The ‘Art’ of Conferences

For Greta, the noblest one

Warning: Politically incorrect, satirical text.

Often, when invited to speak at a conference or join a panel, I’ve had the impression that the organizers wanted to add something feminine, preferably nice-looking, in the same way, that you’d add a flower arrangement on a set table, a final touch. A recent incident confirmed this. I was asked last minute to step in for my male boss, who could not attend a conference. When informed about the change in casting, the organizer responded in one line, copying me, “It will be good to have Ximena to improve the gender balance”. I am certainly in favour of greater representation of women in all spheres of professional life, including as speakers. It is the reduction of this noble objective to a tick-the-box requirement that offends me. Beyond the gender balancing act, there are other aspects about (some) international conferences that tire me. I am guilty of having organized a few myself and have fallen into some of the tricks I recommend below. Conferences are a strange social invention. Truth is, the idea to gather people, plenty, of the ‘knowledgeable’ type, to converse and progress on a theme, often results in futility. These gatherings are mostly purposeless vanity fairs, where frivolity and ostentation reign. Ok, not always. Last month, as I sat in the conference, contributing my gender (and little else as I was too distracted), I wrote this text. It is a sort of meta-text about the “Art of Conferences”. It contains an odd mix of good…