RSA Conference: This time with more females

Earlier this year, RSA Conference organizers called just one female out of 20 for its preliminary lineup of heading speakers at the enormous cybersecurity conference. The outcome: a wave of grievances and a rogue conference, entitled OurSA, that included females and minority speakers.

RSA Conference isn’t making the exact same error next year. Conference organizers on Tuesday stated they’re prohibiting all-male panels and advising their sponsors to send out keynote speakers from varied backgrounds They’re likewise including brand-new programs developed to make all guests feel welcome and safe, like on-site childcare and a safe walk program to escort guests to neighboring hotels and transit.

“The criticism we had last year was certainly a wakeup call,” stated Sandra Toms, the vice president and manager of RSA Conference.

Perhaps essential, the organizers of the conference released a brand-new required to its board of advisers to make variety and addition a significant focus of the RSA Conference from now on. The organizers called 9 brand-new board of advisers members to assist introduce these modifications.

The problem extends beyond individuals speaking at a conference. It’s about the truth that females hold just 11 percent of cybersecurity tasks, and the field is desperate for more competent employees.

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The problem: Seeing mostly male headliners and attendees just “habituates people into thinking that this is a masculine field,” said Carol Colatrella, co-director of the Georgia Tech Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology.

A more diverse speaker lineup could eventually help ease the “skills gap” plaguing the industry.

But while conference organizers are getting more women on panels, they’re still working to change the gender makeup of their keynotes — which is what got them in hot water in the first place. These presentations take place on a giant stage throughout the weeklong conference, often before thousands of people. The lineup of keynote speakers may be the hardest part of the event to change.

That’s because speakers mostly come from the conference’s sponsors — giants like Microsoft and Cisco — which decide on the executives who’ll speak onstage. Last year, sponsors sent only men, reflecting the compositions of their leadership teams. The speakers list for RSA Conference 2019 hasn’t been finalized, Toms said, but adds that organizers have been pushing sponsors to think about diversity when they choose keynote speakers. Those conversations have been going well, Toms said.

Caroline Wong, chief security strategist at security firm Cobalt.io and one of the new members of the advisory board, said the conference planners are in a “delicate” situation as they gently push big-paying sponsors to think about diversity.

“If the people are asking for diversity then, ‘Hey, sponsors, why don’t you give them what they’re asking for?'” Wong said.

More women and girls

There are a lot of different ways women and girls can participate in the RSA Conference in addition to being a headline speaker. The conference organizers are also focused on getting more women to submit talks for the conference’s smaller stages, and to bring the next generation of girls to the conference.

To get more women on those stages next year, the organizers reached out to groups for women and minorities in cybersecurity to encourage their members to apply. As a result, the proportion of submissions coming from women jumped from 12 to 18 percent, Toms said. The call for speakers is still open.

The conference’s planners are also working with groups focused on girls, including the Girl Scouts and the Cyberjutsu Girls’ Academy. That harnesses the interest many girls already have in cybersecurity and shows them how they can turn it into a career, said Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo.

“We didn’t realize how big of an issue this was for girls,” Acevedo said.

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