We’re very excited to announce that UIKonf 2019 will have an all-female* speaker line up on stage!

It is a fact that diversity in the tech industry is a problem. Even though there has been progress in recent years with more women joining and thriving in our industry, they are still facing many challenges and the only way to accelerate progress is to actively support it.

While we realize that diversity involves more than gender, gender is a large part of the problem. As one of the bigger iOS conferences globally, we want to do our part in supporting women in our industry and showcase some of the great women speakers out there. This is our way of raising awareness for the diversity problem while at the same time a celebration of all the women who follow their passion, muster up the courage to go on stage, and hold great talks despite the headwind they’re facing in our industry.

Diversity is not a new topic at UIKonf. Together with inclusiveness it has been one of our focus points since the beginning. We have invested a lot of effort and energy in putting together a diverse conference every year. Not only did we try to have speakers from all parts of the globe but also strive to achieve a balanced gender representation on the stage, each year. Beyond that we also had a scholarship program every year to support people from underrepresented groups or people for whom attending UIKonf would be a financial hardship.

Since we are inviting all speakers ourselves, this year we have to put our traditional anonymous CfP on hold. However, we still want to give an opportunity to speakers we might have missed during our research. If you think you or somebody you know should be on stage, please reach out to me at engin@uikonf.com. If you were looking forward to submit a talk for the CfP, it will be back next year. You’re also very welcome to join the UnKonference on Wednesday, May 29th and hold a talk there.

This will be a UIKonf to remember and we are very excited to see you all there!

[*] We use an inclusive definition of “woman” and “female” and we welcome trans women, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who are significantly female-identified. (Inspired by adacamp.org)