The incident sparked outrage in the developer community, which viewed the practice as misleading and a setback to diversity efforts in the male-dominated tech industry. Nearly half of the 23 speakers listed had already withdrawn from the conference before its cancellation. Other tech representatives from Atlassian Corp. and Just Eat Takeaway.com NV also canceled their appearances. The industry has been trying to address diversity issues, with women making up 29% of the tech workforce, according to a 2023 report by AnitaB.org.
Key takeaways:
- An online developers conference, DevTernity, was canceled after accusations that the organizer, Eduards Sizovs, fabricated female speakers’ profiles.
- Several high-profile tech executives, including Microsoft's Scott Hanselman and former Google developer advocate Kelsey Hightower, withdrew from the event, leading to its cancellation.
- The controversy began when participants discovered fake profiles of female speakers on the event's list, which was seen as misleading and a step backward from the goal of diversity in tech events.
- Nearly half of the 23 speakers listed on the event’s website had already withdrawn from the conference before the event was canceled, including Amazon Web Services’ Kristine Howard, who would have been the sole woman scheduled to speak.