More than a third of speakers at Collision 2018 are women, organisers said today.
The percentage of female speakers has risen to 35% across its diverse stages. This is a 60% increase from Collision 2017. Tech industry events typically have around 20% female speakers. There is a total of 400 speakers at Collision this year.
The ratio of registered female attendees at Collision this year is 42.5%, almost exactly the same as last year at 42.6%. This follows the ‘Women in Tech’ initiative that Web Summit launched over two years ago aimed at encouraging more women to attend its events across the world.
25,000 special subsidised ‘Women in Tech’ tickets have been offered to improve the gender balance at Web Summit events this year, including Collision.
To help drive further ‘Women in Tech’ involvement, Booking.com is hosting the first of a number of networking initiatives for women at the Booking.com Women in Tech lounge at Collision.
Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com, said: « We are committed to championing gender diversity and creating more opportunities for women to enter, advance and thrive in the tech sector. Recent data shows that the lack of mentors (48%) and female role models (42%) are among the top obstacles for women in the male-dominated tech industry. Booking.com‘s Women In Tech Lounge at Collision will provide opportunities for mentoring and networking in an inclusive, engaging environment and showcases how we encourage our own culture of diversity and collaboration with the common goal of inspiring people to go places.
Last week, Booking.com announced a global partnership with Web Summit. Together they will host a dedicated ‘Women in Tech’ networking and mentoring program at the flagship Web Summit event, as well as initiatives at RISE, which takes place in Hong Kong 9th-12th July 2018. This exclusive collaboration continues Booking.com and Web Summit’s efforts to redress the under-representation of women in technology.
Nicola Lyons, Community Manager and head of the ‘Women in Tech’ initiative at Web Summit, said: “Since launching Women in Tech, we have seen a sharp increase in female participation at all of our events around the world. Although we know we can do better to further improve the gender ratio, we have worked hard to get to 35% women speakers at Collision 2018. We are committed to building a more inclusive and diverse tech industry.”
