It is November 2015 and 125 people are sat in a marquee in the courtyard of UCL. Rain on the roof nearly drowns out the speakers as they tackle the subject of women in data. For the first time this conference had been run, both the turnout and speaker line-up were impressive. Also notable - and a complete reversal for virtually every tech event - was the fact that I was one of just four men in the audience (with the other four either being AV technicians or owners of the company organising the conference).
Scroll forward to 28th November 2019 and the setting for the fifth Women in Data UK event will be dramatically different. It is being held in the Aurora Ballroom at the Intercontinental beside London’s O2 arena, the largest space of its type in Europe with a capacity of up to 3,000. WiD is taking over the entire location.
“When we started in year one, we had a vision of the community, but didn’t understand what we were creating. We got 125 people, but always had the ambition for more,” explained Roisin McCarthy, co-founder, Women in Data and business lead, Datatech Analytics.
Each year has seen a scale-up with a move first to the Connaught Rooms and then Westminster Hall last year, but even the 1,000 capacity there was not sufficient. “Feedback we got from the conference last year was that it was not enough to around - we turned away 4,000 people,” said McCarthy.
"There are still not enough women coming into the industry. There is still so much more to do.”
To meet that demand, 14 WiD meet-up events have been run during 2019 at partner offices and in locations outside London. In the five years since launching, the registered community has grown to 25,000. As Payal Jain, who chaired the first Women in Data UK event and continues to act in that capacity, told me: “One of the highlights is that members are driving the network, not us. They are coming up with ideas, speaking on our behalf, organising meet-ups.”
But she adds: “As much as it feels good, there are still not enough women coming into the industry. There is still so much more to do.”
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