{"id":42395,"date":"2023-10-20T15:20:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-australian-startup-community-is-finally-taking-a-stand-against-all-male-panels-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:20:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:20:53","slug":"the-australian-startup-community-is-finally-taking-a-stand-against-all-male-panels-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-australian-startup-community-is-finally-taking-a-stand-against-all-male-panels-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australian startup community is finally taking a stand against all-male panels – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Some prominent members of the Australian startup community are beginning to shine a spotlight on the sector’s diversity problem, with many taking action to ensure there is equal representation at events and on expert panels.<\/p>\n

At the CeBIT business tech conference, Blue Chilli startup evangelist Alan Jones was forced to \u2018drop the mic\u2019 at a live fintech panel after discovering on stage he was breaching company policy being taking part in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a policy where we don\u2019t speak at events where there is no diversity,\u201d Jones tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

The aim is to encourage event organisers early on to consider how representative their speakers are of the community they service and talk to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, [CeBIT] were doing a pretty okay job of a really big conference program but it doesn\u2019t mean there is room for complacency or that we can\u2019t call out fails,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n

So when he realised the only group represented was \u201cold, white males\u201d, he decided to invite women in the audience to respond on some of the questions put to him in order to help diversify the conversation.<\/p>\n

\n

On an all-old\/white\/male #fintech panel at #CeBIT today. Any of my non-old\/white\/male friends want my chair? https:\/\/t.co\/O34fTUaWco<\/p>\n

\u2014 alan jones (@bigyahu) May 1, 2016<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He found about five women in an audience of more than 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still think at Blue Chilli that the lack of diversity in the tech industry is a critical and important issue,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n

Responsibility to speak up<\/h3>\n

Signal Ventures general partner Atlanta Daniel has also slammed the prominence of male-only panels more generally, and has decided to take a stand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2016, how do we still think it\u2019s okay to have this single type of person panel in any industry?\u201d Daniel tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be impossible to think that\u2019s the only prototype of a person who has expertise to speak on any topic.”<\/p>\n

\n

Sick of #allmalepanels. I know I’ve declined in the past but now I’m stepping up. Come at me re: #vc #startup #tech #innovation #earlystage<\/p>\n

\u2014 Atlanta Daniel (@LANTS) May 2, 2016<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After remaining relatively quiet on the issue, Daniel says she reached a point where she had to speak up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough topic to be involved in because there\u2019s no right answer \u2013 I think a lot of people avoid it to not create more of an issue,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people in a position to put their hand up and say, \u2018I can talk about these things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As the co-founder of a seed-stage fund that wants to play a significant role in growing and nurturing the startup ecosystem, Daniel says she is now one of these people.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Hey You co-founder Rebekah Campbell called the lack of women in investor circles the elephant in the room<\/a> the startup community is ignoring and now voices like Daniel’s are raising further awareness of the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many instances where I\u2019ll feel a different vibe coming my way versus others in the room,\u201d Daniel says.<\/p>\n

Daniel says programs and initiatives such as all-women accelerators and hackathons should have outcomes that eventually reintegrate into the broader community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily a male or a female problem to solve, I think it\u2019s an everybody problem,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hacking a diversity strategy<\/h3>\n

Since conception, Jones says BlueChilli has taken a structural approach to improving diversity both internally and across the broader ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our product development team, some of our best engineers are our female engineers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast time I checked, only two out of 26 of our entire product team were born in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the announcement of SheStarts on International Women\u2019s Day and the appointment of Nicola Hazell as the organisation’s new head of diversity and impact programs, Jones says BlueChilli is taking a much more heavy-handed approach to see results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just thought there\u2019s a ground swell, there\u2019s a sense that it is changing but the organic change isn\u2019t enough so we need to hack this,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Hazell, a former television news reporter, has been a strong voice on gender equality and social change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are building a tech and innovation economy, we need the whole of our community to participate in it,\u201d she tells StartupSmart. <\/em><\/p>\n

She has spent the past decade working across media, government and the not-for-profit sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is at a point where everyone has realized there is a great opportunity to invest in innovation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing that women are missing from this picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a goal to shift the conversation and get more people talking about women in tech in a new light, Hazell will lead SheStarts<\/a> among other initiatives to drive this change.<\/p>\n

By the end of the year, she expects to see ten exceptional women-owned companies accelerated through the program and hopes this will expose others considering the journey to a world where it is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to fix a massive issue like this in six months but we need to start big and that is what SheStarts is all about,\u201d Hazell says.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter,<\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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