The Women in Tech Festival sets a theme for the future

Computing's inaugural festival was a roaring success. Computing' editorial director Stuart Sumner discusses why it's the future for technology events

On Tuesday Computing joined forces with sister title CRN and put on the Women in Tech Festival at the Brewery in London.

It was an incredible event with over 600 delegates, and a huge array of sessions and activities including networking, mentoring, mindfulness and various workshops on top of presentations and panels.

And with three streams focusing on the next generation, inspirational leaders and industry innovation, there was something for everyone, at every stage of their career.

What struck me the most however was the atmosphere. With over 90 per cent of delegates being women, there was naturally a different dynamic than you might find at standard technology-focused events. People seemed genuinely excited to be there, with lots of people taking group photos in front of the branding.

And with sessions like the Mentoring Academy and Speed Networking, everyone left with a newly bulging contact book.

The positive atmosphere of course also comes from the theme, that of promoting diversity in IT. It's a core topic for Computing, and one we very much believe in, with our annual Women in IT Excellence Awards, coming up on the 27th November this year.

One way to encourage more diversity is to celebrate and promote the many female success stories we have in the industry, and we know this is important to you, our audience, too.

We had a fantastic session from Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, co-founder of Stemettes, who brought a message of proactivity and a can-do spirit to her keynote. She advised delegates to 'work out loud' to get noticed.

"Find a comfortable way to be visible. Work out loud. Get into habit of sharing ideas and expertise," she advised, launching into an anecdote about at time when her then-employer expected her to buy her own air fare to attend a tech conference in the US, something her male colleague had not been asked to do.

Because she had spent time building her internal network, Anne-Marie was able to quickly raise the fare via crowdfunding, which drew the attention of senior management who not only covered the expenses but also admonished her managers for their decision.

We also loved that the event was genuinely a festival, rather than a more standard technology conference - with so many fringe events, and the emphasis very much on inclusion and interactivity. This isn't somewhere you come to sit at the back and fiddle with your phone.

And we're delighted to annouce our IT Leaders Festival which will take place in October 2020.

This will be a four-stream festival for CIOs and other senior leaders, incorporating all the guidance and advice needed by board-level execs, with all the fantastic fringe events you should expect.

I'm putting together a Steering Committee of IT Leaders now, so if you'd like to be involved, please drop me a line on [email protected]!