WITWA Event History

I.T. – Friend or Foe for Women.

Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 +1000

Managing Generation X

Fri, 01 Oct 1999 00:00:00 +1000

Communications & E-Commerce reach out to Regional Western Australia

Wed, 01 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +1100

The Internet Social Revolution

Tue, 01 Feb 2000 00:00:00 +1100

Unlimited Potential

Sat, 01 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +1000

Information Security in the 21st Century

Thu, 01 Jun 2000 00:00:00 +1000

Communities - the Challenge of Online Empowerment

Tue, 01 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +1000

Women on Boards

Sun, 01 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +1100

Debate: "Women do I.T better"

Fri, 01 Dec 2000 00:00:00 +1100

On being time poor

Thu, 01 Feb 2001 00:00:00 +1100

Mining the New Economy

Sun, 01 Apr 2001 00:00:00 +1000

Holistic Management

Sun, 01 Jul 2001 00:00:00 +1000

The Business of IT in 2001 - The Prognosis of the five Ps

Wed, 01 Aug 2001 00:00:00 +1000

I.T. Unplugged

Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:00:00 +1100

Information Warfare - from CEO to Cyber-terrorist

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 00:00:00 +1100

Emerging trends in the IT marketplace

Mon, 01 Apr 2002 00:00:00 +1000

From Morse to Multi-Media Messaging

Sat, 01 Jun 2002 00:00:00 +1000

Making IT Happen

Thu, 01 Aug 2002 00:00:00 +1000

Go-Girl Post Event

Fri, 01 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +1100

Leading High-Performance IS Teams

Sat, 01 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +1100

Delivering benefits from Business and IT initiatives

Tue, 01 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +1000

The Digital Divide

Sun, 01 Jun 2003 00:00:00 +1000

When Project Meets Process

Fri, 01 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +1000

Surviving at the top: reflections from a Gen X Executive

Sat, 01 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +1100

How CEOs can address the issue of female retention in the workforce

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 00:00:00 +1100

Be Seen, Get Known, Move Ahead

Sat, 01 May 2004 00:00:00 +1000

Trends for the IT industry - 2004 to 2006

Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +1000

Views at C-Level I.T.

Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +1100

Breaking the cultural mould - The key to a woman's career success

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +1100

Whilst women's representation in management in the public sector compares favourably with other similar countries, there has been no improvement in the private sector, and possibly a decline in representation since 1986, particularly in Australian companies not covered by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act (1999)."

The latest report in Hudson's 20:20 Series seeks to discover the missing link in women's career success, and suggests that the phenomenon of 'gendered culture' in organisations has a highly constraining influence on the success of women in the workplace.

Karen Connolly - Manager, Recruitment Services, Hudson
With responsibility for the managing the accounting team in Perth, Western Australia, Karen has over 14 years experience within the financial and general consulting fields. An accountant by profession, she spent 9 years in various senior financial positions consulting to national and international IT companies. In 1999, Karen's career experienced a significant change when she moved away from hands-on accounting and she joined Hudson as a recruitment specialist.

Karen Coulter - Recruitment Specialist, Hudson
Karen has recently joined Hudson in Perth bringing with her 8 years recruitment expertise in the UK and The Netherlands. Karen's career began in 1996 where she specialised in the recruitment of IT&T professionals in the UK. In 1999, Karen moved to the Netherlands joining Lucent Technologies where she was responsible for the recruitment and management of all technical and executive staff for Lucent's European Network Operations Centre. Prior to her move to Hudson, Karen spent several years working within Michael Page's International team in Amsterdam.

Where is the real commercial value in on-line social networks?

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 +1000

Gordon Dunbar's career started off controlling dieback in the South west of WA as a Cadet in the Forest Department (CALM). Seeking more ambitious intentions, he returned to Perth to complete his university studies and commence work as an investigation officer with the Department of Primary Industry prior to spending 15 years with WMC in a variety of commercial roles both in Australia and overseas.

In 2001, Gordon left the mining industry to take up a role initially as Head of E-Commerce and then later as CIO and Head of Strategy for Burswood International Resort Casino in late 2004, he left Burswood to pursue his personal interest in a jointly invented and unique on-line social networking and asset management system entitled: "Check your network first" was profiled in The Age & The Sydney Moring Herald newspapers.

WISE HISTORY: A History of Women in Information Technology and Science

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +1000

Sonja, arguably the highest profile woman in the Queensland ICT industry, presented a highly informative and entertaining history of Women in Information Technology and Science answering the question "why haven't we heard more about them?"

Sonja was the first Australian inducted into the Hall of Fame for Women in Technology International (Silicon Valley, December 2005).

www.thoughtware.com.au

DO YOU HEAR ME? Is there a relationship between communication styles and project success or failure?

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +1000

Rob Thomsett is an internationally acclaimed Project Management mentor, teacher, author and practitioner. In his publications and presentations, Rob's unique narrative style engages the project management practitioner fully and leaves a lasting influence on their project management style. His client-driven, people-focussed approach to project management, self-managing teams and Software Quality Function Deployment has been adopted by a wide spectrum of Australian organisations.

Rob recommends reading:
"Anatomy of Power" by John Kenneth Galbraith. This book is out of print, but can be bought from Amazon.

An Evening with Robin McClellan, US Consul General Perth

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 +1100

Women are I.T. (WIT) W.A. is pleased to introduce an inspirational speaker in US Consul General Perth - Ms Robin McClellan. We are delighted to have Robin present her most interesting story of success in the US Consulate and her experience living and working in Perth; followed by cocktails and the opportunity to network and chat with your peers.

Robin McClellan arrived and commenced her duties as U.S. Consul General Perth in late July 2004. She most recently served as chief of the economic section in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Prior to her Malaysian assignment she was posted to Jakarta, Indonesia in economic and commercial positions from 1992 to 2001. She has also served in the office of the Assistant Secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs in Washington, as economic/commercial officer in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and as consular officer in Mexico.

Robin graduated from Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri and then attended the University of Kansas, where she obtained a degree in Economics and Latin American Area Studies that incorporated study at the University of Costa Rica. She then completed a Master's Degree in Economic History from the University of Exeter, England. The State Department sponsored her study for a Master's of Business Administration at Duke University in 1998.

Robin first visited Australia in 1984. She had the good fortune to spend several months in Western Australia then, visiting Perth, Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, and the southwest. She also stayed in Perth for three months in 1995, for the birth of her youngest daughter.

Glass Ceiling and Glass Elevators

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 +1100

Anne-Marie Syme's favourite saying is " Success only comes before Work in one place.....The Dictionary".

She will share with you some of her experiences and encounters, how best to ride that glass elevator
and why women are changing the way in which corporate Australia is being run.

Anne-Marie Syme has many years of banking, sales management and business development experience and as a result is now involved at board level within the financial services area. Anne-Marie is the Managing Director of The Loans Cafe, the first retail broking company of its type in the country. This company recently won Best Internet Presence Award from over 1800 nominations at the Australian Mortgage Awards. Achievements include being the first female State President of the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia, judging the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award and residing on the Industry Liaison Council for ASIC in WA.

Anne-Marie recommends reading:
"Great Australian Women" by Suzanne de Vries.
"Leadership Revelations an Australian Perspective - Reflections from outstanding leaders." Coordinating author is Avril Henry and it is published by CCH.

Available from Dymocks or Boffins

The Program Management Office - You need one and you need one NOW

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 +1000

Every business must tie project deliveries to strategic objectives across their entire enterprise if they want to achieve notions of growth, increased profits, enhanced strategic position and increased organisational effectiveness.

Without a program management office (PMO) to align project goals to business goals and provide a reporting process which gives visibility across the entire enterprise of all project activity, how can your business be confident the right projects are being undertaken? How can there be certainty that strategic goals will be met in terms of business deliverables and strategic risk?

Corinne Forrest is one of Australia's few experienced & qualified enterprise program management specialists with wide-ranging, senior experience in developing and implementing PMOs. Her clients comprise some of Australia's largest companies such as Telstra, Linfox, Toyota, and she has developed enterprise-wide PMOs for a number of the world's largest manufacturing companies such as Citibank and GE Capital in the US and Aldi and BMW in Europe.

Web Technologies: What Project Management and Operational Problems Can They Solve?

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +1100

Praecis: In our connected world, web technologies have become more and more sophisticated. But how useful are they? And can they solve problems that traditionally have troubled project and operational managers? Andy Parry, Senior Web Developer with SUMO, will share his experiences on Web technologies from both a client and supplier perspective. Looking at the Top 5 problems faced by work teams, what contribution can Web technologies deliver?

Speaker Bio: Andy Parry is a Senior Web Developer at SUMO. With over 10 years in the IT and web industries, he has experienced the pain and suffering when a project goes off the rails. He has more than a few suggestions on how to use web technology to improve the odds of project success.

Andy has worked in the IT and web industries in Australia and the UK, in business analysis, data warehousing, development and IT project. Projects included blue chip companies such as Sony, BUPA and the oil services industry, managing projects spanning West Africa, the North Sea and SE Asia.

For the last 10 years Andy has worked exclusively in the web development industry for major sites such as BlueSkyFrog (now part of Legion Interactive) and working on numerous large projects in WA for clients such as the RAC, the WA Industrial Relations Commission, Industrial Magistrates' Court, Western Potatoes and many more large and small clients.

Times of Scarce I.T. Key Issues for CIO’s and IT Managers in 2007/8

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 +1000

The Eight Facets of CRM:Forget One and Your Project Will Disappoint!

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +1000

For eighteen years now, Graeme Jeffrey Boorer has designed and implemented state-of-the-art customer information driven marketing and business strategies for both Australian and international enterprises. In addition to his consulting and project management experience with some of the world's leading customer-driven corporations, Graeme's continuing study and research into world's best thinking on customer behaviour, relationships, database, direct, interactive and web marketing initiatives, make him a highly sought after speaker, presenter and industry commentator.

Through his consulting engagements, Graeme works with senior executives and their management teams to plan the company's transition from 'product centricity to 'customer centricity'.

Besides the formulation of powerful new business strategies and "customer collaborative" programs, Graeme also works with responsible executives to overcome the hurdles and obstacles that prevent the truly 'customer-centric' organisation.

Graeme's consulting clients include: The Seven Network, Macquarie Bank Limited, AMP Financial Services, General Insurance & Banking, Suncorp-Metway Bank, Telstra, The Salmat Group, Australia Post, Transurban CityLink, Mitre 10, Customer Intellect, The Herald & Weekly Times, Commonwealth Bank Limited, and the Sydney Futures Exchange.

Lack of Women, or an Excess of Men? Strategies for Cultural Change

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +1000

Old IT employees, new IT employees, the RIGHT IT employees – how does one attract the right staff"

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +1100

The Australian ICT sector is facing it biggest skills crisis ever with vacancies growing exponentially, identified shortages now and worse no relief on the horizon. In this environment how do organizations respond to this talent crunch. How do they attract and retain the employees that will help them achieve their business objectives.

Sheryle Moon is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), the peak body for the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in Australia. AIIA is recognised both nationally and internationally as the industry's leading lobby group, representing almost 500 Australian member companies that employ 100,000 Australians and have combined exports of more than $2 billion. Sheryle joined AIIA in November 2006.

She has worked in the ICT sector for more than 25 years in senior leadership positions including Vice President of Computer Sciences Corporation, and a managing partner with Accenture. Prior to her role at AIIA, Sheryle was Director of Recruitment and Staffing Solutions, Australasia for employment services provider, Manpower Services Australia.

Sheryle is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Non-Executive Director on a number of private and public sector boards. She is the strategic IT advisor to CrimTrac, a joint initiative of state and federal policing and Attorneys General to apply information and other technologies to solving crime, catching criminals and ensuring a safe and secure Australia.

Her ICT knowledge is recognized by her appointment to two of Senator Helen Coonan's Advisory Groups on attracting Women into the sector and also helping government set ICT priorities for the future.

Sheryle is the author of the "SelfScape - Success through Balance", a practical guide to implementing six success strategies. She is also the author of the "SET for Life" Report, which highlights issues around the continuing gender gap in students looking to careers in the ICT industries. Sheryle wrote a Chapter for John Marsden's book "I Believe" which was published in October 2004. She is included in a new book from the Australian Institute of Management called "Balance @ Work".

In July 1999 she was named Australian Business Woman of the Year. On Australia Day 2001 Sheryle was named as one of the 20 women in Australia to lead the Honouring Women program established by the Prime Minister. She holds a Masters of Management in Technology from the Australian National University and in 2006 was admitted to the ANU Hall of Fame for her contributions to Business Prosperity and the IT Industry.

Maximising Service Delivery through Effective Project Management

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +1100

Workforce: Time for a New Spin

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +1000

Intelligent Disobedience - A very different view on leadership in projects & management"

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +1000

Intelligent Disobedience is the ability to counter management directions or instructions and suggest improvements while defending the integrity of the organisation. This ability requires courage, good presentation skills and political awareness. These skills set the great leaders apart from those who are merely good.

Engaging in intelligent disobedience requires a dedication to your own truth, a dedication to what you personally believe is ethical, and a pursuit of personal growth in your own terms. The challenge for all of us is to engage in our work in such a fashion that we can pursue that all important personal growth and support the highest possible truth, all while still conforming to the needs and requirements of our employers, or the marketplace that pays us for our skills. We will explore this challenging set of objectives as we discuss this topic at the WIT meeting in October.

Speaker's Bio:

Bob McGannon, PMP, is a specialist in Information Technology (IT) management, technology outsourcing, IT delivery measurement and quality, and general project management.

He has 25 years of IT and project management experience, 18 of those years with the IBM Corporation. His management experience includes Technology Operations management, Applications Development in the mainframe and client/server architectures, marketing, team building and development. Bob has worked internationally while playing a major role in the development of international trade applications in use in the United States and Europe, and has just completed a consulting engagement with Medicare here in Canberra. He has managed project teams as large as 460 individuals, once serving as the Infrastructure IT manager for IBM, supporting American Express.

Bob is a certified Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute, is a certified Executive Project Manager with IBM, and is a Certified Project Management Coach for the Boeing Corporation. He holds university degrees in Operations Research and Mathematics.

Coping with Conflict: Maybe if I keep my head down that crazy person will go away!"

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 +1000

Women are I.T. WA invites you to our first event of 2009. It is late in the year, but it was worth waiting for. Responding to your feedback our first event is an evening workshop with renowned psychologist & business consultant Tracey McGrath. This very interactive and FUN session starts at 6pm sharply and runs until 8pm with drinks and warm and cold canapes included. And there will still be plenty of opportunity for networking.

Events Topic:
COPING WITH CONFLICT! Maybe if I keep my head down the crazy person will go away. "I don't need all this conflict - I just want to come to work and get on with my job". Conflict kills productivity, profitability and workplace commitment, yet it is an inevitable by-product of different people getting together. Women also tend to react differently to conflict than men. Do you have trouble saying "No!", do you feel you are working harder than your male colleagues and not getting the rewards, is it hard to get heard? We all know we need to be able to deal with conflict ... we just don't want to! We have to learn to manage conflict because we can't get what we want if we are conflicted with ourselves or in a conflict with others, so being able to convert conflict into cooperation is an essential life and business skill. Come and have a laugh whilst learning how to keep confident during conflict and then convert it to a useful outcome. After all, it's a great job, if only it wasn't for the nutters.

Speaker Bio:
Known as the "Queen of Conflict", psychologist Tracey McGrath consults throughout Australia on how to create workplaces worth working in and provides quantifiable results in staff engagement and performance.

Her clients include;

Huge blue-chip corporations such as National Australia Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Coles Group Ltd;
not-for-profit such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Real Estate Institute of Western Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
government and statutory bodies including the Cities of Perth, Mandurah & Belmont, Australian Taxation Office, Australian Government Solicitor, and the Dept of Housing & Works.
Individuals seeking to achieve an elusive goal or overcome self-sabotage.
They all have one thing in common - a desire to achieve sustainable results.

Her experience includes;

Being the only Australian to have received the international WOW! Award for displaying excellence in customer service,
Holding qualifications in psychology and project management,
Being the featured expert in radio, print and two television programs.
Being a Governing Councillor of Swan TAFE - the largest TAFE College in Western Australia with a multi million dollar budget.
Her focus is improving productivity and performance for individuals and organisations.

From Global Crisis to Local Economy- Where to From Here?"

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +1000

Murray Meason, Economist & Managing Director of Economics Consulting Services addressed the topic that effects us both as businesses and individuals, namely the Global Economic Crisis, but from a local perspective.

Speaker Bio:
Murray established Economics Consulting Services in 1997 and has now been involved in over 425 consulting assignments. Murray's fields of expertise include the agricultural, mining, petroleum and water sectors, Native Title negotiations and strategic planning. With over 25 years experience in government, he is also very well placed to assist industry in government relations and community consultation processes.

He provides specialist advice on:

Economic analysis and impact studies;
Energy regulation and access issues;
Feasibility studies and business cases;
Corporate and government strategies;
Native Title compensation
Project evaluations; and
Government relations.

Murray is currently national President of the Australian Institute of Energy and Chairman of the WA Branch.

From the Trenches: Practical Advice on Making Social Media Work for Your Business

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +1000

It's hard to separate fact from hype when it comes to Social Media. Knowing where to start can seem daunting. Attend the next WITWA event to hear how one local business owner approached the challenge. Pick up hints, tips and tricks to get you started and avoid the pitfalls.

Speaker Bio:
Starting in 1981, Sarah Mitchell brings over two decades experience in the ICT field across a broad spectrum of software development and software sales. She has extensive technical experience with more than a decade of designing and implementing software applications for major corporations. She has a comprehensive grasp of the international business world having lived and worked on five continents. Her sales activities included managing multi-million dollar budgets. She regularly exceeded her quotas. In 1999, Sarah began a freelance writing career.

Sarah is the owner of Global Copywriting. The initial idea behind Global Copywriting was to provide professional writing services to the ICT industry in Western Australia. While writing for technical companies remains a passion, Sarah is happy to work with anyone looking for a writer to tackle their B2B marketing requirements, large or small, anywhere in the world. She's especially happy when she's writing case studies and white papers.

In addition to running her own business, Sarah is a member of the board of directors at Braemar Presbyterian Care. She is a member of the Australian Computer Society. Sarah was born in the USA and was proud to become an Australian citizen in 2007.

Building & Creating Valuable Business Networks

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +1000

The Year Ahead: Expert Opinions for 2010 - Economic, Social, Political

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Incentives for Innovation in IT - what are the changes to Government supporting R&D in IT

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

This presentation was kindly sponsored by KPMG and gave an update on the current support the Government provides to IT developments in tax and grant programs and the upcoming changes to Government support for innovation. It also outlined who is eligible for claiming R&D tax concessions, and explained the guidelines of the Innovation Grant.

Speakers:
Stephen Carroll is a Director in KPMG's R&D Incentives team with over 10 years experience in assisting clients to access Government grants and tax incentives. Stephen's experiences include projects from various technologies including: IT, mining and mineral processing; oil and gas; infrastructure and structural engineering; renewable energy; manufacturing and agriculture. He has worked on helping many companies implement or improve R&D management practices to develop R&D claims that maximise the R&D benefit while minimising costs of compliance and considering the risk profile the clients wish to maintain.

Stephen has Science and Accounting qualifications and prior to joining KPMG worked in engineering and building companies.

He is an active presenter for industry groups and conducts training sessions and workshops for many clients. Stephen is on the organising committee for the WA Department of Commerce's, Western Australian 2010 Innovator of the Year Awards.

Nicola Purser is a Senior Manager in KPMG's R&D Incentives team with over 10 years experience in assisting clients to access Government grants and incentive schemes including, relevantly, the R&D Tax Concession and Tax Offset programs.
Nicola has managed the delivery of R&D Tax Concession claims for some of Australia's largest companies including Rio Tinto, Woodside, Caltex, Clough, Goodman Fielder, Burns Philp, Lion Nathan and Carter Holt Harvey.
She is currently managing the R&D claims for a number of Perth based IT companies.

Nicola has also been involved in:
Presenting to various clients and industry bodies on R&D incentive schemes, including presenting at the ICAA Business Forum.
Providing clients with Reasonably Arguable Position Papers with respect to the eligibility of their activities and associated costs.
Preparing detailed grant Applications for various Government Grant programs including Commercial Ready, Climate Ready and Regional Food Producers Innovation and Productivity Program.

Agile Project Management in IT Development

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1000

Globally and in Australia, Agile software development is becoming mainstream. Companies such as Google, Ericsson, Yahoo and Microsoft are all using Agile techniques to achieve faster, higher quality and better-business aligned IT solutions. In Australia, Agile is being widely adopted by companies such as Suncorp, Macquarie Bank, Sensis, Lonely Planet and realestate.com.au. Angela will provide an introduction into key Agile concepts, sharing her experiences with Agile software delivery, highlighting challenges, lessons learned and benefits.

About the Speaker

As Head of Delivery at ThoughtWorks Australia, Angela is responsible for the health of ThoughtWorks' portfolio of engagements across the country. Angela has represented ThoughtWorks as a project and program manager and consultant in a diverse set of engagements across many different industries. She has successfully managed large, multi-disciplinary programs of work and has experience in organisational transformation, both from a strategic design and implementation perspective. Angela is also an accomplished Agile coach, trainer and workshop facilitator.

WITWA Transformations

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Our last event of the year was a showcase for everything WITWA had been working towards. We announced our new initiative, techtrails, a program encouraging girls and boys in remote and rural WA to consider technology careers. We launched the techtrails program along with our new brand, a new website and a name change. Needless to say, an exciting time for us.

Because techtrails is a collaborative project, our partners from industry, government, universities, high schools, the ACS Foundation and Scitech were at our launch. KPMG generously offered their executive board room for the event with priceless views of the Swan River. It turned out to be the biggest and best networking event we’ve ever held. Read our BLOG and find out what the speakers thought of techtrails.

Speakers:

Professor Lyn Beazley, Chief Scientist of WA and Patron of techtrails
Dr Erica Smyth, Chairman of Scitech Board
Russell Hammond, Scitech
Kerry Bowden, Gilmore College, Kwinana
Jim Ellis, ACS Foundation
Stephen Carroll, KPMG

Preparing for an IT Disaster

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Preparing for and IT Disaster - It is not just about the technology

When our clients are asked “How prepared are you for an IT disruption?” most clients respond in detail about the technology that has been implemented. Our experience shows technology is only one element of effective IT disaster recovery planning.

This breakfast session will focus on other critical IT disaster recovery components such as:

Identifying core IT systems and data to be recovered;
Linking IT Disaster Recovery to Business Continuity Planning; and
Performing testing activities.

During this session we will also share lessons KPMG have learnt from the Queensland floods.

About the Speaker

Angela is a Senior Manager within the KPMG IT Advisory team and leads the Perth Business Resilience practice. Angela has been involved in a number of business continuity engagements for clients in the private and public sector. Particular experience Angela has gained includes: BCM framework development, conducting Crisis Management exercises, conducting Business Impact Assessments (BIA), assessment of Business Continuity Plans (BCP) and IT Disaster Recovery Plans (IT DRP).

Prior to joining KPMG six years ago, Angela had four years of Business Continuity and IT disaster recovery implementation and deployment experience for a number of companies within the Telecommunications Industry (Call Centers, Mobile Service Provider, Mobile Entertainment Provider and Internet Service Provider (ISP)).

Social Media and Privacy

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 +1000

Social media is firmly entrenched in our society, both in our professional and personal lives. The way we communicate with each other has changed because of these tools. Understanding what content to share and how the information flows through your network is a critical step in addressing privacy concerns. Old privacy concerns are no longer valid and you may be unintentionally exposing yourself, your family and friends.

This WITWA event was a women-only event designed to provide information and have a frank discussion about the privacy issues surrounding social media, in particular for women.

Click here to see the presentation and read the blog post of the event.

Our guest speaker is WITWA Committee Member Sarah Mitchell, owner of Global Copywriting. Sarah speaks and writes extensively on the broad topic of social media. Her work is published on a number of blogs and publications including her own blog at Global Copywriting. She's a regular contributor at Social Media Today and consults to both commercial and not-for-profit organisations.

Sarah Mitchell presenting at the Social Media & Privacy WITWA breakfast

WITWA & ACS-W joint event: Cloud Computing

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +1000

Cloud Computing has taken more column space, commanded more blogger attention, and consumed more development budget than any single technology topic since Y2K. Despite so much buzz, many of us still have questions about the cloud.

What is it?
How does it work?
What difference does it make?
Is it secure?
Is it suitable for a mature infrastructure?
Is it affordable?
Will it be around?
Will it really solve problems or are we trading old problems for new?

Cloud Computing - A Panel Discussion is brought to you by WITWA and ACS-Women as a joint event. Join us and a panel of Cloud experts for a healthy debate and an excellent networking opportunity.

This session is kindly sponsored by Deloitte and IBM. We really hope to see you there.

Speakers Information:

Carolyn Gardiner-Hill, Deloitte

Carolyn is a Director within the Deloitte Consulting team with a strong background in large and complex organisations at an enterprise level. She has experience across a range of industries including Financial Services, Telecommunications, Utilities, Property Management and more recently within the Government sector.

With her blend of technical, commercial and management experience, she has successfully delivered new business and technology capabilities through program management, product management, business development and consulting roles.

Her capabilities extend from strategy development for entry into emerging markets, to project delivery and operational performance of systems and business processes. Skilled in development and implementation of IT solutions, Carolyn has a depth of experience across application implementation and infrastructure projects in a range of outsourced and multi-vendor environments.

Sheryl Frame, EDICT International Consultants (WITWA)

Sheryl is Principal Consultant and Director of EDICT International Consultants, and she specialises in ICT and related management consulting, including:
•   ICT, healthcare and pharmaceutical business start-up and post-start management;
•   Business development and IT systems consulting, including Cloud Computing Services;
•   Investor and grant application processes and business commercialization.

Sheryl is currently consulting for Innovation Australia, a division of AusIndustry.

Her specific expertise and skill sets have been developed and shaped over 25 years as a business manager and consultant in Africa and more recently Australasia.
Sheryl has worked in diverse public (government) and private sector business and industry, including resources (coal, gold and diamond mining), healthcare, pharmaceutical, IT, automotive, general services and community sectors.
She has particular abilities in IT/IS and management consulting, reinforced by marketing, sales, service, mentoring and investor related skills. Her project and program management capabilities have been developed on medium through to large assignments.
Sheryl also has extensive practical work experience and has held interim executive roles with a number of clients.

Kim Wisniewski, Empired (ACS-W)

Kim Wisniewski is Senior Consultant with the Enterprise Strategy and Architecture Group in Empired. He has recently joined Empired to grow their consulting team, and has hit the ground running with numerous architectural and consultative engagements around Perth. Prior to joining Empired Kim served a diverse range of roles at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, including Applications Engineer, Systems Engineer and Technical Architect. In his final twelve months he took up the Technology Evangelist role to enhance the reputation and relationship between IT and the Teaching and Learning areas in the University. He has a history of pushing standards and driving the adoption of virtualization and evangelizing emerging concepts such as Surface Computing. He has presented at conferences including VMworld, VForum, Higher-Ed Summit, and Cloud Camp and recently gave a case study at the Microsoft Surface Product launch. He is also an active contributor to the industry through social media and blogging.

Dan Zador, Freehills (ACS-W)

Dan Zador is a Senior Associate in the Banking and Projects team at Freehills. He has advised on a range of corporate and commercial matters in both the public and private sectors throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and America.

Dan is an IT contracts specialist and has advised on and prepared an array of IT contracts, including software licences, system development and implementation agreements, service agreements, maintenance and support agreements and outsourcing agreements. In the last few years Dan has also advised on and prepared a number of IT contracts and offerings centred on cloud computing.

Justine Middleton, IBM Australia

Justine Middleton is a Consulting Client Technical Professional in the IBM Australia Software Group and is based in Melbourne.

She began her IBM career in Perth but had already held IT-related positions in both Perth and Melbourne. She moved to Sydney in 1989 and since then has had a two-year assignment in Minnesota and returned to Melbourne at the end of 2008. She holds an MBA from UWA and Graduate Diploma in Computing from Curtin (then WAIT).

During her career, there have been many quantum shifts in both technology and architectural approaches to solving IT problems, and although the fundamental business goals remain the same, the ways to achieve those goals have changed.

Justine has been involved in many portal implementations that involve aggregating people, processes and content into personalised portal interfaces to support collaboration in context. Most recently, Justine has helped organisations achieve tangible business benefits through becoming Social Businesses. A Social Business is one that embraces and cultivates a spirit of collaboration and community throughout its organisation—both internally and externally and can involve the adoption of both public social networking tools and corporate-based ones.

Justine is a strong believer that adopting cloud services as part of an IT strategy does not change the need for careful planning. Ownership of the full enterprise architecture including that component being hosted in the cloud is still the responsibility of the IT department.

Justine has delivered presentations and demonstrations to many user groups, roadshows, conferences and training sessions and is also active in the Melbourne chapter of the IBM Women in Technology Networking group.

Does Gender Play a Role in Innovation?

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +1000

This after-hours session was held on the 18 of August at Scitech Discovery Centre. Professor Lyn Beazley, a great supporter of WITWA and its techtrails program – she is its patron - enlightened and entertained an audience of about 35 people with amazing stories of the many women in WA who have made major contributions to innovation in the fields of medicine, biology and technology. The stories were both heartening and inspirational. A lively discussion ensued at the end about how we can encourage more children to choose science and technology careers and how we can encourage women to push the boundaries in their field.

Lyn, as always, spruiked WITWA’s techtrails initiative as a great program to support, since it is exactly the kind of program that focussed on encouraging youth into these careers.

Lyn, Sarah, Sheryl and Marjolein in front of WITWA banner

This event is part of the ICT Innovations events series.

ICT Innovation Series Participant Organisations

Mentoring – The Art of Sharing Wisdom

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Dee Roche, Senior Management Consultant at AIM-UWA Business School Executive Education is a great friend of WITWA and a very dynamic speaker with a world of experience around mentoring, both as mentor and mentee. She currently has 3 Mentors of her own; and is a Mentor to 12 individuals from a broad range of sectors and age groups. Dee has demonstrated specific and successful mentor program experience, designing and developing numerous major mentor programs for leading organisations.

This session was held in a workshop format over breakfast.

Ron Gibson – Networking

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Our last event, co-hosted by our friends at the Australian Web Industry Association's Port80 group, featured Ron Gibson, Managing Director of Go Networking, as our speaker.

Ron offered us various approaches to networking, asked us to consider the difference between networking and socialising, mused on givers and takers and gave us tips for cultivating new contacts into lasting and genuine business relationships. There was plenty of opportunity to put his advice into practice after his presentation upstairs at The Ellington jazz club on Beaufort Street. With the room full of WITWA and Port80 members, the conversation and drinks flowed.

Thanks to The Ellington for letting those of us that wanted to stay the opportunity to watch the jazz downstairs after the event, and to Port80 for providing the LED necklace door prize and canapés.