent of attendees being either female or individuals who do not identify as either male or female.
Organisers said the initiatives undertaken to increase participation from more diverse groups came in direct response to the “overwhelming” number of men in the Scottish software development industry.
The organisers partnered with a number of technology companies to create a diversity fund, providing tickets and fully funded scholarships to attendees and speakers. It also provided childcare for the entirety of the conference.
The fund was supported by a number of technology companies including FanDuel, Amazon, Cultivate, JP Morgan, Cucumber, Travis, Scott Logic, CodeClan and ScotlandIS.
Eileen McLaren, vice president of engineering at FanDuel, said: “It’s great to see conferences like ScotlandJS making a positive impact on diversity by creating an inclusive environment for all.
“Supporting diversity is a crucial step in securing the future of Scotland’s tech industry, ensuring that we have the best people working on new ideas and innovations.”
As part of their work to improve diversity, the team organised support groups for potential first-time speakers and encouraged them to give their first conference talk.
These groups were chaired by women and quadrupled the number of proposals from under-represented groups from eight in 2015, to 32 this year.
The conference was attended by 250 people this year.
Peter Aitken from Cultivate Software, organiser of the event, said “We’ve put in an incredible amount of work to improve the diversity of our community events, but we still have a lot of issues to overcome.”
Since last year, female speakers increased from 18 per cent to 50 per cent, non-male applications to speak increased from just eight to 33, and non-male attendees increased from 15 per cent to 30 per cent.
“This is a good start, but we still have a lot of work to do if we want to leverage the immense opportunities that come from having a more diverse community,” said Mr Aitken.
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