During the last week of June, we had the privilege of joining 6,000 other like-minded individuals in London at the ‘Women of Silicon Roundabout Conference’, making the conference the largest gathering of women tech professionals in Europe.
In their own words: “The Women of Silicon Roundabout Conference enables people and organizations to connect, learn and take action on gender diversity and inclusion. Through inspirational keynotes, panel discussions on business strategy, technical classes, and career development workshops, this conference provides all the content and networking opportunities needed to flourish in the tech sector.”
Here are a few key learnings we took away from the event:
Reflection:
“Knowing yourself, is the new knowing stuff.” – Amy Freelander
Technical Product/Program Manager at Google
Successful leaders spend 80% of their time working on themselves and their mindset. There is a big shift towards understanding ourselves and each other behaviourally to get the most out of our own capabilities and others. What is important to you? What is essential? What part of your skillset do you want to use? It is essential to reflect and ask these questions to yourself.
Sharing Stories & Your Whole Self:
“Connect to the narrative of others, that’s real leadership” – Dan Leatherdale and Christianne Davies
Chief Executive and Founding Director at AGL
Don’t be afraid to be yourself at work – everyone has their own style, from communication to leadership. People show respect towards authenticity, and are aware when you are not being so. Be willing to share your stories of success, failure, struggle, and what you do and don’t know.
Learning & Curiosity:
“Be willing to make mistakes. Own them. Don’t let fear hold you back.” – Chris Burgess
Global Vice President at Expedia IT
Much of learning can be free – ask each other questions and share your knowledge. The best way to try new things is through collaboration with others. Accelerating your learning is about being able to have free reign to be self-motivated. One of the best things you can do for your tech career in 2019 is to find out what you are actually interested in and take any opportunity you can and learn more about it.
The amount of people that came together to support women in technology over the course of two days was truly inspiring. Vita Mojo is proud to be part of the mission to continually increase the number of women working in the technology sector.
We hope you enjoyed our takeaways and would love to hear from anyone else who attended ‘Woman of Silicon Roundabout’ – please feel free to reach out and share your thoughts!
