On March 8, 2019, Pluto7, Google Cloud, and Women in Big Data teams hosted a meaningful afternoon full of conversations around how empowering female leadership often leads to innovation in the tech space. By gathering on International Women’s Day, we celebrated our achievements in tech and discussed ways to continue making great contributions.
EVENT OVERVIEW
Rosa Elena Lorenzano, Head of ML/AI for HiTech at Pluto7
Our group of attendees heard from a panel of great female leaders including Jen Bennett – Technical Director. Office of the CTO at Google Cloud, Shanti Iyer – Chief Data Officer, VP Data & Analytics Office at Cisco, Kelsey Domme – Field Sales Representative at Google Cloud, Dipty Delsai – Head of ML/AI for Healthcare at Pluto7, Yulia Tell – Co-Founder Women in Big Data & Program Manager at Google Cloud, and our moderator, Rosa Lorenzano – Head of ML/AI for HiTech at Pluto7.
Our goal was to inspire women in tech communities to lead change in their workplaces and provide networking opportunities while celebrating Women’s International day.
HIGHLIGHTS
Jen’s inspirational keynote was centered around the importance of empowering other women, seeking mentorship, and including men in conversations related to gender diversity in the tech industry.
Panelist talked about their life experiences and the realities of being a woman in tech. They shared ideas and recommendations for the next generation of women leaders, while providing meaningful insights from their personal and professional journeys.
Attendees were highly engaged during the Q&A session; speakers and attendees engaged in interesting discussions about salary negotiations, finding professional and personal life balance, leadership challenges, and gender inequality.
During the networking reception, relevant conversations and highlights around hiring processes, Pluto7 services, Google Cloud certifications, Google culture and other important topics were shared between the panelist, Pluto7 team, and the audience.
QUOTES
“Thanks for providing us the opportunity to feel inspired and empowered, the energy in the room was just incredible” – Palak Bathia, MS Business Analytics from SCU.
“This event exceed all my expectations, from the speakers and the quality of questions, to the giveaways and food variety” – Mila Putrenko, Recruitment Partner at BC Hydro.
LESSONS LEARNED
Conversations around women empowerment and gender equality should be happening at every level, team and company.
According to different research, It will take up to 100 years to close the gender gap.
When it comes to taking risks, fail fast and forwards.
How do Women in Tech grow? A sponsor or champion (someone who believes in you and sticks their neck out for you) comes alongside you.
Jen is a Technical Director in Google Cloud’s Office of the CTO.
She is passionate about collaborating with and inspiring customers to transform their organizations through IOT, data, analytics and machine learning.
Prior to Google, Jen was the GM and VP Product Management of Manufacturing Software at GE Digital. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MS in BioEngineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
Shanthi Iyer is Cisco’s Chief Data Officer and VP of the Data & Analytics group within Cisco’s Operations organization.
A 23-year technology industry veteran, Shanthi started at Cisco in 1997 as an Oracle DBA. She has worked across Cisco, driving results and being disruptive in Infrastructure, Cisco Services, Commerce, Sales and Supply Chain.
She specializes in building deep, trust based relationships with customers to help them innovate, optimize and transform their companies by adopting Cloud.
Before Googler life, Kelsey worked at SAP in their HANA Cloud Platform business. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Business, Communications & Programmatic Marketing, and a Master’s of Science in Business Information and Analytics from the University of Denver.
Kelsey is an avid marathon runner, lover of Kombucha, electronic music, and Golden Doodles.
Yulia is a Program Manager for Cloud Partner Engineering (in Google Cloud), working across Google Cloud to enable high profile technology partnership through technical integrations and program management.
She joined Google after spending 10+ years at Intel, where she worked on a variety of projects such as partner engagements in the big data domain, new product development in IOT, and developer relations.
She is the co-founder of Women in Big Data initiative, and previously was the co-chair for Women@Intel Network
LESSONS LEARNED
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