Business events and conferences must avoid 'old boys' club' trap: Kirsty Collinson

But as the day unfolded, and the talks on the main stage progressed, I got the uneasy feeling that this event was perpetuating the age-old perception of what an entrepreneur is: a go-getting alpha male who is only successful if he takes on the world and runs a squillion-pound turnover business.

Why did I think this, I hear you cry? Well, our host, a well-known entrepreneur (who fitted the age-old perception perfectly) celebrated early on that over 70 per cent of the businesses in the audience were female led. Great stuff.

But then it dawned on me that not only were the speakers on the main stage predominantly male (by a long shot), but there wasn’t a single female entrepreneur on that stage.

There were two women speakers, one on a panel who was from a major bank and the other who was a freelance trainer (OK, I’ll give them that), but she didn’t talk about her experiences at all, she talked about Google.

Google who, a quick search on their own engine will tell you, have been taken to court regularly for their appalling gender discrimination practices, which in 2022 alone cost them $118 million dollars.

So there I was, my blood already simmering, when the last speaker came on stage to have a chat with our host. The guy was a top sportsman who set up an industry-related business when he retired. He seemed really great, and what he has achieved is also great. So great that we learn our host is the chairman of his company.

This is the point for me when my blood really started to boil. The audience is predominantly women who run small businesses, and here we are being presented with the ‘old boys’ club’ of high profile men.

This is not what all women aspire to be. So, when is the industry going to start celebrating us for being us? Showcasing exceptional women who have set up their own small businesses and made successes of them?

I don’t think I was the only one seriously irked by this point. A woman stood up and asked the pair why there wasn’t a single woman on their board of directors.

To finish off the day, the household-named entrepreneur asked his head of events, who happened to be a woman, up on stage to thank her for all her hard work, which is awesome but he put his arm around her. I kid you not.

The organisation who put on this event probably doesn’t have a clue about how it came across to those of us who are attuned to this sort of thing. Even the women sitting in my row hadn’t noticed the lack of any female entrepreneurs on stage until I pointed it out. That is because we are all so used to seeing mostly men talk about entrepreneurship, that it’s the norm.

So, for those organisations who run entrepreneurial events, or any events for that matter where both women and men attend, please do try and balance who you are putting up on stage. In this way the next generation of women can operate in a gender equal playing field. One that empowers their achievements and celebrates their successes however large or small.

Kirsty Collinson is founder of KodoScope.com