Girls in Tech Conference: My Key Takeaways
In her guest blog, our graduate Rachel Murgatroyd shares what she learnt at the Girls in Tech conference.
In the UK, only 17% of tech roles are held by women and once a woman gets a job in the tech sector, they then leave the industry at a 45% higher rate than men. The Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference works to resolve this by providing both role models and mentors — the lack of which can be major contributing factors to women leaving their tech roles.
A couple of weeks ago, I attended Catalyst London where leading women in tech shared their stories, passions and advice. Below I’ve listed the highlights from some of the talks and take away practical tips.
1) How to Lead without Leading
Denise Law, Head of Product for the Economist
Denise took us on her journey from journalist to Head of Product at the Economist and her trials and tribulations, specifically when she started to head up a department focusing on social media — at the time an area that many people around her had a somewhat pessimistic view of.
Personally coming from a background in education where most, nay, EVERY female leader I had come across had been described negatively, nearly always by a man, using adjectives from ‘weak’, to ‘abrasive’ and ‘pushy’, I found her advice on treating leadership as a mindset rather than a title, fascinating.
Amongst her excellent pointers were to listen and not to force change. She described following a negative start at her new job, she set up meetings with employees so she could listen to their concerns and from there, the environment and relationships completely changed for the better. She explained that to gain respect and have control, it was necessary to take ownership and admit when you’re wrong.
Denise also spoke about the importance of being humble and admitting if you don’t know something — this being a sign of strength rather than weakness. She highlighted the importance of giving credit back to your team and colleagues and to help them shine. Be overly optimistic and finally, tell stories and analogies, which I can say that having listened to Denise is something that she does incredibly well. It was such an inspiring start!
2) Where do you want to work and what do you want to achieve?
Sarah Winmill, CIO at British Transport Police
@swinmill
Another inspiring speaker — to the extent that having looked back in my notebook I seem to have a fairly empty page because I was so engaged and hanging on her every word. So, from memory — Sarah’s key message was to focus on what you care about — something that I myself have been really keen to keep as a central motive in my own career journey when applying for jobs.
Sarah had a fascinating journey — one which begun as her starting out as a talented musician at school. Whilst at university studying music, she found herself working part-time at the Royal Albert Hall (RAH) as an usher and front of house. Having left university without a qualification, she continued working full-time at the RAH and enjoyed being central to some of the best musical performances in the world. Whilst working there, she implemented ways to make staff payment systems better automated and more efficient through the use of tech.
She continued to work at other huge institutions around London, such as at UCL improving their clearing systems for university applications — something that used to be done manually which could now, through the use of tech, be done quickly and efficiently. Then on to the V&A museum where she was instrumental in putting the entire collection online for users to explore. She finally arrived at British Transport Police where she embedded best practice across the entire estate, ending repeated systems failure and compromised systems security. Given the recent article on Google’s smart-city using ‘tech for tech’s sake’, it seems more important than ever to remember Sarah’s key message that in tech, “it’s not how you made it, it’s what you do with it that matters”.
3) Fireside Chat with Gillian Tans, Chairwoman of Booking.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilliantans/
Next up on the list of inspiring women was Gillian Tans — yet again, what an incredible journey! Gillian started out in hospitality and joined Booking.com when it was just starting up. During her time there, the company has expanded to more than 10,000 employees and Gillian worked her way up in the business.
Throughout their chat, Gillian gave some extremely sound advice, both for those at the top of their companies and for their employees. Generally, her advice for all was to be open to learn and to be curious. For those working in big companies — stay focused, show your results and shout about what you’re doing! And for those setting up their own businesses — take up opportunities and don’t be afraid to fail. Gillian also spoke about it’s a company’s responsibility to have external programmes encouraging women in tech, for example, through sponsorships such as the Tech Playmaker Awards.
4) How to Lead in a Technology Business, When You Aren’t a ‘Techy’
Ariane Gorin, President of Expedia Partner Solutions — Expedia Group
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianegorin/
Prior to joining Expedia, Ariane came from a non-tech background and had various roles in sales and marketing at Microsoft. She then became General Manager and Senior Vice President at Expedia Affiliate network, before becoming President of Expedia Partner Solutions. Some key messages from Ariane were “fake it ’til you make it”. For Ariane it was highly important to admit what you don’t know — she advised looking it up later — and then bringing the conversation back round to a topic that you are more familiar with and know well and coming back to your ‘safe space’.
She also talked about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people and empowering them — for Ariane for example, it was important that she could work with someone who could explain tech concepts in a way that she could understand, so that she was then able to take this on board and relay this information to other colleagues. Throughout her various roles, it’s been key for Ariane to have a broad business understanding and finally, to have a growth mindset and be an infinite learner — a recurring theme in advice throughout the day.
5) If I can do it, so can you!
Professor Sue Black, Professor in Computer Science and Technology Evangelist — Durham University
Lastly but by no means least, Professor Sue Black — again another empty page in my notepad but a talk that I’m sure will remain etched in my memory for a long time to come. And again, an extraordinary story…
Sue talked us through her early love of maths, a turbulent home life after the death of her mother when she was 12, her leaving home at 16, an early marriage and becoming a stay-at-home mum by the age of 25. This was followed by an abusive marriage which culminated in her and her children staying in a women’s refuge before finally being housed in a council flat. Once there, Sue went back to school and recalling her love of maths as a child, took a polymaths evening course at Southwark College. After coming top of the class and doing better than the rest of her (mostly male) classmates, she completed a degree in computing and went on to get a PhD in software engineering. She then proceeded to take on academic roles at her university before becoming head of her department. This alone was a huge journey in itself. However, it doesn’t stop there.
Sue Black is particularly well known for her twitter campaign to save Bletchley Park, which with the help of Stephen Fry’s retweet saved the historical and educational park from closing. She has since founded #techmums, a free course offering mums to improve their skills in technology and has received an OBE from the Queen for her services to technology.
I think the title of her talk really does summarise the story perfectly — if she can do it, so can you! Hearing the incredible journeys of these women in tech — most of whom have not followed the ‘classic tech route’ to get where they are was truly inspiring. I went home feeling empowered, listening to the Spice Girls and looking forward to the unknown tech adventures that myself and other like-minded women have yet to come.
Click here to follow Rachel on Twitter and keep up to date with her latest tech adventures!
