Wednesday 12 December 2018

2018 UKOUG Community Sessions - WIT and ACE


This was the first year Jennifer, the ACE Program lead was unable to attend UKOUG, but they still supported UKOUG and sponsored the speaker awards. Chris Saxon presented them on the program’s behalf and it was great to see a few more Lifetime Achievement Awards and a good showing of women in Apps, although it would be good to see more in the tech area. 

Chris also hosted the ACE dinner, which was a great chance Io catch up with friends. I was really pleased to hear that Ruben Rodriguez got his ACE Director, and I was proud to have been one of his nominators.

Every year I talk about how I want WIT (Women in IT), to be about encouraging women and this year the speakers didn't disappoint.

I again hosted the WIT breakfast, which like previous years was packed and not just with women. This year we had Daya Haines Haddock from the US who was another speaker award winner and Amy Simpson-Grange from Capgemini. I entitled the session 'Then & Now' and wanted to explore if things had changed. 



Daya gave a great talk on how she had built a successful career based on taking opportunities and making them her enablers.

Amy was awesome and not only shared her story but referred to a TED talk that really inspired.

Amy is a modern apprentice, started work with Capgemini at 18, doing her degree part time. Not only has she excelled, gaining a 1st Class but she now leads a team of developers and has really succeeded. 

UKOUG had a #PasstheKnowledge campaign where they encouraged people to make a video with what they learnt. Since we were all so enthused by these ladies the whole room made a video. Thank you Neil for being the man behind the camera.


click link above for #passtheknowledge video

The next day Amy also gave a session on Robotic Process Automation which I attended. Not only was I interested in the subject but this is was her first presentation, I have been encouraging her since I first met Amy in March.She is a natural. She coped with technical issues both before and during the presentation and her content was eloquent, engaging and educational. In fact I want the understanding RPA part of that session in the Business & Strategy content for apps!

Defiantly exceeded the encourage brief! Thank you ladies







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