“Diversity drives innovation – when we limit who can contribute, we in turn limit what problems we can solve.” ~ Telle Whitney, President & CEO of Anita Borg Institute
Grace Hopper Conference 2014
On October 8th, 7500 women and 500 men came together in Phoenix, Arizona for a three day celebration. The Grace Hopper Conference (GHC) presented by theAnita Borg Institute in partnership with the Association of Computing Machinery, is the largest gathering of women technologists in the world and is dedicated to celebrating women in computing. The three day conference is designed to empower women technologists by providing a platform to showcase women in technology featuring inspiring presentations from industry leaders and professional development activities. This year marked an incredible year for the GHC with double the number of attendees from last year and over 67 countries represented.
The impressive cast of speakers included Arati Prabhakar, Director of US Defense Research, Megan Smith, US Chief Technology Officer, and Shafi Goldwasser, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, just to name a few. Presentations spanned from the latest technological innovations, such as the use of robotic technology in the armed forces and cryptography in cloud computing, all the way to the classic cybersecurity issue of selecting secure passwords.
Additionally, the conference provided an opportunity to continue developing Symantec’s current employees. Discussions also focused around career advancement and professional development – from the value of mentors and sponsors in career advancement to fine-tuning your ‘Superhero’ strengths. As Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft said, “We all have different superpowers – and bring different perspectives to the table. These different perspectives are needed to create the product truth.” Most enlightening are the passionate testimonials from the Symantec attendees invigorated with inspiring accounts of their experience:
It was a fascinating three days… to learn from and connect with not only world renowned leaders, but also extremely bright and courageous women from around the world from undergraduates to VPs. In fact, I have never seen in my life 7,500 women in a single room and felt that kind of energy and passion from a single group of people. Truthfully, I learned some interesting and new things, but the life-changing experience for me was to know how many people struggle with similar challenges and questions, and how the secrets to solving them are simple and basic, yet de-emphasized in our daily lives. ~ Jenny Kang, Director of Globalization
As a veteran of GHC, this one is truly an impressive one. I’m very happy to see and hear from lots of you that you have greatly benefited from the conference and are energized by it. The most rewarding part for me is that many women whom I never met before asked me how they could get involved in the future for the conference. ~ Wei Ling, Sr. Director of Engineering
Wei Ling, Sr. Director of Engineering at Symantec, addresses attendees as General Co-Chair of this year's GHC
While there are countless female leaders that contribute to technological progress around the world, women continue to be under-represented and under-paid, particularly in the field of technology. Recognizing that a diverse workforce translates into a successful organization, Symantec proudly continues to support and participate in the Grace Hopper Conference, one of many efforts to bolster women’s voices in technology. Symantec was once again a silver sponsor and Symantec’s Wei Lin, Sr. Director of Engineering, was General Co-chair for this year’s event.
Antoine Andrews, Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Symantec, addresses the student winners at the NCWIT Student Seed Fund Lunch
During one of the conference days, Symantec sponsored the NCWIT Student Seed Fund Lunch, where several student winners of the NCWIT Seed Fund presented their grant-winning programs to executives. The NCWIT Student Seed Fund offers $1,000 to student-run programs that encourage women’s participation in technology. Avani Patel, Principal Software Engineer at Symantec, found that the “opportunity to talk to some of the smartest girls was probably the highlight of my conference.”
Symantec looks forward to future participation at the Grace Hopper Conference in years to come. You can see more about what the attendees had to say in thisvideo. To learn more about Symantec’s involvement, email: Global_Diversity@Symantec.com