Roland makes a similar point to one that was made by Suzanna — that the Northern Voice weblog conference would have benefited from a more diverse roster of presenters and panelists.
I can say that this concern was discussed by organizers when we planned the event, and that the final program reflected the submissions that we received. The limitations of a relatively small one day event also come into play. The lesson learned is that simply avoiding overt discrimination is not enough to ensure diversity, it’s something that requires work, and needs to be a priority from the outset of planning. As Roland notes we’d be grateful for suggestions on how to do better.
Hello Brian, I am of the mind the Northern Voice was pretty diverse this year. You had blog geeks as well as blog beginners. You had Iranian, French Canadian, and handsome Indo Canadians from Kamloops. I actually saw a lot more diverse groups than I see at many conferences.
So, I guess my question is – how do we make it more diverse without it becoming a little forced?
PS…its 3am and I should be preparing a presentation. So, excuse me if I am not at my most lucid.
Hello Brian, I am of the mind the Northern Voice was pretty diverse this year. You had blog geeks as well as blog beginners. You had Iranian, French Canadian, and handsome Indo Canadians from Kamloops. I actually saw a lot more diverse groups than I see at many conferences.
So, I guess my question is – how do we make it more diverse without it becoming a little forced?
PS…its 3am and I should be preparing a presentation. Excuse me if I am not at my most lucid. You ask a question here worthy of consideration.
Hi Brian,
I know we talked a bit about this after the conference and I have a couple of suggestions. I think that a really useful way to proceed would be to connect with bloggers who are active in a variety of communities. Check out what they are working on, read them regularly, begin to glean what the issues are in their communities. Step two…get active by contributing to their sites, posting comments, growing relationships…offering help. When the time rolls around to plan the next conference, you will have established connections to a diverse base of bloggers and you will also have insight into what their communities would find interesting and valuable as topics. These connections will help you to promote the conference to a more diverse audience and to ensure relevance to that audience. On the day itself…it would be helpful for moderators to have some training in promoting diversity in dialogue (mostly how to spot and intervene when dominant group members are getting over-enthusiastic and shutting others down.) Keira mentioned that UBC has a diversity team. You might find some expertise there and maybe even a willingness to lend a hand? I am basing my suggestions on some of the basic principles of being an ally…1.) the person from the power group needs to show up first, pitch in, be respectful, be useful, build trust. 2) the involvement asked of the minority group can’t be token…it must be relevant and meaningful to them and integrated into the process at the outset.
S’all for now,
Cheers,
Wendy