The Munich chapter of Women in Big Data kicked off 2018 with a MeetUp on March 22^nd, signifying the growth trajectory of WiBD chapter in Germany. We are delighted to see the EMEA Region develop, and we welcome Munich to our established team of chapters in N. Novgorod, Paris and Dublin.

There was a lot on the agenda, with plenty of information to absorb and some exercises to complete. Nahia ORDUNA (Vodafone) kicked off with a WiBD overview presentation, Peter HAYWARD (Intel) facilitated an engaging coaching session, and Aymeric GERARDIN (Amadeus) delivered an insightful presentation on data analytics. A social networking event closed the evening.

A copy of the “Building Strong Career Paths” presentation by Peter Hayward, Learning and Development Manager EMEA at Intel Corporation, is available for download here, along with a video on tips and tricks for your elevator pitch. Successful careers in technology are rarely built from chance. Peter provided some food for thought on how to set your career up for success, hopefully bust some real and perceived female career myths, discover some best known methods, and provide an opportunity for participants to collaborate, share and network with one another.

Aymeric GERARDIN, Manager, Data management and monitoring at Amadeus IT Group, raised some fundamental questions in his “Data Analytics and IT as a Service” presentation: How to create technology platforms? How to industrialize technologies to provide reusable components in a company? Discover the fine-tuned process behind such implementations. Why are they important? What are the take-aways? You can download Aymeric’s slides here.

There were a lot of discussions going on in the room, and plenty of opportunities to collaborate. Despite the challenge of the weather and heavy traffic in Munich, about half of the registered 149 attendees made it to the MeetUp. Quite a few women were not from high-tech but from Finance, Marketing and HR sectors, where big data tools have become ubiquitous.

We are happy to have this new energetic team on board and are wishing them every success in growing a strong WiBD community in Munich. They did an excellent job pulling together this first complex event. Despite the fact that the Munich chapter team is represented by different companies, the execution was flawless, and they truly role-modeled cooperation and leadership. Thank you so much, Nahia ORDUNA (Vodafone), Aymeric GERARDIN (Amadeus), Peter HAYWARD (Intel), Astrid Steingrueber (Intel), Anka Roeglin (Intel), Astrid Neumann (Mercateo),  Audrey Braconi (Mindtree), and welcome on board!