On one side I understand why a minority owned/driven company would use that positioning as a marketing advantage, and they have every right to do so. But on the other hand I think doing company positioning around gender, race etc is a bad idea. Those factors should be ignored in selecting vendors in either direction.

If you want to encourage equality, demand that every vendor has a policy on it and takes steps to avoid discrimination. If many companies do that it will spread quickly.

Doing "positive discrimination" is not making things better in the long-term. It emphasises differences that should not be a factor and causes more polarisation instead of less.

> Even I, as a gay half-Asian Muslim, not that any of that should matter, feel this needs to be pointed out: How is it not racist and sexist?

Because if you're not very publicly and loudly checking off all the DEI boxes, you're just hiring a bunch of white cisgender heterosexual men. This isn't just defcon, this is how every company acts these days.

The first paragraph is immaterial to the complaint. I know what they're trying to do, but they don't seem to realize that only a fraction of the population makes evaluations on an identity-first basis. If I were advising this company, I'd point out that this is going to factor into future vetting.

No prospective client wants to invite a public flame war over a contract dispute. Nobody wants to be constantly vigilant pending some publicity stunt. A froggy company that does this kind of stuff is probably going to be too risky for a lot of clients.

It's DEI bullshit, but the biggest problem I have with DEI is the rejection of competence in favour of pandering - and here, they managed to both pander and hire people competent enough to do the actual job.

It seems far less toxic to me than most DEI based decisions.

Aside from skipping out on the bill, the biggest problem I have here is the incompetence (the same problem I normally have with DEI based decision making).

These people are running an annual conference, and not only did they poison their own well (good luck finding competent hardware vendors in the future) but they derailed one of the most interesting scheduled talks at the last minute.

People will remember this, and it has the potential to significantly impact next year's convention.