There is no place for men-only panels in today鈥檚 world and event organisers must go the extra mile to secure diverse speaking line-ups.
That is the view of Kirsty Devlin, who co-founded Women Who Keynote last year to make it easier for people to find female speakers.
The Women Who Keynote website showcases more than 300 women who are available to speak around the world on a variety of subjects.
鈥淒iverse panels are better 鈥� and not having a diverse enough panel really is problematic these days,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淲omen Who Keynote is a platform designed for those that identify as women聽to promote themselves for speaking opportunities.
鈥淒enying women opportunities to present at professional conferences and feature at events prevents them from gaining visibility and deprives their colleagues of their valuable perspectives. Failure to listen to the voices of female experts contributes to the continued gender diversity problems experienced in many industries.
鈥淚t’s more damaging to not try and find a diverse panel and just use your own network to find speakers.鈥�
Devlin’s聽comments come as 老九品茶Cloud continues its hunt for 101 Female Entrepreneurs in Tech with the聽deadline for entries 28th September.
Devlin says that the small percentage of women in technology 鈥� between 17 and 19 per cent 鈥� poses a problem while it is often also difficult to persuade women to speak about their experiences and expertise.
鈥淐onfidence is a huge contributing factor to the lack of women available for speaking opportunities,鈥� she explained. 鈥淵ou might not think that you鈥檙e experienced enough to speak, but you just need to give it a try 鈥� and put yourself out of your comfort zone.
鈥淚t’s really important to be visible and show your knowledge and expertise.鈥�
Devlin has experience at several highly-rated technology businesses with Manchester bases including Webantic and ThoughtWorks.
She says most of the speakers on the website are from a tech background.
鈥淭he other day I was contacted by someone who wanted to know if I knew any women who could speak about cryptocurrency.
鈥淚 personally didn’t, so I went to the website 鈥� and saw there were six people who could speak on that subject.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an amazing list of women, or people who identify as women, to identify themselves as open for speaking opportunities and panels, podcasts and judging panels.
鈥淲e believe that more women need to be visible to change the daily imbalances in STEM.鈥�