marijane whiteNov 27, 2023
Dare Obasanjo

Gergely Orosz has uncovered a tech conference organizer that regularly lists non-existent female speakers on its agenda.

The DevTernity conference occurring on December 7th & 8th lists a female Coinbase engineer and a WhatsApp engineer who are completely made up.

Similar fake profiles have been discovered on the speaker roster for JDKon, a Java conference by the same organization.

This is a new low.

There are too many talented female engineers to pull this crap. šŸ¤¬

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gergelyorosz_software-engineer-anna-boyko-has-an-impressive-activity-7134825190613491712-e0GS/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Gergely Orosz on LinkedIn: Software engineer Anna Boyko has an impressive profile and was a featuredā€¦ | 500 comments

Software engineer Anna Boyko has an impressive profile and was a featured speaker at DevTernity conference on 7-8 Dec. So how come no one at Coinbase knewā€¦ | 500 comments on LinkedIn

Nov 27, 2023 at 12:36pmWeb
Show threadClive ThompsonNov 27, 2023

@carnage4life

Good lord

Show threadJackylein250Nov 27, 2023
@carnage4life uff... do they have to meet some quota or what's that about?
Show threadLegalQuiltsNov 27, 2023

@jackylein250 @carnage4life people are starting to complain about lack of women on conference panels, some are refusing to go if there are no women.

So instead of actually asking women to join panels, they ... just make them up. What happens at the conference when the women aren't there (because they dont exist)? Do the organizers just claim "an unexpected emergency?"

Show threadJackylein250Nov 27, 2023
@legalquilts @carnage4life yeah, I can imagine that it's just pressure by participants. And I can also imagine that they then claim that these imaginary women got sick, had a conflicting appointment or something else. Sad.
Show threadLegalQuiltsNov 27, 2023
@jackylein250 @carnage4life and yet, the solution is so very simple and doesn't involve keeping track of lies -- ask women to be on the panels.
Show threadRoger A. GrimesNov 27, 2023
@carnage4life If this is confirmed to be true and intentional, it should be the end of that organization's business life.
Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKNov 27, 2023

@rogeragrimes @carnage4life

is this not just straight up fraud/deception?

Show threadJuan AlvarezNov 27, 2023
@carnage4life https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1728892489598468434 ĀÆ\_(惄)_/ĀÆ
DHH (@dhh) on X

What a strange tale. Never seen anything like this in decades of speaking at conferences. Regardless of what may ultimately be up or down here, I'm out.

X (formerly Twitter)
Show threadTaylor Barnett-TorabiNov 27, 2023
@nebiros @carnage4life I regret reading the responses to that. DHHā€™s followers dislike because the organizer mentioned diversity and inclusion. šŸ¤¦ā€ā™€ļø
Show threadJason St-Cyr Nov 27, 2023
@carnage4life That thread goes deep, apparently well beyond fake speakers. Apparently there are fake sponsor listings, fake people working for the event to promote it, sponsors and speakers who have backed out are not being taken off the site. This is one of the worst ones I've seen in our tech space in terms of event fraud.
Show threadMirishuliNov 27, 2023
@carnage4life You donā€™t have to pay them if they are all made up. Itā€™s. Win-win for the men.
Show threadKC-DOZNov 27, 2023
@carnage4life
Other fake profiles that have been uncovered since this discovery
#retrogaming
Show threadjunkmanNov 27, 2023
@carnage4life I hope Gergely migrates to Mastodon eventually
Show threadElricNov 27, 2023

@carnage4life What the actual fuck? How is making up fake speakers easier than simply letting females speak at your conference? These people are nuts.

Happy to see that actual speakers are withdrawing.

Show threadZardozNov 28, 2023

@carnage4life he is also behind a fake Insta/LinkedIn influencer account where he pretends to be a woman coder! He has been pretending for years.

https://www.404media.co/coding-unicorn-instagram-julia-kirsina-devternity/

Male Tech Conference Founder Is Behind Popular Woman Coding Influencer Account

IP logs show that accounts for Coding Unicorn, a female tech influencer who's built a following based on her coding advice and Instagram influencer posts, are run by a male developer and conference organizer.

404 Media
Show threadVictor VolleNov 28, 2023
@carnage4life that is giving ā€œcon manā€ a whole new meaning