GHC 17 is just around the corner, and soon our community will be connecting with some of the best minds in computing. We are excited to present an amazing group of keynote and featured speakers at this year’s celebration, and can’t wait to hear the information, advice, and stories they have to share. We are honored to provide a platform for our speakers to empower and advance women technologists from around the world.
Because promoting diversity and inclusion is critical to the mission of the Anita Borg Institute, we worked hard to ensure that our speaker lineup at GHC reflected the diversity of our community. As they selected technical speakers, we asked our Committee co-chairs to consider ways to make GHC a diverse and broadly representative celebration. During our Call for Participation period, we also asked potential speakers to explain how their panels would add diversity to GHC. We also set a target to fill no less than 30% of our keynote and featured session speaker slots with women of color; and we are pleased to say that we achieved that goal.
To help us better understand the diversity of our speaker lineup, many of our speakers voluntarily identified their race and/or ethnicity. Check out the diversity breakdown of our speakers in the chart below.
Grace Hopper Celebration Speaker Diversity: Keynotes, Featured Speakers, and Sessions
| Race/Ethnicity | 2016 Percentage of Speakers* | 2017 Percentage of Speakers* |
| African American/Black | 4.9% | 5.9% |
| Alaska Native or American Indian/Native American | 0.4% | 1.4% |
| Asian | 36.4% | 39.0% |
| European or Euro-American/White | 37.0% | 46.7% |
| Hispanic or Latinx | 5.1% | 3.7% |
| Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | 0.4% | 1.0% |
*Percentages do not add up to 100 — 6% of speakers declined to state their race/ethnicity this year; 15% declined to state in 2016. Speakers were also able to select more than one category.
We are pleased with our results, but recognize we can do more to increase the diversity of speakers at GHC.
We are also hosting a number of programs at GHC to promote diversity. These events include our community socials for our Systers affinity groups, which allow women in tech to identify themselves culturally and to offer support to one another, as well as a range of panels and talks on diversity-related issues. Find information about these sessions in our online schedule.
Interested in being a GHC speaker next year? Attend our GHC 17 session “How to Have a Successful GHC 18 CFP Submission” for insider tips.
We can’t wait to see you in Orlando!
Learn more about all of our keynote and featured speakers.
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