Insights from: Sparkline x Girls in Tech 'Women Leaders in Tech' Discussion Panel April 2019

Hi Everyone!

We at Sparkline hosted a fab event a couple of weeks back and wanted to share some insights with you from our discussion that evening. We were joined by our partners, Girls in Tech on the panel and our Venue Sponsor was Nuspace by Nulab. We also heard from one of our newest Community Partners here in Singapore, Hopscotch on their mission to support women returning to the workplace and transitioning with their careers with the launch of their female-focused job board which aims to connect women with exciting new job opportunities.

The premise of our event was to introduce Women Leaders in the Tech space to our wonderful guests, who all happened to be ladies in the Technology field or ladies who are wishing to progress in this area looking to hear the stories our inspirational panel had to share. It was widely open to anyone who wanted to 'Find your passion and lead the way' (our tag line for the evening's event!)

For myself, personally, there were many takeaways from all ladies on the panel, it was such a richly diverse group of ladies. We were joined by Suchanda Mandal Head of Operations and Business Management, Product Management Office at Bank of Singapore, Tasha Abdula Mutalib MD for Girls in Tech as well as our leader and Warrior in Chief Aleetza Senn, CEO and Founder of Sparkline and the always awesome and dynamic Madhu Bakthavatsalam, Head of Integration at Sparkline. All of our panel had very different stories and experiences to share and examples of many challenges they had experienced along the way. To be frank, they are still experiencing them and interestingly all still learning along the way. I think this was a common thread which we saw during the discussion. Women, if given the opportunity, make fantastic leaders in Technology and any other industry they want to succeed in, we all agreed that there was still much to be done to increase female representation in the Technology industy for sure.

A recent McKinsey study 'The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Asia Pacific' shows the Asia Pacific average gender parity score for equality in work is 0.44, compared to a global best of 0.73. *

Sparkline hopes by opening our doors and offering more platforms and forums such as this event, we will be able to play some part in encouraging more women to consider roles in STEM and prove to them all that you too can succeed and lead if you find this to be your passion! As our ladies shared with us they feel it's about not being afraid to ask for more, to challenge even if you feel you are outside of your comfort zone, ensure your voice is heard and also to invest in your own learning and development, in fact, never stop learning!

We ended on a great Q&A session with our lovely audience, some were keen to learn how to set up their own business, how to motivate their teams and even how to become a good mentor to others or how to find a good mentor for their own development. It did make us realise how important is to create these communities to champion and spark further diversity and inclusion in our industry. Also to embrace lifelong learning and development; always being open minded to understand and realise what you may not know and specifically within the Digital space, Sparkline's core domain, the pace is such that a fail fast and learn faster approach will do much to ensure and enable success.

What a pleasure and inspiration it was disussing with you all and thanks to everyone who came out to share this evening with us.

To learn more about the Digital Training and Development and Consulting work Sparkline does please check us out here at our website https://www.sparkline.com/ and keep a watch on this company page for more insights, sharing and of course more awesome meet ups!

* Source: You can read more about the struggle with pipeline of female in talent at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/women-in-tech-sector-myth-of-the-pipeline-problem-asia-11086356