What Diversity and the Goodie Bag Tell You About a Conference LONDON - You can measure a conference by the notoriety of its host, the charisma of its speakers, the networking value to its participants or how well its program captures the zeitgeist. Or you could just look inside the gift bag you get at registration. From technology fairs to the World Economic Forum in Davos, a goodie bag has long been a standard feature of the kind of gatherings considered to attract opinion makers. By one approximation, the more lucrative the bag's contents, the more influential the event is likely to be. In Davos, the world's business and political leaders have been given iPod Shuffles, Indian pashminas and pedometers over the years, plus usually some fancy local produce from a country that is a focus of that year's conference. At last week's TEDGlobal conference I came across the trendiest and most impressive gift bag yet: A neoprene laptop sleeve for the new MacBook Pro, an Incase USB kit with travel pouch, fancy a-JAYS headphones, a Made in Mind USB adapter, a reusable (and resealable) water bottle by Retap, a voucher for a complimentary night in the Intercontinental Hotel - all wrapped up nicely in a smart linen travel bag branded J.Crew. Sponsors are strategic. They reckon handing a freebie to a current or future leader is a good investment. One executive at a sponsor company, speaking off the record, told me that TED with its relatively young, global and well-networked attendees lends itself particularly well to such seduction efforts: "The production cost of that gift is tiny compared to the benefit to the brand if a leader or future leader becomes an ambassador for us." By the way, as I show in my latest Page Two column, TED does not only have one of the best gift bags but also an impressively high proportion of women speakers compared to other major conferences. Are its sponsors sending a message backing the business case for more gender diversity? Now, some questions relating to my column: How useful are elite conferences for the spreading and generation of innovative ideas? Is diversity - in terms of gender, ethnicity, cultural background and occupation of the speakers - important for the idea-generating process, or an unnecessary distraction? Given how male-dominated the global speaker circuit still is, should conference organizers set themselves minimum targets for women speakers? Who's to blame for the lack of women speakers at most conferences? The organizers, who don't look hard enough - or the women, who too often shy away from taking the stage?