We’re Sarah Scrutton and Courtney King, and we both work in the Talent team at Mesh-AI. After spending seven years in tech talent acquisition, we noticed that the lack of representation of women in technology is well understood. But the problem goes further when it comes to data and AI. Women make up 50% of the UK population, but only 20% of AI professionals. There was also no place or regular event for female talent to meet and network.
So we created the Women in Data & AI London Meetup to shine a light and specifically empower women in data by giving them a platform to speak to the industry. We’re inspired by the incredible growth of the community, as we reach 1,000 members in just a few months, and attract speakers from M&G, EDF, Funding Circle and beyond.
This International Women’s Day, we wanted to share how the community inspires talent within the industry, and gives a platform that hasn’t existed before.
To increase the number of women in data and AI, it’s important to give people an idea of what it’s like to be a woman in the industry. We feel meeting other people and networking events are integral to this, so we set up the Women in Data & AI Meetup.
We also wanted to celebrate the achievements of women pioneering in their field and using data & AI to drive innovation at their organisations. We wanted to open the event to technical sessions, presentations on career growth and simply sharing interesting stories from across the industry.
Importantly, we wanted to create a safe space for like minded women to socialise and grow their networks.
Join our Women in Data & AI London Community
Our speakers have been overwhelmingly positive about the events and enjoyed sharing their insight with a packed room of women in the industry. So far we’ve hosted some amazing sessions across two events:
Antje Bustamante | VP Data @ Funding Circle: The Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Career in Data
Valeria Cortez | Senior Data Scientist @ Monzo: Optimising marketing messages for Monzo users using uplift models
Clementine (Cici) Whitcomb | Data Engineer @ EDF Energy: Revolutionising Energy Trading Insights with Advanced Analytics
Adrienne Leonard | Head of Data Science @ Cirium: Scaling Data Science and Embracing AI to Transform our Business
Siobhan Coster | Privacy Manager @ M&G: Understanding the fundamental differences between an Introvert and Extrovert Woman in the Workplace
It’s great to see us making an impact with our community after only two events (thank you for our 4.8* rating!). We’re really proud to be approaching 1,000 members and hearing your feedback:
We’ve already hosted our first event of the year, and we’re looking to keep a regular cadence of meet-ups happening every quarter at the minimum. We’re committed to bringing in high calibre speakers from a broad spectrum of expertise and industries as has already been seen at our previous events. We know this is the best way to help our community learn and develop in their own careers.
The most important part of the meetup is to continue growing the community and fostering an environment for women in our industry to meet, share ideas, network and grow personally and professionally.
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