WIT October 2024 Newsletter
Happy October, WIT! We’re in that final quarter of the year. And we’re excited with all of the good things going on.
Past Events
A big thank you to Kellyn Gorman for her presentation, “The Power of Words: How Misguided Descriptions Undermine Women in Tech”, on October 8th. It was packed with a lot of insightful information and provoked great conversation in the chat. If you missed it, you can find it on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@dataplatformwit7833.
Upcoming events
November 8th – Next up is the Women in Tech Keynote by Jes Chapman at the PASS Data Community Summit (https://passdatacommunitysummit.com/sessions/2254/). Jes will be talking about “Amplify Your Voice: Strategies for Visibility and Influence at Work”. If you haven’t read her post about this, make sure you check it out. https://passdatacommunitysummit.com/about/news/amplify-your-voice-strategies-for-visibility-and-influence-at-work/
November 12th – Then we’re excited for our regular November meetup with Heidi Hastings. Heidi will be presenting “Power Up with the Power Platform”. You can sign up for the event on our meetup: https://www.meetup.com/data-platform-wit/events/304022443.
Open Call for Speakers
We are looking for speakers for our future monthly meetups. Whether you want to discuss technical topics or WIT issues in the workplace, we want to hear from you! To submit a session, go to our Call for Speaker page: https://sessionize.com/data-platform-wit/.
Why Deborah Loves Women in Tech Luncheons
For the past several years, I’ve had the honor to host the Women in Tech (WIT) panel lunch during lunch at SQL Saturday Boston as well as recent ones in Albany and NYC. I decide on a theme and a starting set of questions to get us started. At this past SQL Saturday Boston on October 5th, I had come up with a small list of about 7 or so questions. In the end, we only got to the very first question. We immediately had questions and comments from attendees which brought our conversation into a different direction. This is why I love these panels. We have so many ways to connect with other women in tech in our allies to help try to solve some of the problems that we face every day. I am often surprised to find that many who attend weren’t aware of the various resources we have in our community before they showed up. These are crucial in terms of being able to find the support that you need to find mentors, to find community, and most importantly to understand that you are not alone in the problems that you face on a day-to-day basis. It’s not just the women in tech who attend that make these worthwhile, but others who make sure they are there to learn how they can be better allies as well. I’m so inspired by the attendees I meet that I almost look forward to these panels more than my own session.
One of the biggest challenges that we face is figuring out how we can make sure that our attendees are aware of these sessions and making sure that we can have as many people attend them as possible. One of the common feedback items we get is there is never enough time. Do you have the panel compete with technical sessions as a general professional development session? Do you give sponsors a chance to sponsor the WIT panel instead of hosting their own presentation to reduce the number of competing sessions? How can we encourage more people to attend? There’s still a lot of questions to answer but even just having small conversations is a big step forward and an important one for women in our community. It also a reminder that women are not the only underrepresented group in technology who may need support and resources like these as well. Hopefully, these can be seen as a starting point for those conversations and make sure that we as a Data Platform Community are welcoming to all members.
If you host a SQL Saturday, consider scheduling a Women in Tech panel available for your attendees. You can ask anyone of the women who are speakers to see if they would like to be involved this effort. If you need help setting one up, please reach out and we’ll be happy to help. If you’re at a SQL Saturday with a WIT panel, make sure you show your support by attending. And of course, if you are attending PASS Data Community Summit, make sure you attend the Women in Tech Luncheon with Jes Chapman.
We look forward to seeing you at a future event or meetup. If there’s anything we can do to help you support women in tech in your community, please reach out to any of us!