Melbourne Business Analytics Conference 2022

Almost 1,000 people attended the 2022 Melbourne Business Analytics Conference today, which is really cool. And almost all of those who registered turned up, which is even cooler.

Photo of a very large auditorium that’s almost completely full, with people sitting on many rising rows of chairs. In front of the audience is a stage and a massive, cinema-size projector screen.

One of my favourite things about this conference is the breadth of attendees. You can tell that from how people are dressed: they’re wearing everything from jeans, t-shirts, casual dresses, and denim jackets all the way to formal dresses, formal pants, blouses/dress shirts, and suits.

Importantly, you can’t tell by what people are wearing whether they’re a CEO, middle manager, or specialist data analyst.

You can spot the students and fresh uni grads though. They’re so young and fresh-faced! Also, some of the junior managers stand out — with their sport coats/jumpers and cool but comfy shoes :)

Only 2-3 folks at this year’s conference were wearing ties with their suits, by the way. I think that shows just how much more comfortably people want to dress these days, now that we’ve all had a taste of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benefit of registering early

One of the benefits of registering early for this conference is that I got a copy of ‘Decisions over Decimals’ by Christopher Frank, Paul Magnone, and Oded Netzer, which I’m really looking forward to reading.

(Professor Netzer was one of the speakers at the conference.)

Photo from the point of view of a seated person looking down at their lap. The photographer is holding a bright yellow hardback book in their hand titled ‘Decisions Over Decimals’. In the photo you can also see a Melbourne Business Analytics Conference badge that they are wearing on a lanyard around their neck.

Proportion of women on the stage

One of my rules for speaking at (and now even attending) conferences is that at least 40% of the people on the stage should be women or non-binary folks. And I track this number at all the conferences I attend.

Since I’ve attended every single Melbourne Business Analytics Conference since 2017, I have the data on how they’ve managed to improve – and, since then, maintain — a decent gender split in their speakers and panellists.

This year, for example, 43% of their speakers were going to be women. But, due to a couple of last-minute cancellations, that dropped to 40% — which is still acceptable. Good job MBS!

Columns chart titled “% female speaker, panellists at #MBAC22”. The chart shows five columns with values above them. The 2017 bar has a value of 31%; 2018 has 39%; 2019 has 51%; 2021 has 42%; and 2022 has 40%.

Gender diversity at Melbourne Business Analytics Conference 2021

The 2021 Melbourne Business Analytics Conference kicked off today. This is a four-day online conference with talks running from 10am-2pm, Monday to Thursday.

Screenshot of a web browser window showing a virtual conference layout, with boxes for speaker video, slides, Q&A, presenter information, and event resources.

42% female speakers

I’ve attended all four #MBSAnalytics conferences since they launched in 2017 [1] and have been constantly impressed with the gender diversity that Melbourne Business School have achieved with their speakers and panellists. This year, for example, 42% of speakers and panellists are women.

Screenshot of a column chart titled ‘% female speakers at #MBSAnalytics conference’. There are four columns on the chart, one each for the years 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. The percentage of female speakers and panellists shows above these columns is: 31%, 39%, 51%, and 42% respectively.

Not a manel in sight

Not just that, but at all four conferences there has never been a single manel (ie all-male panel of speakers and experts) – which I think is hugely impressive.

Screenshot of a webpage showing a grid of head shots. These are some of the speakers at the 2021 Melbourne Business Analytics conference. Half the speakers on the screen are female and two of the eight speakers shown are people of colour.

This is big deal

Tracking and reporting on the proportion of female speakers and panellists is important because (a) that’s not often tracked and (b) a high proportion is rarely achieved at conferences in this field. In fact, none of the business or analytics conferences I’ve attended in the last decade (?) have had more than a third of speakers who aren’t male.

The highest I’ve seen elsewhere was at MeasureCamp Melbourne in 2018 where 31% of the speakers were women. That took a bit of effort too, since the year before that number had been zero!

Photo of two hand drawn graphs on lined paper under the heading ‘Measure Camp Melbourne 24 Feb 2018’. The first chart shows 34% of attendees are women, the second shows 31% of speakers are women. That attendee percentage is an “estimate based on welcome session attendance”.

And it compares well with the industry

This high proportion of female speakers and panellists is particularly great because:

  • ~29% of full time computer science graduates are women and

  • ~35% of 2020 Melbourne Business School graduates were women.

Also, a couple of years ago I did a Professional Certificate in Business Analytics from Melbourne Business School. As part of that I took two subjects that had 17% and 30% female students respectively.

I know these numbers aren’t definitive, but it’s awesome that the proportion of female speakers at the #MBSAnalytics conference is at least higher than the proportion of women typically graduating into this field of work and study.

So kudos to the folks from Melbourne Business School who make this happen every year. This is already my favourite conference and seeing those stats makes it even better.

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Footnote

[1] Your maths isn’t wrong. They’ve had four conferences in five years because they had to cancel their 2020 event because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

FYI

I’ve tweeted about these numbers each year I’ve attended this conference: 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.