Alison Gianotto wrote a great post after she was invited to speak at a Linux conference, and assigned the topic of women in technology.  Since that’s not a topic that she’s interested in talking about, and she has lots of things that she would like to speak about at a Linux conference, she gave some other ideas.  They passed.

The whole post is awesome.  These two paragraphs match my philosophy about speaking at tech conferences:

My position is that the best way for me to be a role model for women (and men) in technology isn’t to give talks about being a woman in technology, but to kick ass and take names at being a technologist, and to give great presentations on technology topics. This is my way of showing men and women in technology that women are as capable and badass as the bros.

It’s the same reason I always agree to speak at conferences even when I know I’m a token. I frequently spend my own money to fly out to speak at conferences that can’t afford to fly me out or cover my hotel, and I do this because it’s important for men and women to get used to seeing women at the podium, demonstrating their skills as an authority in technology. If we can get a few more women on that stage, maybe we won’t feel like such a rarity anymore, and the perceptions of us in technology will shift.

At MacIT 2014, she gave a great talk about security.  She knows her stuff, and she knows how to talk about it in such a way that other people will get it too.  I’m so glad she was one of our speakers, and I’m glad that her talk was a topic that she’s an expert in and that she’s passionate about.