The Victorian branch of the Australian Computer Society has come under fire for making the theme of its International Women’s Day breakfast a celebration of men who hire women.

The information and communications technology organisation’s event, International Women’s Day 2014: Celebrate the male champions of change!, sparked a backlash after inviting people to the RACV club in Melbourne to “join us in celebrating this day by acknowledging those men in our lives who are champions of change”.

The invitation also suggested guests bring along a “male champion of change” to add to the conversation.

Promotion of the event included a quote from ANZ CEO Mike Smith. “It strikes me that we need to celebrate men who have a track record of hiring, developing and advancing women – but actually these men are quite rare.”

Smith made the statement in his address at a November 2013 meeting of Male Champions of Change – a collaboration, launched in 2010 by sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, of 21 business, government and military leaders, working to “achieve significant and sustainable increases in the representation of women in leadership in Australia”.

Reaction on Twitter included accusations of sexism, as well as being condescending and patronising, but Broderick defended Smith’s quote.

“Mike is a very active champion of change who advocates strongly for women’s leadership in [Australia] and globally,” she wrote.

In response to the barrage of negative feedback, the ACS released a statement from branch chair Michelle Beveridge apologising “for any offence this has caused” and the event was quickly re-themed “celebrating diversity”.

“We always planned to celebrate diversity in line with the 2014 IWD theme of inspiring change,” said Beveridge.

“Following strong public feedback, we’ve changed our event to make it absolutely clear that our focus on International Women’s Day is celebrating diversity and inspiring change.”

Jo Dalvean, management committee member of the ACS, told Guardian Australia the ACS “could have chosen our words better” but defended the original theme of the breakfast.

“The ACS has a long and proud history of encouraging diversity in the ICT profession. In 2014 we have our first female president, and 30% of our directors are female, well above the industry average. We believe that employers, be they men or women, who encourage diversity should be celebrated, and that was, and remains, our intent,” she said.

“On March 7 we will celebrate diversity in ICT by highlighting the extraordinary contribution of women in ICT, alongside recognising those men who are breaking down the barriers so that gender imbalances can be addressed.”

The new event is now going ahead with presenters Andrew Walduck, CIO of Australia Post, Jane Treadwell, CEO of DesignGov, and Dr Sandy Caspi Sable, owner of Satellite Consulting Services.