The Power of Women
It’s May 25, 2023, and I am seated in a hotel ballroom with over 500 other people listening to some of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley talking about the future impact and tech frontiers. Generative AI makes it into almost every presentation during the opening session — unsurprising since you can’t load a news site or go onto social media without hearing or reading about AI. This feeling of being in the zeitgeist creates a palpable air of excitement and joy. In addition, for many of us, this is the first in-person conference we’ve attended since before the pandemic, and the appetite to learn, explore, and connect is insatiable.
What makes the experience even more powerful is that of the 500+ attendees present, 99% of them are women.
As a fellow attendee at Women of Silicon Valley 2023 said to our table: “Women never get to be the majority. This has been an amazing experience because seeing us all together reminds me of the power of women.”
Although the narrative is changing, it is still true that women are too often the minorities in most spaces that we are in. But in those rooms at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, I wasn’t only able to see and hear women telling their stories, but I also saw and heardwomen speaking powerfully and authoritatively about tech topics they excel in. And while this is 100% an armchair observation of my own, I believe that the intersectionality between technology and ethics—or, perhaps, the intersection of science and humanity—was on display because this was a conference by and for women.
There is a lot that I could say regarding what I loved about the conference, but to make this a manageable and worthwhile read, I’ll share my key takeaways and highlight some of the standout women I had the privilege of learning from.
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Generative AI
As mentioned earlier, genAI snuck its way in to nearly every presentation and workshop I attended. One highlight included the presentation by Sophie Ross, Global CEO of FTI Consulting. In it, she spoke about digital risk management and the importance of regulating AI.
The example she gave that resonated with me—someone inherently suspicious of regulation in any form—was the “failure to launch” of cryptocurrency due to a lack of regulation. As Sophie shared, in its earliest days, crypto indexed too heavily into the potential of the technology without addressing the ethical and safety concerns being raised. Because of this, trust in the technology was damaged so much that it has never achieved its full potential.
Similarly, genAI poses so very many ethical and safety concerns that it would be irresponsible to ignore them. As Sophie shared, regulation and active engagement with the ethical questions posed by AI are the best paths forward not only to protect the people using the technology but also to ensure that the technology reaches the heights that we all think it could reach.
As Sophie explained, in the great global race over who will control this technology, “Companies that are embracing both AI and regulation of AI will drive the power forward.”
Identity, Ethics, and Obstacles
If you ever have the privilege of hearing from Jameeka Aaron-Greene, Chief Information Security Officer at Okta, I advise you to run to get a good seat. She is intelligent, dynamic, and charismatic as all heck. She made data security exciting and helped me relate to a topic I had little interest in at the start of my day. She also made some salient connections between digital identity and DEI—for example, the fact that biometric authentication does not work for everyone, particularly those with darker skin tones,bone structure, or facial features that fall outside of traditional Western standards. I learned from Jameeka that the ethical implications of technology—and specifically security technology—are more vast than most of us realize.
Speaking of ethics, Elaine Zhou, former CTO of Change.org, gave a great talk about the ethics of data. She spoke of the oft-cited “80-20 Rule” as a great (and expected) way to gather data that may not be ethically “right” when developing a product because it doesn’t account for accessibility. This sentiment echoed the challenge that Jameeka identified regarding biometric security—perhaps by taking a harder look at the 20%, or even at the racial and ethnic characteristics of the data in the first place, the issue she highlighted could have been avoided. As Elaine emphasized, we must look harder at the 20% to avoid creating an echo chamber. Elaine also presented a fascinating use case for generative AI: using it to create personas that represent “the unheard 20%.” In Elaine’s view, using genAI for synthetic data collection to avoid bias is one of the most exciting potentials for the technology. As a brown woman, the idea of using genAI as a tool for equity never occurred to me, but it is one that I find myself very hopeful about as conversations on technology continue to take shape.
Leadership
Confession: While I find the issues concerning technology and the tech industry intellectually fascinating—I live and work in San Francisco, after all!—my heart lies with the development of people. So the workshop I was most excited to attend was The New Wave of Leadership, hosted by Miriam Meima, CEO & Executive Coach at 2M Leaders. Miriam is a behavioral psychologist and business consultant who has spent much of her career working directly with leaders on their growth and development.
While a lot of the themes she touched on are things that I am familiar with (after all, leadership development programs are one of Studio 5’s specialties!), I appreciate how she reframed some common ideas. One comment she made that deeply resonated with me was that, as a leader, “you often have to unlearn a lot of what got you where you are.” The idea that when you become a leader of people, you may have to unlearn or reprogram some of the traits that got you there—that it would even be possible, let alone encouraged—is one that I hadn’t explicitly thought of. As I think about developing leaders in the programs Studio 5designs, I do think that, at minimum, this idea forms a great self-reflection question that all leaders should consider.
Perseverance
Second confession: I was signed up for a different workshop when I saw the fireside chat with Libo Cao Meyers, Engineering Executive at Apple, and author of the book Limp Forward, on the conference agenda. When I read the workshop’s description and her bio, I immediately decided to attend it instead (at least a half-dozen other attendees I spoke with made the same decision!), and I am so glad I did!
In it, Libo recounted her experiences of perseverance: As a bright but disabled woman in the rigorous Chinese education system, she was prevented from pursuing her preferred major in college because her disability was perceived as preventing her from having “complete talents.” While attending grad school after immigrating to the US, she was told she couldn’t complete a Ph.D. in one field and a master’s in another—yet, she did both in 3.5 years. As a disabled person, she was told she couldn’t be an athlete, so she completed a 100-mile bike ride. She was also told that she couldn’t excel in Silicon Valley because it was “a man’s world”—so she became an exec at Apple.
As I listened to Libo and reflected on how she took every challenge and turned it into an opportunity, I was reminded of the importance of storytelling: her story was perseverance made tangible. The results of her hard work and determination were on stage in front of me, and they resonated because I am also a woman, I am a POC, and I have my own challenges that can, and sometimes do, impact my ability to persevere. Her story isn’t mine, but in hearing hers, I was reminded that in sharing our stories, we could find strength, community, and kinship.
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If you’ve made it this far, I have one final takeaway: Attending Women of Silicon Valley 2023 was an amazing opportunity to learn, but it was also an important reminder for me of the significance of continuing to learn and engage with a development community. As an L&D professional, I often find myself in a bit of a “shoemaker’s children” situation when it comes to my development—while I’m great at designing learning and good at helping to develop my team at Studio 5, I often forget about myself. (Yet another hallmark of the female experience—we caretake for everyone else before we look after ourselves!)
Being around so many intelligent, dynamic, interesting, and kick-ass women rejuvenated and inspired me, particularly as a person who often finds myself seeking female perspectives. Even though this conferenced has ended, I encourage you to find something that will recalibrate your perspective and refresh your energy for the work you do and the things you are most passionate about.
Happy learning!