Inspiration and Insight From the Tech Up for Women Conference

Career ManagementWhen I set out on my career path I had no idea where the road would lead and generally went with the flow of opportunities But it probably wasn39t the most strategic way to go Navigating a career path takes a combination of acumen discipline and opportunity And all three are valuable skills that every professional should develop Take Randi Zuckerberg for example who launched the Zuckerberg Institute when she left her job as director of market development at Facebook Granted she had a step up from the general crowd as the sister of Mark Zuckerberg but her path to success on her own was not guaranteedAn obstacle she faces that is common to many of us is fear fear of making mistakes of being not smart enough and as Zuckerberg said of not being quotfillintheblankquot enough But being scared is a motivator in a way quotIf you ever get to a point in your career where you don39t care enough to be scared you need a huge reassessment of your life and what you are doingquot she notedZuckerberg also talked about knowing when to exit an opportunity talking about her board experience as an example Women are notoriously underrepresented on boards and sometimes appointing a single female professional is sadly deemed sufficient quotI39ve been on a lot of boards where I was the token womanquot Zuckerberg explained quotYou could tell that they pat themselves on the back for checking off the diversity box Hey cool we got a woman Now move onquot But she warned quotIt was never successful because when I was only one I didn39t feel comfortable speaking up at meetings or disagreeing I was outvoted on everything and I wound up stepping down from every single one of those boardsquotThe presence of more than one woman on a board creates a powerful dynamic that empowers all Zuckerberg is currently a member of a femalemajority board and she said quotwhat ends up happening in those board meetings is that a woman speaks the other women back her up and then really interesting discussions happen For the first time I realized that this is what happens when I am not the only one and much better decisions get madequotAdvice for those companies looking for diverse board members Don39t choose just one woman and think that is enoughImpact of Data and TechnologySabina Ewing vice president business technology for Pfizer39s Upjohn Business is applying big data and technology to help the company develop medicines to improve lives and mitigate disease as well as to improve access and education regarding these advancements quotTechnology is key to making this a realityquot she stated emphasizing how technology is shaping today39s healthcare industry She advocates the use of technology to create a quotsurroundsound of information around the patient not only about the medicine they take but also about all of the other new capabilities we have to support that patient through that treatmentquotThe advancement of wearables helps with everyday healthcare including helping to monitor medications Apps are being developed such as iBreastexam in India which has helped screen more than 74000 asymptomatic women at health clinics identifying some with breast abnormalities and some with breast cancer Finally the use of VR in Japan is helping to change perceptions of care by immersing the participant in what it feels like to have Alzheimer39sThe AI EvolutionRima Alameddine vice president enterprise sales at NVIDIA is focusing her attention on the impact of AI by leveraging deep learning AI is spurring quotan incredible wave of innovation that will impact every industry every company and every personquot Alameddine said She explained that deep learning is a new computer model that learns directly from the data quotThe beauty of this approachquot she added quotis that we can now leverage unstructured data sources that were previously unavailable to us amp8212 such as text audio images video amp8212 and we can ask and answer questionsquotThe application of this technology can be used to diagnose CT scans improve online banking with the use of voice recognition and reduce the use of herbicides in farming by identifying weeds from crops for example But I was struck by how much of an impact this deep learning protocol has for the media industry with all of our unstructured datasets in addition to our structured firstparty data How great would it be to be able to derive content and audience insights from the combination of audio hard data images social media texts and videoFinal TakeawaysThe world is an increasingly complicated place So the ability to engage the help of others form partnerships and support networks and embrace and leverage new technology all become part and parcel of a successful career No matter what your gender is the importance of diversity in the workplace as well as the strategic intention of applying advanced technology in one39s job is pivotal to success You need both and you need it todayClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Inspiration and Insight From the Tech Up for Women Conference

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Charlene Weisler

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Inspiration and Insight From the Tech Up for Women Conference

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Charlene Weisler

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