The IM Women Committee hosted the 1st EMEA Connections and Cocktails Meetup at the historic Tower of London on November 4th (15:00-19:30). This event coincided with the DCD London event (Nov 5-6th) and the iMasons Leadership Summit.

Women from the Technology Infrastructure Industry were invited to the event, which provides a platform to discuss important issues and a great opportunity for new connections and networking.

The meeting was led by Dr. Julie Albright a Digital Sociologist from the University of Southern California and World Leader in the behavioral impact of the digital age. Julie is also on the IM Board of Directors.

Inge Woudstra, an expert in gender diversity, was our special guest.

The following industry topics were discussed:

Unconscious Bias (From Human AND Robot recruiters!)

• Unconscious bias training is very popular, and every organisation that is keen to take action on gender balance runs an unconscious bias programme for their staff. We will discuss what the impact is of these programmes, and find out if they actually work. The topic of unconscious bias has become even more relevant now that we are increasingly using machines to take on jobs of humans. We are quickly finding that machines quickly learn human behaviour, including our unconscious biases. What is needed to avoid these mistakes?

After the meeting attendees joined for an exclusive, private tour of the crown jewels followed by cocktails and canapes at the Four Seasons Hotel.

The next EMEA IM Women event will be held in conjunction with Datacloud Europe 2019.