CES – The Global Stage for Innovation – CES 2018. Pictured above the keynotes featured on social media by CES.
CES is the world’s gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years — the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it attracts the world’s business leaders and pioneering thinkers.
CES in 2017 – BY THE NUMBERS
184k+ total attendance
4k exhibiting companies
1.2k speakers
Zero (0) women keynote speakers.
This came up again this year 2018, and there are articles about it. Looks like CES made some changes for 2018 and have some “featured” speakers that are women and added Karen Chupka from CES/CTA as a “keynote” with Gary Shapiro the CEO of CES along with Sue Marek, Editor in Chief, SDxCentral as moderator for a keynote panel. There’s also The Future of Video which is a panel and has 3 women out of 9 panelist. There does not appear to be a solo keynote from a woman in tech at CES in 2018, again.
Related
- There won’t be any women in top keynote slots at CES, after all – FastCompany.
- For the second year in a row, CES won’t feature any female keynote speakers – The Verge.
- CES fail: No women keynote addresses triggers backlash – USA Today.
- CES’s (virtually) all-male keynote lineup is a disgrace to women in tech – Mashable.
- #CESSoMale on Twitter.
CES 2018 also announced a celebrity lineup for this year.
CES will likely have “booth babes” come up this year again, it’s come up before and this was the response –
For years CES organizers shrugged off the prevalence of models. Shapiro told the BBC in 2012 “it is a little old school, but it does work. People naturally want to go towards what they consider pretty.” Peak outrage with CES “booth babes” came a year later when Apple accessories-company Hyper dressed topless women in body paint and skimpy thongs and encouraged people to share the photos using the hashtag #getmore.
So this is an interesting situation that comes up often these days. I seriously doubt that there is a lack of women who are 1. Interested in speaking as a keynote speaker 2. Available to speak 3. A leader in one of these companies
The question that comes to my mind is this: When a perceived lack of representation by a particular gender, race, people group, etc. has been identified, why is there so often no reasonable explanation of the cause? Do these speakers accurately represent these companies’ populations or leadership staff? –Do they “look” like their population? Are the “missing” individuals not available? Are they not interested? Why are they not there?
I don’t want to discount the fact that there is discrimination and that we need to root it out and provide truly equal opportunity for everyone. I also want to be sure that we’ve done a fair analysis of the perceived problem and not rush to inaccurate conclusions, which can be equally troublesome.