[EuroPython] Diversity of attendees

[Filip Kłębczyk]

W dniu 17.04.2014 10:55, Carina.Haupt at dlr.de pisze:
> I hope I therewith could clarify that we already address the problem and do not start a big discussion about financial aid. ;)

I think we all can agree that financial aid is a positive tool to make 
more diverse conference in terms of wealth status of attendees. But in 
my opinion it's not the most effective solution. It's a bit similar like 
with problem Lynn Root pointed.

If there would be a lot of women submitting and passing this years 
reviews, there wouldn't be discussion about lack of gender diversity 
among speakers. The source of the problem is described in the NY Times 
article to which Lynn pointed. So to counter that problem several 
solutions were discussed (more active reaching PyLadies groups, 
convincing speakers that have multiply talks to limit the number to one 
in result freeing slots to fill agenda with more diverse speakers).

I see financial aid as a similar method (to make attendees more diverse 
in terms of their wealth status or "geographical penalty"). But I think 
the better solution is to just work on lowering costs of the event (I 
think the biggest ones are catering and venue rent cost). That would result:
1. Reducing per attendee cost -> allows lower price of tickets
2. Lower price of tickets -> event more accessible to people regardless 
of wealth status
3. Lower price of tickets -> lower costs of financial aid per person
4. lower costs of financial aid per person -> more people that could 
receive financial aid or improving other areas of conference

It's really simple logic.

Regards,
Filip