Good afternoon —
I am at my 8th event during this very busy conference season and it's still good to be back in-person!! As someone who plans the content for HousingWire events, I am always looking at how other conferences handle speakers, networking, logistics, timing, etc.
One thing that is very clear from the last 10 weeks is that there is not enough diversity onstage.
Some events are much better at this than others — MBA Annual, for example, has a great mix of speakers. But outside of that event, it dwindles pretty quickly to mostly white men.
One two-day event I was at this fall had zero female speakers. Zero. Another two-day event had just three women onstage, although it wasn't clear if they were speaking or just moderating. Persons of color make up a small percentage of overall speakers.
It doesn't have to be this way — there are diverse leaders and experts in all parts of our industry. If you need some fresh speaker ideas, just look at our award programs: Women of Influence, Vanguards, Rising Stars, Tech Trendsetters, and Insiders. All of these lists feature professionals who are making a tremendous difference in real estate, mortgage, title, valuation, tech and more. We regularly recruit speakers from these programs for our events, where the goal is gender parity and plenty of diversity onstage.
Speaking of our events, we recently wrapped up our first in-person HW Annual event and we're already planning the next one. One crucial element is planning the date, as we know there are already a lot of things to attend in the fall. You can tell us what timeframe works best for you by taking a quick survey here.
Until tomorrow —
Sarah Wheeler
HousingWire Editor in Chief
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