One of my first “heroes” in technology was Esther Dyson. I remember going to her legendary (and now defunct) conference - PC Forum - and being absolutely blown away. The days were heady discussions about anything that Esther found to be interesting, and the nights were cocktails next to Jeff Bezos and the CTO for GM (Tony Scott, at the time), followed by dinners at 5-star Mexican restaurants. It was like being back-stage at a Motley Crue concert, except this was technology.
Years later, I found myself starting Defrag, and writing posts about how I wanted to model it after PC Forum. But the one thing that I’ve always struggled with was getting women from the world of technology involved. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t ever seem to get over the “participation” hurdle that I was wanting to clear (from a speaker or attendee standpoint).
So, it’s in that context that I’m truly happy about what Defrag is accomplishing this year. For one thing, we’re donating to the NCWIT Educator Award (thank you, Alcatel-Lucent and SendGrid!). Secondly, we’ve got Mollie Rusher (from On3) leading a private luncheon for our female attendees to discuss “women in technology.” And lastly, I *finally* feel like I’ve got a decent representation of brilliant female presenters for the keynote stage.
Wanna get a sense for what you’ll be seeing on the keynote stage at Defrag? Check out the session description for Laura Merling’s talk, “How Stilettos (not Wing-Tips) Are Changing An Industry”:
Conventional wisdom says it takes a suit to be successful in business. Pin-stripes and wingtips. Think Larry Ellison. But the data — and there is an increasing amount of it — says the most successful business leaders wear pencil skirts and four-inch stilettos. We’re talkin’ Lady Gaga style. Women-run tech startups generate more revenue per invested capital and fail less then those led by men. Companies, including information technology, with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 66%. Hear (and learn) first-hand from a successful member of the XY gene pool what it takes to go from running one of the world’s largest developer communities to setting the software strategy for one of the biggest arms dealers to the telco industry. How did startup life catapult her to run a large Fortune 500 division? What’s it like changing an industry’s culture in a male dominated world, and what lessons has she learned along the way? Join Merling as she bucks conventional wisdom and details the new rules of success in business – a game no longer measured in money, but in influence.
Defrag’s gonna destroy it this year. And we’re gonna do that, while setting the new bar for what it means to have women involved in technology and technology conferences (other conferences: take note). And I’m extremely proud of that. Join us.
