The Consumer Electronics Show (CES (News - Alert)) took some well-deserved flack this year for its lack of women keynoting during the content portion of the show. Taking a different tack, the IoT Evolution Expo, which will take place January 22 to 25 at Disney’s (News - Alert) Contemporary Resort in Orlando Florida, has put a focus on making sure it increases the number of women speaking at the event.
Most tellingly, the slate of keynoters is 25 percent made up of key female executives from leading IoT companies like Intel and ARM (News - Alert).
The IoT isn’t the only tech industry struggling to reach equality on this score, either. According to a report from the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), only 20 percent of Fortune 100 CIO positions were held by women in 2016, and only 26 percent of overall professional computing positions in t he US were held by women that year.
I think we can agree that this is not representative of the amount of talent available.
To begin to address these issues and advance the conversation in a big way, the IoT Evolution Expo is hosting its first-ever Women in IoT general session. Speaking on the panel will be Lynne Canavan, VP, Marketing OpenFog Consortium; Bobbie Carlton, Founder, Innovation Women; Mary Beth Hall, Director, Global IoT Product and Development, Verizon Wireless (News - Alert); Elise Neel, GM, MapQuest; Heidi Wilson, IoT & Complex Solutions, Telus.
Overall, the event has many women speaking, including keynoters Dipti Vachani, VP, Internet of Things Group, Intel (News - Alert), and Rhonda Dirvin, Director, IoT and Embedded, ARM, and will continue to make this a priority in future shows.
To join this important conversation and hundreds of others in the IoT industry, register now.