Female-free speaker list causes PHP show to collapse when diversity-oriented devs jump ship
Found on The Register on Tuesday, 27 August 2019
Over the weekend, organizers of the conference, which had been scheduled for October 4-6 in Dresden, Germany, ended the event evermore after two scheduled speakers issued public statements that they would not be attending this year, citing concerns about the lack of diversity.
"According to them, they had only a single woman submit a session proposal this year despite having women present in previous years, and hers was a repeat from a local conference last year. They were also firm that the Call For Papers was done and over and they're not open to reaching out to new people now."
So, admissions were open for everybody, but only a single woman submitted a repetition which would have added nothing new; and because no other woman showed any interest, it is the fault of the organizers? Would it have been better to force a few women to go there as speakers against their wills? Sometimes things just don't make any sense at all.