Hello everyone ,
Hope you are all staying safe and enjoying the summer!!
Firstly, updates from DPWIT…
1 Our Call for Speakers for the WIT panel discussion will close this week! If you did not get a chance to be selected as a speaker, this may be a second chance to try! More details here!
2 We have partnered with Solarwinds on a project to promote women tech speakers! Our next talk in this series will be from Database Superhero Tracy Boggiano, on July 27th. She will be rendering a brand new talk on ‘Migrate to Azure SQL database: Because life is too short to manage your own servers’. Sign up to listen here!
3 SQLBits released their conference recordings for free, on youtube! Check out the playlists for 2023 here! There are some amazing sessions to learn from.
4 PASS Data community summit has released their speaker selection. Congratulations if you were selected! The lineup looks amazing and worth attending if you can.
5 We are working on the survey results and how to help those of you who responded there. I have shared some statistics on the results below. It is sad that in a world making strides with tech, women are struggling to keep up and have so many challenges. We can all start by being there for each other, which we must.
6 #tsql2sday – the monthly blog party that has been going on for almost a decade, needs new hosts! This is a great way to get more traffic/attention to your blog and help others do the same. Reach out to us at dataplatformwit at gmail.com if you are interested – or reach out directly to Steve Jones at sjones@sqlservercentral.com.
That’s it for now! Stay safe and cool, until next month.
Mala and Les
Status of women speakers – Survey responses.
We got a total of 52 responses. Considering that the total list of speakers we compiled(work in progress) fairly recently has only 56 speakers – this is a reasonable number of people who responded. It was heart warming to note that nearly 70% of respondents are actively speaking.
Lack of employer support seems the biggest reason why some women have stopped or no longer trying to speak. There are several other reasons, spread out as below.
More on results will be shared during the months to come. We will also reach out to those who shared their personal contact info and ask if we can be of any assistance to them. Thanks to all of you who responded.
Leslie’s corner
Welcome to the scorching days of summer! I hope you’re all staying cool amidst the heat. Here in Albuquerque, NM, the temperatures have been soaring!
I have exciting news to share regarding the PASS Summit later this year. Redgate has recently announced the selected speakers for the event. Considering the vast number of sessions and speakers they had to evaluate, I can only imagine the difficult decisions they had to make. If you’re one of the fortunate individuals who were chosen, congratulations! It’s a significant achievement.
However, it’s essential to acknowledge that not everyone will be selected, and it can be disheartening to receive such news. I want to assure you that experiencing rejection is a common occurrence. I have submitted proposals for conferences I truly desired to participate in, only to be disappointed when not selected. Nevertheless, I refuse to let that discourage me, and I continue to submit proposals. So, to those who didn’t make the cut this time, I encourage you to persevere and keep trying! Remember, with persistence, your time to be selected will come.
Wishing you all the best and hope your future submissions yield positive outcomes!
Warm regards,
Leslie
Mala’s musings
I’ve taken a break from my Masters’s program for the summer and have utilized my time by pursuing various other certifications. Recently, I completed the ‘Career Essentials in Generative AI’ course offered by Microsoft on LinkedIn Learning. This course provided an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of Generative AI and covered many data science concepts that may be unfamiliar to some among us. I was particularly impressed by the module on data ethics, which I believe is essential knowledge for everyone. For those who are interested, I highly recommend taking this course. The first month of LinkedIn Learning is free, allowing you to complete it before the paid option begins. If you choose not to continue, you can easily cancel your subscription.
On a different note, North Carolina has been experiencing an abundance of rainfall lately. While it provides a welcome relief from the heat and keeps everything green, it has limited outdoor activities significantly. During this time, I have been indulging in my interest in TV shows and movies centered around women-oriented subjects. I recently watched three films that I thoroughly enjoyed. “Suffragette” depicted the struggles of English women in their fight for voting rights. Although the story was narrated from the perspective of a fictional character, the historical accuracy of the events surrounding it was striking. I found it both enjoyable and educational.
Another movie that captivated me was “Long Song,” a PBS masterpiece movie based on a novel of the same name. It tells the story of an African woman enslaved in Jamaica and her journey to redemption. Despite having visited Jamaica numerous times, I was unaware of the depth of its history involving slavery. This film was both informative and emotionally moving.
Lastly, I watched “A Call to Spy,” which explores the lives of female espionage agents during World War II, including the lesser-known Indian Muslim, Noor Inayat Khan. Although the movie was fictionalized significantly, it sparked my curiosity to learn more about these remarkable women and delve into their real-life achievements.
That’s it for July.
Be well,
Mala