What a weird and frustrating circumstance to be in. It's definitely disappointing that the organizers could not work through this. I understand that women candidates may be disproportionately hard to line up, but is there any evidence that the promoters put in the extra effort to find them? More importantly, should they be obligated to do so in the first place when the aim of the conference is quality in technology: nothing more, nothing less? Optimizing for non-sex factors, you would expect the selected lineup to more or less match the proportions of notable men and women in the space. If that holds true, then the issue is much further up the line in this case: there are still not enough women in technology. Do we cancel future events solely on this premise? Seems like a terrible idea to me.