Podonomics

This issue just keeps popping up, so now, I’m forced to blog about this. See the image above? It’s a picture of all the speakers at the Future of Web Apps 2-day conference which took place September 13th & 14th.

The image has been modified a bit from the original. The orange-red badge beside each picture now says white. Chris Messina posted his thoughts about this today on his blog and it’s well worth the read.

Kate T posted her thoughts about the strong white bread content at the upcoming Digital Marketing conference taking place in Toronto on October 19th & 20th.

Dave Forde also weighs in on this issue, saying that having a diverse call center is not enough. That diversity needs to be reflected in the upper echelons of a corporation.

To understand why there’s an absence of diverse voices speaking at events, one needs to ask the event organizers directly. And whenever I see their responses, it’s always the same - that those contacted weren’t available or took too long to respond.

Strange. How could so many conferences contact so few diverse people and get the same type of response over and over?

Which leads me to believe that event organizers are only contacting a small handful of people whom they consider diverse. That’s has to be the reason. I mean, if I only knew of 5 non-white people and the same 5 were being contacted by a multitude of event organizers, then yes, at some point, your cup is full.

As I commented on Kate’s blog, consider me the nutella for technology’s white bread. I’m awaiting your calls and emails to invite me to speak at your conference or event. If you need an idea of what I can speak on, check here and here and here.

Haven’t heard me speak? Check out these podcast interviews or recordings of my speeches:

• Talk About Service with Ed Horrell on podcasting
• Coaching a Go-Go with Nancy Marmolejo and Catherine Bruns on entrepreneurship
• The Engaging Brand with Anna Farmery on podcasting in the workplace
• Podcasters Across Borders as a speaker on Growing Your Podcast Audience

And I have references. Lots. Have voice, will travel. So, what’s the excuse now?

Update: I got a couple of emails from people I really respect who said I should be proactive in searching for speaking opportunities. Some of you may have thought the same thing. I will say that I am proactive (take a look at my calendar) and I’m also represented by a speakers’ bureau who is also being proactive on my behalf. So, I’m doing my part.

Technorati: podcasting, technology, Internet, chris messina, nutella, Kate Trgovac, blogging