Some thoughts on Deconstruct 2017

The post says Deconstruct is a technology-agnostic conference carefully curated by Gary Bernhardt, with a single track, no sponsors, and speakers chosen for high-impact talks. The author finds the lineup inspiring and notes that the conference felt safer than many tech spaces, but not inclusive or comfortable enough.

She describes feeling out of place because many attendees were men, few women or people of color were present, and people often assumed she was a bootcamp student. She highlights Jenn Schiffer, Suz Hinton, David Nolen, Justin Searls, and Michael Bernstein, and ends by asking attendees to bring someone who does not look like them next year.

Reading notes

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• The conference is presented as technology-agnostic, with no sponsors, a single track, and a lineup of speakers chosen for a history of high-impact talks.
• The author sees the event as rare in a scene full of people selling things and recruiters.
• She says the lineup was inspiring and, at times, surprising.
• Justin Searls and Michael Bernstein touched on race, gender, and inclusion.
• Seeing Suz Hinton and David Nolen speak was transformative for her.
• The absence of women and people of color in the audience was very visible.
• The sight of 300+ men going to the bathroom after the first talk marked the audience imbalance for her.
• The presence of Ada Academy people among the women showed a concentration of participants with very accessible tickets offered to the school.
• Throughout the conference, people assumed she was a bootcamp student.
• She says there were other women who already worked in development, but they were few, which made her feel out of place.
• Jenn Schiffer was the talk she most looked forward to seeing.
• Jenn Schiffer’s humor is described as direct, gendered, and tied to a woman’s experience.
• The author regrets not standing up to applaud because of tiredness and insecurity.
• She states that exclusivity can serve to keep harmful people away and also to create safe spaces and gather people with similar interests.
• In the case of Deconstruct, she understands that the audience came a lot through personal networks and word of mouth, which produced a homogeneous audience.
• At the same time, she says the audience was made up of thoughtful developers interested in growing.
• She felt relatively safe at the event, but says safety, inclusion, and comfort are not the same thing.
• The author sees Gary’s work as good and says the problems are systemic.
• For next year, she wants to see more women of color on stage.
• She challenges attendees to invite someone who does not look like them to the next event.