A party of white men no more

A party of white men. For two decades, the Bits&Chips Event had been just that. The speakers were almost all male and predominantly Caucasian, and so were the visitors. Being a white man myself, I had never given it a second thought. To me, it simply mirrored the demographic of Dutch high tech. Almost everyone I had encountered in industry was a white male, so who else was I to invite to speak at our event?

In 2022, through one of the (white male) speakers of the year before, who also happened to be on their board, I came into contact with the Dutch National Association for Software Engineering (Versen). Always on the lookout for value-adding collaborations, I invited them to jump on board and promote the event to their members. Their answer: a quick and decisive “no.” Their argument: “There’s not enough diversity and gender balance among the speakers.”