Women

At short notice, I�ve taken a leap of faith and purchased a conference ticket. It was left until the last minute because I�ve been umming and ahhing about whether or not I can justify spending the money to be a delegate for 2.5 days, plus accommodation. Everyone who has attended this industry conference raves about it and I�ve made some great connections with people over the last 12 months who will be there. Never underestimate the power of meeting the face behind the emails, I would advise other people, as I was so wisely taught when I stepped into the broader industry. You�ll be amazed what happens at �the meeting after the meeting� or months in the future because you took the time to start building a relationship. Yes, all the justification in the world for taking a large sum of money out of my bank account.

Time Magazine�has just told me that the way to end the gender gap in tech is to run girl�s summer coding camps.�Sure.

And then what do you do when those girls try to enter the industry? How are you going to ensure that their potential employer gives them and equal chance � and an equal�salary? How will you ensure that her peers will cheer her on,�value her�opinion and accept her recommendations? And what happens if, heavens forbid, those girls don�t actually like to code and�write off the industry because of it?

It�s not like me to rush out a blog post. I don�t leap to my keyboard everytime something in the media has people crying out against it. But today I just felt so compelled to write about TitStare.

At TechCrunch�s �Disrupt� event in San Fransisco, audience members were presented with the TitStare app by two guys from Sydney, and another app called Circle Shake by a guy in Adelaide where he pretends to jerk off. Part of that audience was a 9 year old girl. Part of that audience was female. Part of that audience was self-respecting men who couldn�t believe what they were seeing. And yeah, it was a little bit funny, but totally inappropriate for a professional industry event.