Women Who Tech TeleSummit
Jennifer
Last Monday, I “attended” the first ever Women Who Tech TeleSummit — and by “attended,” I mean all the panels happened virtually via phone and web. I’ve been on phone conferences that have been anything but productive but these tech savvy women did not disappoint! I was able to listen to panelists speak individually via the telephone and chime in with a comment or two via the web, where I was also able to view the Powerpoint presentations given by the panelists. Definitely a multi-media experience!
The information disseminated was also very impressive. In one panel entitled “Tooting Your Own Horn,” panelist Megan Fitzgerald of Career By Choice described how women — but really, anyone — can stand to benefit from creating a personal brand. Essentially, if you want people to perceive you as an expert in your field(s), you have to eat, sleep, live, and breathe it. Your personal brand should be embodied not only by the work you do but how you live. Fitzgerald and fellow panelist Lynne d. Johnson of Fast Company suggested you monitor your brand by using Google Alerts. Also recommended by Fitzgerald was to use Career Distinction’s Online Identity Calculator to see how strong your online identity is (ie: does it best represent the person you think you are?). I recommend you try it out. I took this little quiz myself and found no surprises — well, one pleasant surprise, someone I helped with some code a while back still credits me!
Another panel I attended which I found very interesting was titled “Everything You Wanted to Know About Tech But Were Afraid to Ask (a Man).” Prior to the telesummit, attendees had the opportunity to submit questions which they wanted panelists to answer. The panelists were all very distinguished and came from different backgrounds. In the end, it was nice to see that no question was left without a good thoughtful answer. I certainly left that panel a little bit wiser with all my questions answered.
I thought these panels really embodied the spirit of the entire telesummit. They are testament to the fact that women are capable of being experts in the extremely male dominated field that is tech. Not to mention that women are often at the forefront of fostering opportunities by which we can continue to use increasingly available collaborative technologies to share our collective knowledge and empower each other.
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