Pakistan Tech Summit 2020
Event Highlights from PakTech Summit 2020 Silicon Valley
Ejad Labs along with Pakistani Women in Computing organized Pakistan Tech Summit 2020 — Silicon Valley on Feb 15th, to celebrate startups, innovators and inventors working on disruptive technologies around the globe. This was a house full event with 300 attendees including the top Pakistani entrepreneurs, techies and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and a 50 people delegation from Pakistan.
PWiC Sessions
PWiC held three sessions:
- Fireside Chat: Foresting Innovation through Diversity and Inclusion with Dr. Telle Whitney and Huma Hamid
- Shoes from the Soul by Afshan Abbas, talk about her startup Fuchsia Shoes
- Panel: Innovation in Big Tech Companies with Maheen Sohail Muazma Zahid Kashi Tahir and Usman Muhammad
Fireside chat with Dr. Telle Whitney
Huma Hamid (PWiC Co-founder) introduced Dr. Telle Whitney and PWiC. Key takeaways from the chat:
- Diversity is not having more women or more people of color, it is having a diverse set of voices that enable building solutions that are innovative and work for the majority.
- Diversity starts with a company’s leadership, not from bottom-up.
- Diversity drives innovation, when we limit who can contribute, we limit what we can solve.
- Men are as much part of the conversation as women are. Diversity is not a woman’s goal, it’s a people’s goal.
- Hiring women and retaining them should be on everyone’s list. Women are half the population and when women excel, a country’s economy excels.
- Meritocracy in hiring is already rigged and defined by a small set of people who assume their right to defining it. That leads to a limited set of voices to the solution table!
Thanks to Dr. Telle Whitney for supporting our young community to set the right foundation from the beginning!
Shoes from the Soul by Afshan Abbas
Afshan Abbas talked about her startup Fuchsia Shoes and how it's changing the artisan’s lives. Fuchsia’s sustainable footwear is all about high-quality, environmentally responsible shoes that genuinely benefit the artisans who make them.
Panel: Innovation in Big Tech Companies
Maheen Sohail (Facebook, AI & VR) moderated a panel discussion about Innovation in Big tech Companies and panelists included Muazma Zahid (Sr. Data Engineer, Microsoft), Kashi Tahir (Facebook, AR /VR)and Usman Muhammad ( Level5 Lyft, Autonomous Vehicles).
Key takeaways:
- Learn from failures and learning from mistakes is important — Kashi
- Having the right team and mindset is key for innovation — Muazma
- Engineering practices and applying learnings in day-day work — Usman
Panelist’s view about success in their respective field:
- Cloud computing access/training and usage in all companies. Diversity in tech and especially young startup's success in the future! — Muazma
- Self-driving cars without errors from point A- B will be a measure of success. We have a lot to improve and perfect this process. — Usman
- AR/VR access and a variety of applications in Industry — Kashi
Special Thanks
Arzish Azam and his team did an amazing job in bringing Pakistan and Silicon valley tech community together.
PWiC team Novaira Masood Saadia Khan Kanza Khan showed up to drive the mission forward by participating and bringing women in tech to the table.
Also great interaction with NUSTIAN USA, Iranian Women in Computing and Chinese Women in Computing, TechWomen, and the local tech community!
Voice of America
Voice of America attended the event on PWiC’s invitation and covered the event. Stay tuned for the VoA coverage from the event!
Dinner Celebration
Networking dinner for the presenters, organizers, and sponsors was hosted at Malika Junaid's home and Huma Hamid from PWiC gave a speech. Arzish Azam thanked everyone and specially PWiC for the collaboration.
About the Author: Muazma Zahid
Muazma is Sr. Data Engineer at Microsoft Azure and has been in the tech industry for over thirteen years. She is passionate about Data, AI and Cloud Computing. She is an advocate of diversity and inclusion at the workplace and enjoys helping and empowering others via several platforms. She believes in building a world of equal opportunity for all. She is also a volunteer by heart in several organizations like AnitaB.org, Women @ Microsoft, Women Who Code and President for Pakistani Women in Computing.
Connect via Twitter @MuazmaZahid and LinkedIn
