Web Summit Committed To Further Improving Women Ratio At Its Events

Web Summit, today announced details of “women in tech” - a ticketing initiative aimed at encouraging more women to attend its events across the world.  25,000 special tickets will be available to female entrepreneurs under the scheme which is aimed at improving female/male ratio at its events.

Now in its third year, the women in tech initiative has seen over 45,000 tickets issued to female attendees across the globe.  The ticketing scheme is part of Web Summit’s Commitment to Change programme, which is a company-wide initiative aimed at increasing female participation at Web Summit events. Web Summit’s Commitment to Change resulted in a female/male gender ratio at Web Summit of 42% / 58% for the last two years.  At Web Summit 2017, the percentage of women speakers rose to 35.4% across Web Summit’s multiple stages.  Tech industry events typically register about 20% women speakers or less. This year Web Summit is releasing 25,000 special tickets available to female attendees.  The tickets typically cost 90% less than general attendee tickets. They will be available for MoneyConf, RISE and Web Summit, going on sale from Wednesday, January 31.  10,000 women in tech tickets for Collision, which takes place in New Orleans on May 1-3, have already been snapped up.

1,000 tickets are available for MoneyConf, which takes place in Dublin on June 11-13

4,000 tickets are available for RISE, which takes place in Hong Kong on July 9-12

10,000 tickets are available for Web Summit, which takes place in Lisbon on November 5-8.

Nicola Lyons, community manager and head of the women in tech initiative at Web Summit, said: “Web Summit is committed to creating an inclusive environment at all our events.  We recognise that the tech industry as a whole needs to change and encourage greater female participation at events.  Our Women in tech initiative is a small step in the right direction. “We are proud that through this initiative 25,000 women will get to experience our events in America, Asia and Europe.   We have had many really inspirational women speak at our events and we are looking forward to having more women on our stages this year too.”