|
 We’d like to thank everyone who came to W-Tech 2009, co-hosted by the British Computer Society and womenintechnology.co.uk, and made it such a buzzy and inspiring day. We had over 750 technical women sharing the day with us. A huge thanks to our key sponsors, Microsoft, HP and Google and also to the BCS and womenintechnology.co.uk staff who worked hard behind the scenes.
Thanks too, to all the volunteers who helped and to the delegates who inspired the stall holders and speakers with your talent and passion for technology.
Seminar slides are going up as we receive them and photos will follow soon.
Please complete the evaluation survey and contribute to the discussion about how and what to follow W-Tech with, we need to know what worked for you and what else you’d like!
You can read the W-Tech brochure by clicking here.
The daytime workshop programme included:
12:00 to 12:45
13:00 to 13:45
-
How to Behave in an All Male Team: Following over 30 years of study into the brain and its functions, Whole Brain Technology empirically supports a definite "wiring" difference between men and women. This session unveils the true why's of women's natural intuitive leadership and the hows on making the most of them for your professional success in IT. This session was led by Christina Ioannidis of Aquitude. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Academic Careers - Getting Your Research Funded: How important is funding to an academic research career? How do you successfully attract funding? Mateja Jamnik, who is a member of the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) electoral college, will answer these questions during this session. We encourage the audience to bring their own funding questions and experiences along to the discussion. A representative from the EPSRC will also be available to give hints and tips from their prospective. This session was led by Karen Petrie and the EPSRC, and presented my Mateja Jamnik.
-
Can Computers Write Software? Model-driven development provides the technology necessary to automate the creation of software using best practice patterns and models. For many years, it has been seen as a necessary development for the IT industry to speed up the development of complex systems. but early attempts achieved mixed success. In the meantime IT systems have become more complex and there is a shortage of skilled software engineers. This presentation looks at why early attempts were not successful and how the development of industry standards both in approach and technology have created an environment where model-driven development is coming into its own. This session was led by Mandy Chessell, Chief Architect at IBM.
-
Video Streaming for Small Business: Cary Marsh will look at video streaming technologies and how they are changing how businesses operate and how they compare to youtube. Perhaps a session for would be entrepreneurs? Cary set up Mydeo in 2005 and now provides high-quality streaming video hosting to over 200,000 individuals, communities and businesses around the world. This session was led by Cary Marsh, CEO Mydeo.
-
The Fog over the Grimpen Mire: Cloud Computing and the Law: Miranda will speak about some foggy legal issues to do with cloud computing, including access to data by foreign governments, data usage rights and security. She will give some examples from customer agreements currently used by prominent cloud computing providers. She will also mention some new research that may resolve some of these issues. This session was led by Miranda Mowbray, Hewlett Packard Ltd.
14:00 to 14:45
-
Personal Brand: Building a personal image and brand and identifying what your personal brand is. This sesion will help you to identify what your personal brand is, use your brand to be distinctive and visible - looking and sounding the part, and develop the skills to market yourself effectively. This session was led by Salma Shah of Beyond. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Managing your Online Profile: Online reputation management. When employers select interviewees they turn to search - make sure you give a good first impression and know who appears for your name. The web is also an excellent way to find a job so join this session for techniques on finding a job using your network. This session will be led by Judith Lewis. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
The Magic of Networking: What is networking and when does it happen? What the barriers are to really gaining in confidence upon joining a room of strangers? Would you like to know how to sustain relationships and how to adapt to the mindset of a natural networker? If so, then session is for you! This session was led by Heather White of The Magic of Networking and the handouts can be found here: Ibarra on Networking, The Killer Survey
-
Interacting with Technology - by Text, Face, Voice and Touch: In this session Microsoft will introduce you to some of the technologies they use daily in our job roles. They will talk about remote working and how easy it is to interact and collaborate in a unified way with our colleagues across the world. They will also introduce you to Microsoft Surface – which allows you to interact with your computer in a totally new way. This session was led by Microsoft. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Controlling Your Privacy in an Information Society: Are we sitting on a roller-coaster to a new information society whereby the meaning of 'privacy' as we understand it today is lost? Can you take back control of your identity, reputation and your privacy in this new information society? What impact do our online and off-line activities (that are digitally by someone or something, somewhere out in cyberspace) have on our identity, our privacy and our reputation? Can we control this? Can we really operate anonymously online? And how anonymous are we in our off-line activities? Does it matter? Karen Lawrence Öqvist takes you on a journey into the new information society. She will bring together diverse privacy concepts using models that can help us to visualise influencing factors when it comes to taking control of our identity and our privacy; in a society where the rules of play have not yet been defined. This session was led by Karen Lawrence. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
15:00 to 15:45
-
Political Savvy: "Political Savvy for Women in IT" will help females within the technology industry identify their power source, how they are perceived and to read the organisational politics in situations. This session was led by Michelle Brailsford of the Jupitor Consulting Group. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Preparing for your Career Break: This workshop will help will help women through the stressful process of planning a career break – either for parental or for other reasons. It will offer tips and ideas of how to leave work feeling confident and in control, explore ideas on keeping in touch whilst away and give women the opportunity to discuss concerns and share experiences. This session was led by Rachel Tobbell of the UKRC. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Qualified for Success: Being able to demonstrate that you have the most relevant and up to date IT skills is vital for all IT professionals. One way to ensure you maintain this level of qualification is via ISEB, a qualification for IT professionals in areas such as service management, software testing and business analysis. This session was led by Wilf Voss of the BCS. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Processing Lots of Data with MapReduce: MapReduce is a programming model used at Google to solve highly parallelisable computing problems. It runs well on large clusters of machines using distributed file systems and it can recover from machine failures. This workshop will give an introduction to the programming model and will illustrate it with examples from Google products such as Maps. This session was led by Kathrin Paschen of Google.
-
Living in the Future: Take a glimpse into the future as Lesley Gavin looks at emerging technologies and how they are likely to change the way we live our lives. Be inspired and stimulate your ideas for new business and career opportunities! This session was led by Lesley Gavin, BT Futurologist.
16:00 to 16:45
-
Be the Boss You Wish You Had: Women are taking more leadership roles within companies than ever before, and have the potential to be amazing leaders within the IT Sector. What does 'being the boss' mean to you? How are your assumptions about leadership helping or hindering you? How can you build on your strengths to be the kind of boss you wish you had? This highly interactive workshop will use a coaching method to get you to proactively find the right answers to your current challenges so you can grow into the leader you want to be. This session was led by Suzanne Doyle-Morris of Doyle-Morris Coaching and Development.
-
Negotiating Your True Worth: Take time to find out how to truly value your own worth. Gary Bullard, founder and CEO of Catquin, a consultancy that supports senior executive women in managing and diversifying their careers, will share his experience and tips on how to present and negotiate for your true worth. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Emotional Intelligence: Emotional Intelligence is the skill to understand and manage what is going on within us and around us. Increasing awareness of our own feelings and emotions can help us understand others and develop more effective relationships; deal with conflict; cope with stressful situations; manage our emotional responses and lead happier lives. This session will be led by Michele Duke of Management Tomorrow. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Green Data Centres & Utility Computing: Data centres have recently been under scrutiny for their energy efficiency, and rightly so, but there have also been huge leaps forwards in the field. Being efficient is even more important now since all businesses are under increased pressure to cut costs. This talk will look at some of the best practices such as virtualisation and sensible power provisioning, as well the steady move towards regarding IT resource as a utility available on-demand, and what this means to you as a technology professional. This session will be led by Kate Craig-Wood, Managing Director of Memset. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Getting onto Public Bodies: The UK Resource Centre for Women in SET want to encourage and support more women onto public boards, where they are currently under-represented. Being a member of a public board develops a range of important skills, such as strategic thinking and problem solving. It provides valuable networking opportunities and a chance to put professional knowledge into broader use for the benefit of your profession and for society as a whole. If you are well established in this sector and are interested in applying for a board vacancy in the future, this workshop is for you. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
17:00 to 17:45
-
Confidence and Credibility: Imagine walking into a room full of strangers and feeling energised and excited rather than terrified and overwhelmed. Imagine comfortably engaging with your boss, professional to professional, as you make a recommendation that you sense might receive a negative response. Imagine being perceived as confident, in control and self-assured no matter how challenging the situation. This Confidence and Credibility workshop is designed specifically for women who want to be themselves at their best and will deliver the keys to engaging with others with clarity, confidence and commitment.. This session will be led by Elizabeth Kuhnke of Kuhnke Communication. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
IT as a Profession and Career Choice: The scope of the profession is much wider than ever before and is no longer just about technical skills. IT is increasingly focussed on business change and transformation with the trend towards multi skilled IT practitioners who understand the context of the business within which they operate. This session will be led by Adam Thilthorpe, BCS.
-
How Smart Women Manage their Careers: Women who manage their careers are smart. We will share with you 5 career management steps to show others how smart you really are whether you are new to employment, thinking about contracting/going permanent, coming back into employment after a career break or wanting to forge on up to the top. This session will be led by Diana Hogbin-Mills of Talentmax. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
-
Big Brother: CCTV, Behaviour Analysis and the Security Guards of the Future: Take time to glimpse into the world of emerging surveillance technology and computer vision developments that could be implemented in a CCTV control room near you, sometime in the next five or ten years. The talk will concentrate on behaviour analysis (vision systems that try to answer the question "What is that person doing?") and will place cutting edge research in the context of CCTV and social control. This session will be led by Hannah Dee, University of Leeds.
-
A Journey Through a Career in Project Management in IT Services: Not many young people say they want to be a project manager when they grow up! So how do you get into a career in project management? What makes a good project manager, what do they do and what is it like as a woman project manager in an IT Services company? Using her own 14 year career in HP as a case study, in this session Stephanie will take a look at the opportunities and challenges of a career in IT Services project management. This session will be led by Stephanie Small of HP. Presentation slides can be downloaded by clicking here.
Evening Networking Event
The evening started with a drinks reception at 6pm in the Common room. We then moved through to the impressive Lecture theatre, and Maggie Berry and Jan Peters, W-Tech Event Directors, gave a welcome to everyone and said how pleased they had been with the fantastic turnout throughout the day.
Our six pannelists below then discussed 'achieving in the technology profession’. Each of our panel of successful women their own career experiences and took questions from the audience which resulted in a lively discussion with over 300 ladies and men in the audience.
After the formal part of the evening, everyone moved up to the Riverside room to enjoy wine and canapés, and took in the wonderful view from the balcony out over the Thames while networking withover fellow female technology professionals.
Our inspirational speakers were:
Jo Alma, Managing Director - Head of IMD Technology for Europe & Asia - Goldman Sachs
 Jo is head of Investment Management Division Technology (IMD) in EMEA and Asia. She is the senior sponsor of the EMEA Women in Technology Network, EMEA Technology's representative on the European Diversity Committee and she sits on the Disability Working Group. Jo joined Goldman Sachs in 1996 and was initially involved in designing, developing and implementing the operations systems architecture. She then became responsible for Sales and Marketing Technology in EMEA and the GSAM London office. In 2005, her role expanded to include responsibility for IMD Technology in EMEA, which includes Private Wealth Management Technology internationally. She was named managing director in 2007. Prior to joining the firm, Jo worked at CINMan for thirteen years as a project manager in the IT division. She supported systems delivery for the Marketable Securities, Property and Venture Capital Divisions. She has an HNC in Business Studies and the National Computer Council certificate in Systems Analysis and Design.
Lis Astall, MD Public Service in Europe, Africa & Latin America at Accenture
 Lis Astall leads Accenture’s work for Public Service clients in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. During her 24 year career, Lis has held a number of senior leadership positions at Accenture and has worked in the consulting and outsourcing businesses, as well as in manufacturing, financial services and government. Most recently (2003-2006), she was MD of the company’s UK business. Lis’ current clients are now predominantly in government. Lis sits on the Court of Governors for the London School of Economics. She is a trustee of the Social Mobility Foundation and a regular supporter of Business in the Community Projects.
Fiona Capstick, Vice President, Geographic Integration Executive, Office of the CIO - IBM
 Fiona is the Geographic Integration Executive, reporting to the CIO. In this role she leads the deployment, adoption and change management activities business transformation for IBM. She and her team are the focal point within the CIO office for local geographic needs and are responsible to ensure that the process, technology and services delivered meets the business needs and provides a productive work environment. She has held a variety of roles within the IBM CIO office and was previously director for the IBM Global Account in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where she and her team managed IT expenditure to deliver the ongoing operation and innovation of the IBM infrastructure. She was also responsible for running the applications needed to manage IBM's business in Europe including Supply Chain, CRM and the financial systems. Fiona started her career in IT at Brooke Bond Oxo and Conoco. In 1984, she joined IBM in London in technical support. During her 20+ years in IBM, she has worked in sales, marketing, consulting and service delivery. Throughout her career, Fiona has been committed to delivering IT service that meets her client's needs and this experience will serve well in her current role as the IT advocate for IBM employees. Fiona is from the UK and has a Bachelor of Science from the Open University and an MBA from Manchester Business School.
Punita Gajree, Head of Stakeholder Relations, Strategy, Stakeholder Relations and Planning - London 2012
 Punita is currently Head of Stakeholder Relations at the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). She was previously Head of Programme Solutions which involved overseeing the organisation’s integrated programme development. Prior that she was a Management Consultant Partner at Accenture where she was responsible for developing new business relationships, working with senior client executives to define business and IT strategies and drive them through to operational implementation. Punita is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and sits on their Strategic Panel for Women. Punita is also a Changemaker for Working Families and has many notable achievements including being short-listed for Asian Women Achievement Award’s Businesswoman of Year (2001), being recognised by the Institute of Asian Professionals as being one of the top 100 influential British Asians (2005), being invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (2006) and being short-listed for Asian Women Awards of Excellence (2008).
Karen Winney, Director, Business Services UK Ireland & Nordic – Procter & Gamble
 Karen is the Business Services Director for Procter and Gamble, where she heads IT and shared services for the UK, Ireland and Nordic. This includes the delivery of more than 85 services to the organisation, including business building services such as supply chain, financial, customer and consumer services, and employee services including HR support and workplace and infrastructure services. Prior to moving to the UK in 2007, Karen was based in Switzerland where she headed IT for Gillette in Europe. During the 15 years Karen has worked in the consumer products industry she has developed and delivered global retail execution strategies, established and run regional shared service and operations centres and lead programs in Australasia, Japan, India and Europe that have transformed the company’s operations. Karen started her IT career in the finance industry and public sector in New Zealand before joining Gillette in 1994 (P&G 2005). She sits on the GS1UK Board, is a member of the British Computer Society and has a Bachelor of Commerce from Otago University.
The evening's facilitator was Rebecca George OBE, Partner in Deloitte Corporate Finance
 Rebecca is a Partner with Deloitte, responsible for relationship management and business development in Public Sector Corporate Finance. She has worked with the public sector since 2001, in business development and sales executive roles in central government, health and shared services. During this time she chaired the Women in IT Forum, the Intellect Shared Services working group, and the skills group for the Egan review of Sustainable Community skills. Recently she has been working with the Corporate Services Transformation Board at Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) (now the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA)). Rebecca is an accomplished business manager, mentor and coach, strong in teaming across complex organisations. She spent nineteen years at IBM where she spent approximately a third of her time in sales, a third in business process reengineering and business transformation and a third in HR. She has worked in the UK, the US and Europe. Rebecca moved to her current position in 2006. Rebecca is also the current chair of the BCS Strategic Panel for Women.
If you have any questions at all regarding W-Tech 2009, please don't hesitate to contact Maggie Berry - Director, womenintechnology.co.uk on 020 7422 9214 or mberry@womenin.co.uk
The W-Tech event website can be found here: wtech-event.co.uk
|
