Live blog: Women in Technology lunch at #PASSSummit #passwit

wit111:48am This will be starting shortly! We’re stuffing our faces, first.

Today’s featured speaker is Lauri Bingham, Director of Technology Engineering Project Management at T-Mobile (LinkedIn).

Let’s go!

12:15pm Wendy Pastrick, PASS Executive VP, opens the show. This is the 16th annul WIT luncheon at PASS Summit. And now, Lauri Bingham.

https://twitter.com/sqlpass/status/1060627727017959424

Story Time: Why WIT?

12:20pm This is a familiar story, seeing how much trouble her mother had after her divorce. “I never wanted to be in that position, that I could not take care of myself and my children.”

She (Lauri) took all the math classes that were available in high school, and so took a BASIC class next. She became a single mom at 25, but being a woman in technology saved the situation…she could support herself and her girl. Now she has four kids, all with college degrees (I think I heard that rigth). “I have, in two generations, been able to entirely transform my family, because of [being a woman in] technology.”

“So that’s why I do this.” <– STRONGLY AGREE. I watched how hard it was after my mom and dad divorced, too, so it means a lot to me that women have the opportunity to support themselves well, especially as single parents.

WIT initiative at T-Mobile

12:25pm A coworker started a WIT initiative at T-Mobile, and got Lauri involved. Year 1 was 2016, working out plans and goals.

“When you serve food, you get better attendance.” Wise words.

Mission statement: “….to improve gender diversity in the Technology Organization…” I.e., to get more women into their tech group.

Aside from me: I was invited to speak at an event this coming year, along with my partner and husband Sean, “but especially you, Jen”. I said, “Because you  need more women speakers.” The person inviting me began to look uncomfortable, so I said “no no, don’t worry, I don’t feel like you’re only inviting me to fill a quota. I’m glad you’re thinking about this, and working on it!”  This is all awkward territory, and there’s no way to go about it perfectly, but I sure do appreciate it when people are trying to be more diverse, for gender, for race, and more. Okay, back to

12:33pm: “…why gender in technology is good for everyone. Guess what? We invited everyone…”

They kept stats of their 2017 meetings and training, across several locations: how many people attended, how many were allies, etc. Yay data! (We don’t judge that you kept the stats in Excel, ma’am.) AND they surveyed everyone after each meeting (via email). Very positive feedback.

WIT Diversity Conferences

12:40pm Wow, it looks like they actually put together WIT conferences, with nominations, pre-conference readiness meetings, swag, attendee events, feedback, etc. That’s some pretty solid activity.

One of the conference slides shown is “Lesbians Who Tech / San Francisco Summit 2017”, which it looks like T-Mobile sent people to. HOW FANTASTIC! Representation matters, kids. (I’m now especially happy to be a T-Mobile customer.)

12:45pm: It looks like they have also worked on the Boys and Girls Club STEM events, which is also fabulous. “Exposing kids to careers that they might otherwise not know about.”

Aside: I love seeing the progress of the WIT luncheon over the years. There was some “awareness raising” and “issues” type lunches, then some “here’s what you can do” lunches, and this is a “LOOK WHAT WE HAVE DONE”, and I love it.

Year 3 – 2018

“We’re going to run, and we’re going to run a lot.”  They now have 13 meeting locations, and have expanded WIT and diversity conferences (12), and expanded STEM (plus “bring your kids to work day”).

“Everybody’s path into technology is totally different.”

12:53, aside: The expansion from 1 woman to 20 to 10 events to an international visitor leadership program is so neat, and so exponential, one really expects to hear that they’ve put Women in Technology on the moon next year.

Seven key so starting your own WIT

12:57pm: Taken more or less verbatim from Lauri’s slides:

  1. Don’t get stuck on how you measure success
  2. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution
  3. Show up
  4. It’s a marathon, not a sprint
  5. You cant do it all at once, don’t get discouraged!
  6. Bring people with you (not everyone is going to be ready)
  7. Say YES!

https://twitter.com/sqlpass/status/1054825159230656513

Intermission

1:00pm: Kathi Kellenberger and Rie Irish are up for a moment before the QnA. Kathi asks that we join the WIT virtual group.

Rie thanks the women attending, and then the allies, “we couldn’t have done this without you, if we could, we would have done it years ago…” (laughter)

Question and Answer

When did you ask for budget? What level of exec sponsorship do you have? And is this any full time support for this?

Year 2 we asked for budget. We had such great executive sponsorship that same year, who said “go ahead and ask for a lot”. We put all that into the travel and conference budget, and now it extends into swag for STEM events.  And, it’s still all of our side gigs. There is a diversity and inclusion team that supports us…

Aside: I actually got up to ask, in essence…

How can we make diversity efforts less awkward? It’s hard for people to ask for more women speakers, for example, without sounding like they’re filling out a checklist.

Her answer boiled down to an excellent piece of advice for the women being asked: Say YES when you’re asked! You’ve worked hard to get where you are, so have the confidence to accept those invitations. As for the people doing the inviting, it’s hard. Plan ahead, give yourself time, expand your networks (which are currently largely male). Also, to find her on Twitter and ask advice!

There were more questions, but I do believe that the video will be available up on PassTV.

The End

This was by far the best Women in Technology session I have ever seen.

2 thoughts on “Live blog: Women in Technology lunch at #PASSSummit #passwit”

  1. Pingback: SQL work-vacation, Thursday! (#Workation #PASSSummit) > The MidnightDBA Star-Times

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