Amazing woman in agile speakers

Recently on twitter there has been much chatter around having more diverse speakers at Agile conferences (and IT conferences in general). By diverse I mean anything besides white men.

This post by Lisa Crispin (http://lisacrispin.com/2015/02/28/conference-organizers-need-try-harder/) got me thinking. Am I helping? Or am I enabling this to continue?

Well, about 3 days later I was asked to recommend some keynote speakers. Time to test my ideas. I send out a tweet “Hey agile peeps… Who is an awesome female you would recommend for a keynote at an agile conference? #help”.

The response was amazing! I had never heard of some of the woman, and I am so glad that I have now. So here is the full list sent in by many many people. (Thanks to all those who contributed!)

@lissijean @lunivore @llillian @nativeWired @risingLinda
@dianaOfPortland @estherderby @apaipi @darciD @kkirk
@grushkay @samlaing @karen_greaves Yay! We made the list!
@joperold @candicemesk @stephbysouth @smamol @kb2bkb
@uxceo @zuzuzka @doyle_angie @prettyagile @ivanaGancheva
@johannaRothman @studienratFanny @testchick @gbrindusa @mbgorman
@lisacrispin @janetgregoryca @maaretp @c_weidemann @QA_nna
@fionaCCharles @charrett @rachelcdavies @sdelesie @katrina_tester
@karennjohnson @itjustbroke @alex_schl @ellengott @antoinetteCoet
@maritzavdh @deborahh @jeantabaka @testobsessed @mpoppendieck
@jjeckstein @ruthmalan @eegrove @dominicad

I was also pointed to this blog post listing even more amazing woman: http://blackswanfarming.com/ten-to-talk-to/ (they are below):

@DistributedTeams @DanielleMorrill @clevergirl @msquinn @maryboone
@NicAndCo @ojuncu @OzzieYuce @portiatung @tzhongg

I am sure there are MANY MANY more. If you know of any please add their twitter handle to the comments and I will update this post with them. So no more excuses. If you want more female speakers and female keynotes then recommend these woman – they are extraordinary!

A special thanks to Steve (@maxbarners) for converting the above twitter handles to links :).