How Technical Conferences Are Contributing to the Talent Inclusion Crisis

International science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) conferences are massive annual events that exert huge influence on their sectors. Yet, they are often missing the opportunity to directly address the culture and talent crisis in their fields.

At the majority of conferences, gender, diversity and inclusion topics are small volunteer-run sessions, if they exist at all. Rarely does this growing sectoral challenge make the cut for the main program or a program stream.

Retention of women, LGBTQ , Indigenous and racialized communities in the sector is incredibly challenging yet the largest STEM/TECH conferences continue to focus on the technology and not on developing the workforce needed to compete effectively in their sectors.

And yet Hyperion research reports nearly all (93%) of the High Performance Computing centers said it is “somewhat hard” or “very hard” to hire staff with the requisite skills. It is especially telling that the majority of the centers (56%) fell into the “very hard” category.

According to data released last year by Ranstad North America, as of 2016, the U.S. had roughly three million more STEM jobs than it had workers to fill these vacancies.

To grow the talent pool, we need to diversify the technology sector, which remains overwhelmingly a culture of white hetrosexual males. The numbers of women and other diverse communities of talent in the sector are comparable to industries like trucking and the trades.

Women make up over 51 percent of the laborers in the U.S., but account for less than 24 percent of the technology employees.

A McKinsey study in 2014 that tracked women in jobs related to STEM found that half of women had left their professions after 12 years. By comparison, only a fifth of women who work in non-STEM fields leave within 30 years. Study after study shows the majority leave due to a toxic culture.

Practitioners in the diversity sector agree that it is a workplace culture issue. McKinsey’s National Centre for Women and Information Technology report, “Women in ICT: The Facts,” states 56% of women leave the sector by mid-career. Years of targeted programs for women, LGBTQ, Latin, Indigenous, disabled and racialized communities have not resulted in increased representation. Indeed in some sectors the number of women represented is decreasing.

In many organizations, the executives, team leaders and managers are technical gurus who have been awarded for their ability to push the technology or innovation forward. Some are penalized for poor behaviour and toxic exchanges, but this conduct often goes unchecked.

A recent article in the New Yorker makes this case clearly. Linux creator Linus Torvalds is stepping aside after years of verbally abusing programmers. The awful derogatory and misogynistic terms he chose to use are not uncommon on message board channels where much of these exchanges are deployed.

Some of these same technical superstars populate major conferences’ program review committees and are unfairly tasked as reviewers for “people” focused submissions. With no background in workforce development, inclusion and equitable frameworks, they often dismiss these non-technical submissions.

Peer and technical review are pillars of the sector and it would be unheard of to allow a non-technical or poorly qualified reviewer on the committee. Yet human resources, communications, external affairs and talent management experts are not engaged to review these submissions.

As an executive in external relations for STEM organizations and the founder of a consulting company on diversity, inclusion and gender equity, I have submitted many conference proposals on government relations and science and workforce engagement. Acceptance of my proposals has been directly related to whether the conference had a dedicated and informed committee for the review.

Another barrier is the lack of support for practitioners in diversity and inclusion to participate. Often this work is considered “nice to have” volunteer activity, while technical speakers are offered the VIP service.

When technical teams review these submissions, it is an exercise in biased feedback. I have experienced receiving reviewer comments such as "LGBTQ+ people are not in technology" or "women need to learn to compete."

It is time for the leaders and technical gurus in STEM and IT to step up and focus on creating space for this discussion. It should be a priority, not a side session.

Collectively, STEM and IT leaders have an immense responsibility to create a culture that values the people who develop the technology and are responsible for the innovation in their fields.

These conferences often set the agenda for their sectors, yet very often the excuse for omitting these important topics is that “this is a pipeline issue,” or not their conference focus.

It is imperative that we all contribute to ensuring we have a diverse community driving technology forward. The power and promise of these innovations will benefit more from the perspectives of the greater diverse majority than from an elite minority.

Kelly Nolan is the Founder of TalentStrategy.org and is an expert in external affairs and equity and diversity in STEM teams.