News From ACM-W India
Report of GHC India 2015
More than 2,000 women technologists convened in Bangalore for the sixth annual Grace Hopper Celebration India, the largest gathering of women in technology in the country. This year’s conference theme was #OurTimeToLead.
Following opening remarks from Telle Whitney, President and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute (ABI) and Geetha Kannan, Managing Director of ABI India, Kimberly Stevenson, Vice President and CIO at Intel delivered the day’s first keynote address. Her talk centered on the concept of the butterfly effect, which suggests that small actions can make a big difference, especially in the technology industry.
Kimberly highlighted the fact that women are the primary consumers — and increasingly, the creators — of today’s most innovative technologies. With this in mind, she underscored how important it is to continue the momentum that has attracted so many talented female technologists from India into the technology market.
The CXO panel touched upon Innovation, Inclusion, Internet @ India 2.0 – Where Are We Headed, moderated by Tata Sons CTO Gopichand Katragadda. The panelists included Rekha Menon, Chairman of Accenture India, Sandhya Vasudevan, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer at Deutsche Bank Group in India, Dinesh Malkani, President of Cisco India and SAARC and Dr. Manish Gupta, Vice President of Xerox Corporation and Director of the Xerox Research Center in India.
The panelists discussed how the seemingly disparate issues of innovation, inclusion and the Internet come together to create India’s technology landscape today. One of the main takeaways from the panel discussion highlighted the importance of innovating for an educated, well-informed audience of Indian consumers. To succeed, the panelists agreed, companies both big and small must think about disruption.
On the second day the attendees dove into technical topics, covering issues like data science and machine learning, emerging technologies, innovations born in India and systems engineering. It was also the first day of the student career fair, and the final round of the Tech For Good Hackathon. Again, the sessions captured how India’s female technologist population can embrace the theme of #OurTimeToLead, learn from their peers and pass on their knowledge to the next generation.
The final day of the Grace Hopper Celebration India (GHCI), held in Bangalore, offered attendees a wide variety of sessions touching on topics ranging from early career advice, entrepreneurship, management and leadership skills, soft skills and how to get back to work in the booming Indian technology industry.
GHCI’s 2,000+ attendees could choose between panels discussing using LinkedIn to build your professional brand, mastering the art of the startup pitch, tackling the ever-present imposter syndrome and exploring the dichotomy that exists for female leaders.
The day concluded with the 2015 Women Entrepreneur Quest, a business plan contest designed to encourage, showcase and recognize tech startups founded and managed by female entrepreneurs.
ACM India sponsored around 40 members to GHCI 15. An ACM Student chapter meeting was organized which was also attended by the Professional members participating in the conference. Many issues were discussed which included the benefits of opening a ACM-W chapter; the need and modalities of organizing conferences for women; encourage active participation from women both professional and student members. The Hour of Code initiative was also discussed.