This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Tech Community.
Working recently to help organize a tech conference in Dallas, Microsoft MVP Toi Wright remembers well just how determined the committee was to include both women and minorities as speakers, and just how disappointingly their search concluded. “We could not get any women to commit, and the entire committee found it quite disheartening,” says Wright. “In the end, I had to add myself to the list of speakers.”
In 20 years of organizing these sorts of events, Wright laments, it seems almost that speaker and attendee lists are including less and less people of color, women, and other underrepresented groups. But their continued absence today has less to do with a lack of opportunities to speak, and more to do with a reluctance on the part of underrepresented members of the industry. Long marginalized by an exclusive, white male-dominated industry, millions of passionate and extremely knowledgeable industry experts from underrepresented groups have remained hesitant to take the stage front and center.
Without this diversity, the industry is far worse off. But there is hope, thanks to socially conscious programs like Global Diversity CFP Day, an event series being spearheaded by Wright and a number of other Microsoft MVPs. Consisting of 82 workshops run in 35 different countries globally, CFP (or, “Call For Proposal”) Day is designed with the goal of providing participants from diverse backgrounds with the confidence they need to seek and accept speaking invitations at tech conferences everywhere. And, this past January 18th three committed MVPs helped lead workshops on three different continents, mentoring participants on how to write proposals for meetups, workshops, and conferences, as well as offering them guidance on how to confidently and deftly communicate their ideas to an audience.
Among these three MVPs was Toi Wright, who hosted a CFP Day in Dallas, Texas. Wright explains that the Dallas CFP, like others globally, placed a huge emphasis on teaching attendees about how to write a strong proposal. They looked carefully at the importance of the title and the abstract, and discussed the need to understand a proposal’s target audience.
The pool of speakers in Dallas, says Toi, often consists of persons from very homogenous backgrounds. The aim of their CFP Day, then, was to try and encourage a new generation of speakers.
On the other side of the globe, MVP Zhenwei Su was busy on the same day with his own CFP Day – and the very first to be hosted in China! The motivation underlying his participation echoes Toi’s sentiments. Referencing a Chinese proverb, Su explains just how important it is to provide underrepresented members of the tech community with the self-confidence and skills they need to bring their insights to conference audiences: ‘Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day; teach them to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.’
Microsoft helped organize China’s very first Global Diversity CFP Day, which was attended by around 30 people in spite of heightened concerns over the coronavirus. For Su, the event is about equality, love, and the recognition and respect talented individuals of all backgrounds deserve for their work.
In yet another corner of the world, MVP Bronwen Zande was dedicating her Saturday in Brisbane in service of CFP Day’s cause. Recalling the event, Zande says it provided attendees a special opportunity to work with experienced mentors who spoke about how to effectively and confidently address an audience. More than that, the event exemplified the sort of safe, positive, encouraging environment that conferences of all types should look to cultivate. For participants of diverse backgrounds who might doubt the openness of typical tech events, the chance to form networks and speak in a more comfortable setting offered an important stepping stone towards potentially taking the stage at other events.
For Zande and Wright, this sort of opportunity fully aligns with the most essential goals of the MVP program. “The ability to bring together individuals passionate about technology and the communities around them is so important,” says Zande. “It multiplies all our abilities and reach.”
Wright explains that being an MVP is about giving back to your community, and often through participating in events that ideally are as diverse as possible. “The more varied the voices, the more I get out of the event,” she added. “And I think research has determined that that is true for most people.”
Summing up nicely the spirit of both the MVP program and CFP Day, Su says “The world needs more technology that includes equality and love.” Very true indeed.