something that absolutely sucks:
Going to electronics and hacker-cons (& giving talks and trainings at them) has historically been one of the main ways I've shown off "indie" projects, spread knowledge, and found good opportunities
I no longer go, because I don't want to support organizations creating mass-spreader events for COVID; and I don't want to give other underrepresented folks the impression that I'm fine with the utter lack of diversity in a lot of these cons speaker lineups.
I can only imagine that there are lots of other underrepresented folks who are choosing not to attend cons for similar reasons, _atop_ the existing challenge that can come with feeling/being safe and having a sense of belonging in some of those spaces.
The result is that the cons continue to be a place for networking and growth -- but only for their audience of predominantly cis white men.
What do we do about this, as individuals and as a community?
@ktemkin The first step of not attending seems to be going well. Why are you not organizing a better community if the problem is an unworkable community? Time to begin this conversation.
@Ulrich_the_Elder @ktemkin I don't feel like anyone has really cracked the networking aspect of remote interactions. Online presentations are functional as good or better than in person, but casual meetups that are a significant function of in person gathering just don't happen the same way.
Perhaps a person wanting to address the resistance to remote gatherings should study how casual interactions happen before and after presentations and suggest how a remote gathering might supply a functional equivalent.
That might help, but I don't think it is a full solution.
My observation is that the most important property of good networking events is the casual mingle. The ability to join, expand, break off and most importantly leave interactions without offense. This low social barrier is, in my observation, critical in having the right set of people find each other.
There is also the casual introduction that a formal small group setting doesn't allow. "I don't really know very much about [topic], but I was at at talk with [person on the other side of room] who seemed really into it. Let me introduce you."
I think it would be an interesting exercise to video a social mixer at one of these professional conferences and determine just how random causal encounters actually are. I suspect that they are actually quite structured on a macro level.
@Ulrich_the_Elder @ktemkin
@antares @Ulrich_the_Elder @ktemkin regarding making remote events more useful for networking, maybe we need like an Omegle type of mechanism (non lewd though). Just randomly pair people
Or maybe even let people choose hashtags and pair with a bias towards matching ones