Andrea/conf.md

## conf.md

      
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              conf.md
            
          
    Making your programming conference more diverse


Ensure you have a code of conduct (available in the conference website) all staff for the conference must know and understand how to deal with queries regarding any form of harrasment during the conference.
Do a Call for presentations
In the call for presentations, provide information for potential speakers about financial support. Commercial conferences at minimum should aim to provide roundtrip travel and accommodations for the entire conference. If it's a non-profit conference with a smaller budget, inquire with speakers to find out their needs for financial assistance expenses and then find sponsors that can cover them.
Get a diverse line up ( start inviting early, people who speak are generally booked up many months in advance, particularly in Europe)
Scholarship for people who can't afford to attend, this means at a minimum you set aside a few tickets for people who want to come but can't afford it and even better try to subsidise travel and accommodation
Contact most of the relevant local user groups that are about diversity (coding grace, pyladies, women who code, etc)
Contact all your friends and other people that are into diversity groups and ask them for ideas and feedback on how to make the conference more welcoming.
Set up sponsorship fund for the conference that attendees and companies alike can donate to. This is both for tickets and travel and accommodation for attendees.
If possible, having childcare facilities available.
Post event does not need to be in a bar. Even better make the focus of the post event the social aspect rather than the beers.
Provide food options (Vegetarian, vegan, halal, milk intolerance, etc not being hungry during the conference makes for a better conference)
Provide t-shirt size options (including the no, I don't a t-shirt)

More Ideas


Give out scholarships to user groups in pairs. Then people can say to each other, "I'll do it if you'll do it" and they know they won't be alone.
Find out if there are groups at local or regional colleges/universities and maybe high schools that could benefit from the scholarships, and if you can find a contact point in those groups (e.g. a director of a women in CS org), ask them to spread the word.
@-mention groups on Twitter like callbackwomen, revisionpath and so on to see if they'll RT your call for attendance. Downside is their audiences aren't regional.
if your conference has a relatively limited number of tickets (like 150) and you think you can invite 40 attendees who will help make it more diverse, you could restrict open registration and set aside some tickets as invitation-to-minority-groups-only.

Things to avoid


Pictures with a sea of just white young men
Any offensive pictures