By Charlene Li

Kudos to O'Reilly for organizing a women's networking event during the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo. I'm going to be attending the event (details below) and am really looking forward to it.

There's a tremendous need for this -- I attend and speak at many technology events, and while our numbers are growing, it's still uncommon enough that I celebrate each woman speaker on stage or on a panel. In fact, I'm one of only three only woman so far scheduled to appear on the main stage at Web 2.0 Expo (the others are Jennifer Pahlka (CMP) and Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation). There are many women leading the breakout sessions, but we're still a heartbreakingly small number. Simone Brummelhuis details the list -- it's just 20 out of 200, or 10% of speakers.

It's also the reason why I support and attend events like BlogHer (now making its fourth appearance), and the upcoming PBWC conference later this month. And if you're putting together a conference, take a look at the links below for ideas of excellent speakers.

There's also a need to support especially the small but growing number of women entrepreneurs in this space -- a few that come to mind are Rashmi Sinha of SlideShare.net, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, Caterina Fake of Flickr, Mena Trott of Six Apart, Meg Hourihan of Pyra Labs, and Gina Bianchini of ning.com. (If you know or more, add them to the comments or let me know!)

Hope to see you there!

Event: Women's Networking Event

Description: Web 2.0 Expo is excited to provide a forum to bring together the women of web 2.0 communities for discussion, debate and networking. Come refresh and connect while overlooking downtown SF

Date/Time: Thursday, April 24th, 6:30-8:30pm

Location: Marriott's View Lounge, across from Moscone West, 55 4th Street, San Francisco

Other relevant links on women and Web 2.0:

Anil Dash's list of Web 2.0 speakers (who happen to be women)

List of Women Speakers for your Conference

Socialtext's Speaker Wiki

Kapp Notes: Great Women of Web 2.0