It is really lovely to watch the Connecting Women in Technology network go from strength to strength. Here we are at Avaya’s offices in Guildford for our 16th collaborative event between our companies.
For this event we wanted to inspire our women attendees and ask them to focus on themselves. We called this session “YouPLC” and asked attendees to consider how we would move forward with the next rotation of CWT. We have now completed two complete cycles of events at each company and have found an event format that works for enterprise employees.
During the afternoon we talked about the changing way of work, how businesses, and workers would have to adapt to the new level of technology integrating with our daily work.
We had two breakout sessions focusing on how technology in the future would look like for employees, how to be gender smart, we asked what attendees would like the next iteration of CWT to look like, and we had a digital age clinic looking into the future of work. Here’s our agenda, crafted by the CWT project team.
- 13:00 Welcome and Introduction. Nina Wilson, Avaya
- 13:15 Key Note Speaker Ade McCormack.
- 14:25 Breakout session
- 15:10 Move to second breakout session
- 15:20 Breakout session
- 16:05 Coffee break
- 16:30 Debate, closing session
- 17:15 Drinks, Nibbles and Networking
We use attendee feedback to craft our next session, at IBM. We are always delighted to receive constructive feedback as it helps us improve our events.
We are also heartened by the positive comments we get after events like this. All of us are volunteers who come together twice a year at these events. They are not in our work objectives, nor are we rewarded for our efforts. Thank you for your comments:
“This event was very inspiring to me, especially in the current situation that I am in. It gave me inspiration that everything is possible! It’s great to meet people and find out that some the issues that you are facing are very similar to others …
I am definitely will start reaching out to schools, I made a commitment to my team to do an event at a school that is happening before June. Also want to stir more awareness if CWT at Microsoft going forward. Thank you Avaya for a thought provoking day.
Valuable in that it made me question the value of the group overall ‘Connecting women in Tech’. I’d like to see it more as ‘Increasing women in tech’ or ‘Supporting women in tech.’ I will pay more attention to my own personal skills and development and relevancy.
Made me think about the issue more than I have previously and I would like to get more involved in such events.
It was a great event. Really useful topics and great people. One note though, please next time arrange some fresh water for the guests 🙂
Really appreciate what CWT team does. Very Informative and really good Networking event. Will ensure I can attend and get inspired by attending more of these sessions!
I always take something away from a CWT event. This year it will be from Ade’s presentation that a digital future will be measured on life experience and value of your social network not formal education.
It’s made me think about what I can become an expert in and what conscious career decisions I can make to progress whilst keeping a work life balance. As the only female in an all male team, being aware of the skills that I bring to team, how I may approach situations differently and making sure I highlight these.”
Eileen's Digital Technology 