What an AWESOME luncheon that was! Everyone raved about it.

By Shala Arshi, October 4, 2016

Our Women in Big Data Meetup and Luncheon @ Strata+Hadoop World Conference was well attended and well received.

wibd_stratahadoop_meetup08e — 2016 Women in Big Data Meetup and Luncheon @ Strata+Hadoop World Conference

wibd_stratahadoop_meetup01e — Shala Arshi started with opening remarks on the Women in Big Data initiative and the progress it has made.

We held the event on September 28, 2016 at Javits Center NYC in a beautiful venue, the River Pavilion, with an amazing view. Approximately 250 people attended the lunch, over 90% of whom were women.

wibd_stratahadoop_meetup02-03e — David Fishman

A big thank you to Arcadia Data for sponsoring the lunch and to David Fishman and Susan Rojo for all their support. They shared a video screening of Night of the Living Data. Great video.

wibd_stratahadoop_meetup04e — Keynote speaker Jill Dyche

Our keynote speaker Jill Dyche, author and Vice President, SAS Best Practices, delivered a heartwarming talk “Big Data, One Dog at a Time” which resonated very well with the audience, touching everyone. She is an amazing speaker and we were lucky to have her back at this event. The very engaged audience had lots of good questions, which Jill addressed during the networking time. Here is link to Jill’s presentation.

wibd_stratahadoop_meetup05e — Gunjan Sharma at Capital One will be heading up the WiBD east coast chapter

During the luncheon we also announced for formation of the Women in Big Data east coast chapter — watch the announcement here. Gunjan Sharma at Capital One will be heading it up. Gunjan has formed the meetup group Washington DC Women in Big Data as the starting point. Many in the audience expressed interest in starting a meetup group in other east coast cities.

wibd_stratahadoop_meetup06e — Networking with Susan Woodward of Sand Hill Econometric

Among our attendees we also had the pleasure of having Susan Woodward of Sand Hill Econometrics joining and networking with us. Prior to the luncheon she delivered a great keynote at the main Strata+Hadoop World conference, where she included a number of interesting details about female founders of venture companies.

All in all, it was another great event for the Women in Big Data Forum. Thanks to Suzanne Axtell, Marketing Operations & Diversity Outreach with O’Reilly Media, for all the logistical support that helped make it an excellent experience for all.