I am very hopeful that this drama around Hoss’s talk at FlashBelt will eventually settle down. It has really helped me to solidify my views on the “girl-geek” community that has been developing over the last few years. I thought as one of the women speakers it might be important for me to add in a comment.

Before I make a comment on Hoss’s talk. I would like to point out that there are many people who did not get the recognition and feedback from the conference that they deserved. All the great speakers and sessions were totally drowned out by this issue. So please give a shout out to the speakers who’s sessions you enjoyed and let them know! I really learnt from some sessions and was inspired by others. I wanted to link to more details but the Flashbelt site is down. I will update when I have more details.

On to Hoss

I first met Hoss at Flash on the Beach 2006. It was my first time speaking at a conference. I was very shy and quite nervous about presenting. I never for one second got the impression from Hoss and or any of the other presenters that I was not welcome for any reason – especially not because I am a woman. That was the first time I went to his presentation and enjoyed it so much that he became one of the few speakers that I would see at every conference.

My background:

I grew up in South Africa and started to work at a private computer collage at the age of 19. I had no formal qualifications in the industry and was unable to afford to continue to study. My first roll was as a receptionist at a computer school where I worked at for 5 years. Over the next few years I studied as much as I could and went through the ranks till I ended up as snr. lecturer and head of research and development. I worked hard and it took a few years to get to the top. I was actively involved in the community from the start and by the time I was 24 I was running the Macromedia User Group.

I moved over to the UK and felt like I had taken a huge step back. I had to start quite a bit lower than I was when I left South Africa. A part of me thought it was because I was a women. The main reason was listening to other women explain the hard time they had had. Now I don’t doubt that some women have had a hard time but that was not the reason why I battled. Actually I never battled. I got a job within a few weeks and then started freelance after 6 months and have been quite successful. From the word go I got involved and worked hard at getting to know people and improving my skills. I submitted a proposal for Flash on the Beach in 2006 and started to speak at conferences from then on.

Why am I going into this detail about my career? Quite simply I want to highlight that I did not start off with all the luxuries of education and support. I worked hard to get where I am and I have had nothing but encouragement from some amazing people. My most recent have been Seb Lee Delisle, Branden Hall, Chris Pelsor (thanks guys it means a lot to me). I fully support women coming into the industry – SheSays gives mentoring and career advice to women who are interested in digital. I know and agree the numbers are out of proportion. I am sure they are as equally out of proportion in other female dominated industries.

I want to be clear about one thing:

We do not have an old boys club in the Flash community.

In my experience everyone is open to new conversations and new people. If you would like to speak at a conference – submit a proposal. Most people have done so, for at least the first one. If you would like to write a book. Submit a proposal. Start a blog – and write valuable information and don’t just provide links to other blogs. If you don’t put yourself out there then you can’t blame anyone but yourself for not getting ahead.

People like Mario Klingerman, Grant Skinner and Branden Hall amongst many, many others deserve to be there as they are truly brilliant. They did not get there because of some kind of “boys club”. I shudder to think that someone could think that! It is often that I take stock of the truly great people we have in our community. We should be honored that they enjoy to hang out and converse with normal people, unlike like in other industries where you can have real exclusion. If you are as good as one of them and not getting ahead, then there is a problem.

I can’t remember the last time I looked at someone in the Flash world and thought they were sexist. I do not believe that sexism is “live and well”.

When I read the continuos stream of tweets and retweets such as:

Rt @timoreilly “Boy’s club” is not an acceptable mindset. Geek girls are right to be offended: http://bit.ly/5cWWs #prosnotprudes

RT @zephoria “Saddened by outright (and community-justified) misogyny at Flashbelt:” http://bit.ly/vFVXE (tx @dangillmor) #prosnotprudes

I am shocked! Are we working in the same field? Did we go to the same conference? I know we live in different parts of the world but I could not think that two first world leading countries could be so different. Hoss’s talk was not showing a “boy’s club”, it was in no way misogynist. It may have been crude, a little to open about sexuality and some might even consider elements to be childish but I did not consider it as bad as the sensationalist blog post that started this all off.

The issue here is not anything to do with being a woman, the issue is if you find the content offensive – man or women. I have been fuming about how this has turned into a man vs. woman issue. We are blurring the lines. We need to keep them clean. I would say issues of sexism and sexual harassment for women should be labeled in a whole different section to Hoss’s talk. I will support you without a doubt if you have been harassed or sexually discriminated against. I will not support you saying that Hoss’s talk was misogyny.