I did not go to the ball

Last night was the annual TrefBash, a large party for people involved in the UK networking industry. Several people asked why Pete didn’t attend, so we’ve lent him the company blog to explain his answer.

Pete writes:

I donate a lot of time to Raspberry Pi because I believe that we need more competent people in the tech industry. One thing I see is at younger ages we have a mixed gender balance, at older ages it becomes increasingly male dominated. A quick look at the boards of the UK Internet Exchanges (100% male) and attendance lists for conferences will tell you that networking is no different from the rest of the tech industry with an extremely strong male bias.

It’s improved: it’s been a while since there has been an AGM for a Internet Exchange in the Bavarian Beerhouse where busty women with cleavage serve male geeks beer. We have a Respect policy for conferences so it’s now official that you can’t be discriminatory. However as with all things it’s two steps forward, one step back.

Not a photo of the burlesque dancer, this blog is safe for work even if the industry events aren’t

The theme for last nights TrefBash15 was Bond meets Rocky Horror. Whilst I’m highly entertained about a theme where equal opportunities rapist Frank ‘n’ Furter explains to misogynist Bond that you should treat women as well as you treat men, and Bond suggests to Frank that maybe you should ask permission first, I can’t help feeling that wasn’t quite the way the event was planned.

To check I wasn’t being hyper-sensitive I did ask a number of people what they thought. Liz Upton generously allowed me to quote her in full.

Liz Upton, Director of Communications, Raspberry Pi

So instead of going, I donated the cost of a night out in London to The Women In Engineering society instead.