06.16.08
PHPWomen at DPC
At the weekend there was the Dutch PHP Conference, at which phpwomen were able to have a stand. Out of 370 or so attendees we counted 8 women, which is a very low ratio indeed, lower than any other event I’ve seen so far. I had taken 50 t-shirts to give away, but in contrast to other events where we are very popular and we run out of shirts quite quickly, I actually have some left which perhaps illustrates the different attitudes in different geographical areas. We did get quite a few visitors to our stand though, helped by the fact that we had three fabulous booth babes hanging out with us. Huge thanks go to Marco Tabini, Matthew Weier O’Phinney and Ivo Jansch for helping us out with this - all three were either speaking, running the conference, or doing both so we really appreciate the time they took to help us out.
The conference itself was a great success and enjoyed by all - we’ll have a write-up of the day to add here soon. I’d also like to thank Marion and Juliette for helping on the stand and all the guys who dropped by and offered their support too. Hopefully next year there will be a few more women attending!
ilja said,
June 16, 2008 at 3:39 pm
We made a video report of the Dutch PHP Conference ‘08. I really liked doing this together with sander of Nerd TV .
The Keynote Speakers were very interesting for me. They didn’t focus so much in the code but more on the general development in the market.
I heard from some of the visitors that the presentations were a little shallow. And some of them would have like to have seen more cooperation in problem solving.
I’ve also spoken wit the ladies of www.phpwomen.org .
I actually wondered why it is neccessary for woman to unite. I understand the advantage of being a role model for young woman so they would feel more convertible choosing a beta education. I also see the advantage of networking between women. Women socialize more easily and us woman can benefit from that.
But the woman from www.phpwomen.org emphasised the importance of the support that you get from the other women and that I didn’t understand. Or maybe I also have the prejudgement that women are weaker and maybe that’s why I don’t want to separate myself as a woman but am I trying to be as a man. Because if I am very honest… I also brought a man to the congres to ask the technical questions because I was affraid to ask dumb questions. And if I would do so ‘they’ would cal me a ‘woman’!!
I never had a problem with being a woman in ICT. I always saw it as an advantage because I would stand out in a men’s world. But since I’ve been making video reports on seminars and conferences I want everybody to know that I’ve studied informatics. So this means that I am the one who stereotypes because I am the one that thinks that the others will have a prejudgement about me.
… maybe I am the one that really needs the women’s club.
I hope to finish the video report on Friday or Monday: http://www.bachelor-ict.nl/dpc08