弥合流媒体的性别差距

我刚从阿姆斯特丹的IBC回来, where I walked away with two bits of very heartening news—neither of which have anything to do with technology. 

The first one actually isn’t so much a single news item as it is a trend. Companies in the streaming media space seem to be focusing more on long-term planning and success than on proving they can keep up with the latest buzzwords. So while it meant that there weren’t that many "Wow!在展场漫步的瞬间, 有很多“嘿, that’s a really smart way to approach the market" conversations. And most of the companies that did have new products were actually shipping them, not just talking about things on the drawing board. As our publisher Joel Unickow said, "Less fluff, more stuff."

The second bit of news is one that is about neither technology nor business, 但对两者都有巨大的影响. Saturday morning was the first in-person gathering of a group that couldn’t be more important for the future of our industry: Women in 流媒体. It’s painfully apparent at events like NAB and IBC (and yes, at 流媒体 conferences as well) that women are woefully underrepresented on panels and at vendors’ booths. [编者注:IBC今年取得了巨大的进步, 其中37%的使用者是女性, 分析师本·基恩表示.]

Of course, it’s not just an issue in our industry; check out the All Male panel Tumblr to see just how pervasive and pernicious the problem is. I say it’s pernicious because even if women are still a minority in our industry, they aren’t such a tiny minority that you can’t find at least one woman to speak on a panel of four or five. If you’re putting together a panel and can’t find at least one woman to join it, 你找得不够认真. 

Since I’ve been in charge of 流媒体 conference programming, I’ve made an effort to make sure more women speak at our events—two out of the three keynotes at the 2018 流媒体 East were women—but I know we need to do much more. And some events are already doing a terrific job of making sure that women are better represented not just on the stage but in the audience. 特别是, I’m thinking of the Nordic TV Summit (formerly called the Nordic Media Summit), (惊喜!是由一个女人编写的 布琳希尔德Vinskei 24i传媒. 以及今年的首届视频营销峰会, 由特洛伊·德雷尔编的程序, 还有一个节目，30%的人是女性.

I first heard about the Women in 流媒体 group from Vinskei, and not long afterward from 黛安娜Strutner, Datazoom的首席执行官. 在短短几年内, Strutner has become one of the most recognized people in our industry; a number of us at the group’s first meetup joked that her business card title should read “Powerhouse.” Strutner spearheaded the effort, along with founding members 佩吉道 MAD的观点， Sangeeta Ramakrishnan 思科系统公司，以及 艾丽西亚普里切特 快速的. 

While exclusion from conference speaking was the impetus for the group’s formation, Women in 流媒体’s goals are much broader. The group’s mission statement, according to Strutner, is "to increase diversity and give more visibility to women leaders within the technology side of the streaming media industry. 要做到这一点, Women in 流媒体 (WSM) will create forums and events to connect women, provide mentorship and internship programs to increase and grow women’s participation in the industry and in leadership roles, and promote other opportunities to help accelerate women professionally."

该组织的首次聚会, 厚脸皮地叫“但首先……咖啡”," drew about 50 women from all sectors of our industry. (几个人, too—I was honored to be asked to join and talk about speaking and writing opportunities at 流媒体.) That’s a pretty good showing, especially for 9 a.m. 在阿姆斯特丹一个周六的早晨. 该组织目前拥有123名成员 LinkedIn页面, and Strutner says the founding members are in the process of selecting a board. Women interested in officially joining the group can fill out this 谷歌的形式 应用.

As long as streaming media remains male-dominated, men in the industry need to make efforts to be more inclusive. We’ve committed to do that with 流媒体 shows and publications, 还有我的联合主持 SM高级论坛 webcast (SMAF for short) have committed to making sure one of each show’s two guests is a woman. 我们需要做得更好，但这只是一个开始.

The Women in 流媒体 group had its first meeting at IBC.

Where Are the Women in the 流媒体 Industry?

A look at any conference program—including our own—makes it clear: It's long past time for the streaming media industry to take the gender imbalance seriously, and to identify and address the root issues—not just the optics.

2021年11月22日