Shadowcat Systems have elected to be Silver Sponsors of the Social Media for Women Conference 2013 to be held in Preston on 26th November, visit the conference on Facebook.
This event is an important landmark in the North West calendar for 2013 and is less about gender (sex in a purely biological sense),* than the potentially provocative title indicates. The conference is not aimed solely at women. It is in fact aiming to address a few important distinctions:
- a greater proportion of women to men use social media
- a high proportion of women have become experts in understanding and teaching about social media
- the conference scene is dominated by men, even in social media events and conferences
- less women attend and present at conferences than are present in the community
So by seeking to create a conference in which attendance is open to all, but, the line up is made up from professionals who are women the organisers are attempting to create some precedents:
- to promote the strengths that many women have in this field
- to give these speakers a representation that we do not currently have, or more accurately is not reflected at other technical events.
Shadowcat Systems are keen supporters of a number of technical, and semi-technical conferences and events. We are also keen community supporters. We recognise that, while not addressing all of the issues around technical conferences this event does at least try to draw attention to, present an open attendance of, and reflect on the current environment. That is a difficult decision and position to take. Our support of this conference is because of our open support of the community and all of its members.
We would also like to recognise the work of Jane's Social Media and DigiEnable in organising this event, and our fellow sponsors Ellison Printing.
- Sex is more scientifically accurate towards a representational goal by a biological definition, whereas gender is more accurate in a sociological context, we have been fairly conversational with both in this piece, for guidance read this article
