Source: Digiday
The top of CES’ webpage announcing its 2018 keynote speakers reads: “CES stands for innovators and the promise and power of technology.”
Considering that half of the world’s population is not represented in the list of speakers that follows, it’s impossible for that statement to be true. On Dec. 4, marketers began blasting the tech trade show for not having a single woman represented in its lineup of six keynote speakers. Marketers also noticed that of the six men, five are white.
Brands may be plastering Twitter with hashtags like #CESallwhitemales and #changetheratio, but will they replace talk with action and pull out of the conference? Only HP, which used CES last year to debut new products, has alluded to boycotting the event.
“All men should boycott CES if women are not invited to speak!” wrote Antonio Lucio, global CMO of HP, in a tweet. “Insulting in this day and age. We must do better!”
Other CMOs, like JPMorgan Chase’s Kristin Lemkau, Quantcast’s Steven Wolfe Pereira and Twitter’s Leslie Berland, and PepsiCo’s former CMO Brad Jakeman are among the marketers calling on Gary Shapiro, CEO of Consumer Technology Association, the tech trade association that produces CES, and Karen Chupka, svp of CTA, to add more women and people of color to its lineup in the five weeks before it opens.
Brian Krzanich, the CEO of Intel; Jim Hackett, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co.; and John Martin, chairman and CEO of Turner are three of the six CES keynote speakers.
In a statement, CES pointed out that it is “proud” of its record in “welcoming diverse speakers to the CES keynote stage,” including General Motors CEO Mary Barra, former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
CES said 10 women declined keynote speaker invitations and that it will release more lineup announcements soon. Coca-Cola, Hasbro, IHG, Campbell’s Soup, KFC, Toys R Us and MGM Resorts are other brands that have women participating in panel talks this year.
