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Another odd bit of news that doesn’t fit into the regular reporting comes from Lift08, the three-day conference in Geneva that opens Wednesday 6 February in Geneva. Laurent Haug, the conference organizer, played with some statistics, writing in his blog at the end of last week. The relative paucity of women at technology conferences is what sent him to look at the stats. It turns out 24% of those registered are women. A ways to go, as he says, but I was surprised there will be that many of us. The conference is more about the society of the future than technology per se, and if more women understood that it’s not about guys’ toys, they would probably sign up.

The number of countries: 30. That’s pretty good and will make for a rich mix of ideas.

And then the odd one: 18% of the people coming say they are male journalists and 6% say they are female journalists.

First of all, why is this the only category separated by gender?
Secondly, who are all these journalists, since this is about five times
as many people as are registered media people, if I read the numbers
correctly? Registered media must be journalists with legitimate press
cards, or have a letter from an accredited editor. I know dozens of
unemployed journalists, since it’s a field in dire financial straits,
with even the eminent New York Times in a financial freefall. I’ve met
few unemployed journalists at the two previous conferences, though, so
I suspect these are mainly wannabe journalists. Given the lousy or
non-existant pay in the field of journalism, this is puzzlilng.

Lately, I’ve suspected the early glory days for bloggers are ending,
with only a small number finding true followers in any number. Talking
to people about GenevaLunch and news coverage, I frequently hear, "Why
would I want to read all those bloggers’ opinions? I don’t have time."
And I also hear that people want good, credible guides through the
online maze of information. Ironically, that is helping revive the
reputation of journalism, or at least some journalism.

So if it isn’t the pay they’re after, it must be the glory. Maybe I’ll organize an informal Lift08 coffee around that theme.

Ed. note: On second reading, maybe those are hard numbers and not percentages, which is why we all need to be careful about our reporting. I’ll check with the source, rule one for journalists, not observed as often as it should be. But 10% of people at the conference will be journalists? I’m mulling over what that signifies.

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