Jamie Thingelstad

Minnestar

Reflections on Twin Cities tech‑community events—Minnebar, Minnedemo and more. I explain the origin of “Minnebar,” recap sessions I attended and celebrate the people powering our thriving tech scene.

Over recent years I’ve been growing increasingly concerned about the lack of women in technology careers. Perhaps it’s being a dad, or just getting older. Either way, I think this is bad for our industry. I believe we would have healthier cultures, better teams and make better software and products if we had more diversity.

I recently got an email invite to an event in town for tech entrepreneurs. The headline of the email exclaimed in large type…

Walk into a room of people just like you.

In the email were three photos to highlight the people just like you. All set in the gorgeous CoCo Minneapolis space.

Notably a room of people just like you, if you are a young, white man.

I’m not highlighting it because I think there was anything intentional with these images. But instead just to highlight something that I don’t think many in tech even see. We rarely notice the absence of any women in these scenes. We need to work harder to create an inclusive environment that draws the great women technologists into our events too.

On a related note, many know I’m on the board of minnestar which hosts minnedemo and minnebar. We are continuing to work hard to make sure we get all technologists to our events. We have a lot of work to do, but making sure that our imagery displays an open and accepting event is an important start.

Five men in casual and business-casual attire conversing in groups inside a modern open office or coworking space. Group of men in business casual attire seated at a conference table during a tech networking event indoors. Men in business casual attire seated at tables in conversation at a Project Skyway event inside a large hall.