Tuesday, December 20, 2005

No women in music, entertainment, science, and technology?

Strike that.

Just no "thoughtful, intelligent" women in music, entertainment, science, and technology.

Says who?

Well, say no one out loud or overtly.

But reading Richard Wurman's conference advertisement cum blog post on the HuffPo this morning, what else can one infer?

I'm not going to say anything more on the topic of this "unconscious bias" that leads someone to simply not see a single woman as worth mentioning in his pimping of his conference. I'm not going to do the math for you on what having only half a dozen apparent women speakers out of about 50 comes to.

Instead I'm going to make a couple of recommendations:

Try Liz Phair. This chick gets the future of music and technology as well as anyone. She is releasing podcasts that feature acoustic solo performances from her home studio. She's speaking directly to her fans and cutting out the middle men. Is this the future of the music business for any but the most mainstream artists?

How about Sarah Silverman? She is turning the comedy circuit on its ear by being "one of the guys." Or is she just showing a side of women that no one wants to admit is always there? The reaction to her reminds me of people's somewhat stunned reaction when MommyBloggers get down & dirty and frickin' real.

How about Marissa Meyer, my geek girl crush? Google's Director of Products is everywhere and her fingerprints seem to be on everything. If Google is the major player in the future of the online world, she is, just maybe, the steroids they're juicing their performance with.

All I'm saying, with all due respect, is that I see a hundred options for beefing up your schedule and making the perspective you present a little less homogenized.

And to any conference organizer out there...if you don't have women on your slate because you don't know so many yourself? Ask a woman. She'd be happy to help broaden your horizons.

Comments:
Very timely, as I just posted a 2-part series this week on how the music industry is shunning talented female musicians in favor of 'marketing vehicles'.

Women of Rock: A marketing cautionary tale
Women of Rock: Free music is very costly to some
 
Those are some great posts Mack. Thanks so much for providing the links.

Women just seem like they're caught in the middle in so many industries...even ones where their "marketability" isn't supposed to matter.

Sigh.
 
Glad you enjoyed them. I should have a very interesting follow-up to those posts on BMA next week.
 
Here is the 'interesting follow-up' to those posts:
http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/2006/01/bma-interview-with-nettwerks-erin.html

That's an interview I did with Nettwerk's Erin Kinghorn. Very interesting as she talks about marketing female artists, as well as the culture at Nettwerk.
 
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