HOW
WIT HAPPENED
as seen by Madeleine
| Women are
I.T. …. And who can argue with that???????? |
 |
Madeleine Sanders, (IBM Global Services Manager Project Control Centre), Jenny Barbour (Director, Jenny Barbour & Associates I.T. Recruitment) and Susan Coleman (Publisher), recently started an organisation with the objective of providing a framework upon which women in I.T. can extend their network and expand their knowledge in an environment which encourages open conversation and debate.
It all came about when Madeleine and Jenny were amongst the chosen few to attend Susan Coleman’s annual end-of-year executive lunch at Jacques Reymond - what a fabulous restaurant, quite best-of-bread really. The ratio of men to women was 4:1 which is lower than the average 50:1 for IT gatherings, but then again, only 20 attended and it was arranged by a woman. Anyway, long chats on trying to figure out why women are so out-numbered in I.T. (no conclusions as usual) led to Susan putting a small paragraph in her next newsletter.
Well, did this hit a button. The next thing we knew, the Age photographer was taking piccies of Madeleine and Jenny and quick-as-a-flash they became Page 3 girls in the Computer section of The Age. Women are I.T. had been launched.
The framework is bi-monthly lunches at the private dining room of Jacques Reymond (where else?) with places limited to 20 including a guest speaker, cost - $80. So far the lunches we’ve organised have all been over-subscribed. The guest speaker at the inaugural lunch held on 5th March 1997, was Gary Jackson, Managing Director of Cisco Systems, whose topic was "How to get ahead through self-promotion" (Age article Tuesday 11 March 1997).
Success to date
you may ask?
Well, we’ve no immediate plans to promote the group as following the article in the Age on Tuesday 4 February, sixty women applied to be on the invitation list. They are predominantly middle to senior managers whose companies range from large corporations to small business. The feedback from the evaluation forms received from attendees of the lunches, has been excellent and without exception attendees circled "Bottom line - Yes I will attend another lunch".
We’ve received sponsorship from three companies, Megeron Consulting, Jenny Barbour & Associates and FirstSense so we don’t have to charge a membership fee (which is far too labour-intensive anyway) and just charge enough at the lunch to cover costs .
Future plans?
To grow - interest in forming a sister network in Sydney has led to plans for our first lunch there in September.
Obtain more sponsorship. Money money money.
Annual bash at some fab location.