I want to congratulate the organizers of the conference for making inclusion one of the core values of the event - and of the community in general!
I have a 6yo daughter and if she decides to become an IT professional in 10-12 years, I want her to find a level playfield with equal opportunities and respect for everybody, regardless of gender, race, religion, class, age, etc.
Same goes for the social efforts - as IT professionals, many of us have been shielded from the harsh realities of the economic downturn and it’s easy to forget that even in this field, some of our colleagues struggle financially. This was a great reminder and a lesson for all of us.
To actively pursue these values and make them an integral part of the community straight from the beginning, that makes me so proud of the Julia community! 
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What was great to see was the level of interest at JuliaCon. Erica & Kate had organized a lunch talk on Friday, but so many people wanted to join, that the plans had to be changed, and we all went and got our own lunches and came back to discuss diversity back in one of the large ballrooms. (Erica’s talk was absolutely great, BTW!)
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It’s kind of you to mention me but I really have to emphasize that Erica did 99% of the work and all the credit really must go to her.
Ah, I’d thought you’d done more to organize the lunch meetup (it listed both of you on the JuliaCon schedule).
Even though the original plans didn’t survive reality, quick thinking by one or both of you made the lunch work out quite well.
I have to thank @emoszkowski for all the work and spearheading the initiatives.
I think we did well this year, but it is not something we can take for granted.
Being inclusive and building a respectful community is something that requires work from everybody,
but it is also something that makes me proud to be part of this community.
If anybody has ideas or would like to help with outreach please let me know!
I would like to continue these initiatives for next years JuliaCon.
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Saving the day was all down to Erica 
. My contribution was mainly picking the venue we didn’t end up using and chatting with some people downstairs while she did most of the work of organizing everyone upstairs.
Ahh, sorry I’m so late to the game, everybody! Thanks for your participation and feedback, all @vchuravy and @kslimes are being too modest; it would’ve been impossible to get this stuff off the ground without their help. Coming up with ideas is one thing; implementing them is entirely another.
On a personal level, I want to say that I was incredibly excited to see that the Julia community really wants to talk about diversity and inclusion. The conversations I had with people at the conference made me really optimistic for the future of the conference and the community as a whole, and I’m excited to see that people are continuing to talk. Onwards and upwards!
PS - As a reminder, conference survey is coming soon and feedback is much appreciated!
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