YES WE CAN!
To celebrate International Women’s Day, this WiBD DUS event on March 5, 2020 @Metronom GmbH was just about us – WOMEN. We had a special line up of magnificent women to enlighten and inspire us. They shared their experiences with us and explained which skills and tools we need and how to apply them in a pragmatic way as a successful data expert. As a surprise, we welcomed two coaches to help our participants start their new journey and unlock any blockers to be even more successful in their lives.

We welcomed roughly 65 participants, from different industries and diverse backgrounds, who are interested in Data and learning more about technology and the impact on the organisations in various verticals.

The doors opened at 18:30 and we welcomed our guests with tasty snacks and drinks provided by our generous host METRONOM.

The event was kicked off by Eylem Bars, from the Brand Experience team at METRONOM GmbH, who welcomed our guests and shared some insights about the company. Liisel Jessop followed, presenting our vision and introducing our Women in Big Data Organisation, team and community events in Düsseldorf.

The first speaker of the evening was Nathalie Wess, who, in her insightful talk, explained how important it is to know the basics about reading and writing data, memory and processing, and their impact on the performance to the tools. She stressed that no data project can be successful if it fails on performance.

It was incredibly insightful, and listening to her making a rather complex topic easy to follow and understand was priceless.

Our audience could not let her go; they asked many questions, mostly about her journey from a cognitive science degree into the tech world. She had a lot inspiring tips and encouraged us all to be bold and try out things we like and follow our passion.

Our second speaker was Dora Petrella, a data scientist from Metronom. Dora presented a real use case on how Metronom uses ML and AI to gain more insights about their customers. It was fascinating to learn about all the different aspects of the journey, from semantic presentation of the products and customers to their segmentation and deeper customer insights. One of the highlights was of, course, her live demonstration of the model.

Valentin Balzar and Andreas Manten wrapped up our event and evening by providing more clarity about the difference between coaching and mentoring. Once the official part of the event was completed, our members had the opportunity to have coaching chemistry sessions with the coaches, and we hope for some it will be the beginning of an exciting new journey.

This evening was a great example of the beauty, wit, knowledge and power of us, women – Yes we can!

COMMENTS FROM ATTENDEES
“You cannot only see the difference to other meetups but also hear it. The event is really social but still serves qualitative content. I appreciate that.”

“I enjoy that you manage to organize good speakers and beautiful locations.”

INTERESTING FACTS
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we took all possible precautionary measures to assure that we are safe and sound. To our surprise we had the highest attendance rate and best feedback since the launch of our chapter. We really enjoyed the hospitality we experienced from our hosts, METRONOM. Thank you to Eylem and Anna who made it possible.

We were very pleased to welcome new joiners and along with our “regulars”. The atmosphere was energetic and humming with life. Our event, also welcomed 4 male guests, who seemed to enjoy the evening as much as the ladies did.

The core team is very thankful for all who to made this super successful evening possible and are looking forward to see you at the next event in May.

Meetup link