It’s the last working week for me in 2024 and I’m taking the opportunity to look back on the most read, commented, liked, and shared posts on the last 12 months. After a week of posts we’re finally at number one!

If I had to take a guess about which topic was the most read I would have bet it was about AI – there seems to have been nothing but noise about it this year.

And I would have lost that bet.

The most read and commented post with a over 15k reads, shares and likes was in February. It told the tale of how a man at an event decided to use a session to tell a woman speaker why, how, and where she was wrong, disguised as a series of questions.

This is an ongoing battle; I’ve been writing about this for years and things ARE changing. There are more women speakers at events and if you’re a woman and want to speak ask the event organisers if you can. I KNOW people want an equal playing field and that’s fair. Fairness means making the field fair in the first place by setting an expectation you have at least an equal split of male and female speakers at events and then we can talk. And not just the freebie events…paid events need to be balanced too. They might say no but they also might say yes. If you run conferences and events just look at your speaker list and ask:

• How pale is it?
• How male is it?
• How stale is it?

One of the things I’m most proud of is that women we’ve promoted, mentored and sponsored are getting opportunities to promote themselves and their work. What they don’t need is guys like this one was – and it is guys – to be as challenging as this.

By all means speak with them afterwards. Feel free to challenge, but in the same way you would a male speaker – not with 4 questions and a half dozen sub clauses trying to make you look good. Next time you’re at an event, compare the questions the men and women speakers get asked and see how men are challenged over the work and the women over the way the work is done.

I KNOW it’s not all men. If you’re a man who does do this it doesn’t make you look big or clever. In fact, it’s the opposite.

I KNOW it’s not all men. If you’re a man who doesn’t do this, well done but you don’t get a badge. What you do get is the agency and permission to go and tell the men who are, just how they’re being perceived.

This stuff still needs to be said. As recently as last week I reposted on an image and some text on LinkedIn about yet ANOTHER all male panel – a manel. I asked where the women were and the response was deafening in its silence. If people can only count diversity in the number of bald men who do or don’t have beards in a speaking line up, you’re doing it wrong.

So that was 2024. It was interesting to read the ‘beige’ version (thanks Donald H Taylor) which was produced by a GenAI tool yesterday. As Julie Dryborough so smartly spotted these posts lack “real edge, authenticity or original construction”

Have a very happy Christmas and New Year and we’ll be back in your inboxes, LinkedIn feeds, websites and newsletters from the 6th January with more edges, authentic thoughts and new constructs.