This past Thursday I had the honor of attending the MedTech conference put on by the Arizona Council of Technology. Not only did I gain an immense knowledge of technology in the medical industry but I saw a glimpse into how career networking really looks.
Something that I noticed was that while there were a large number of females present at the event there were still more males. Furthermore, the sponsor showcase was where the duties of the females showed through. The females that were at the conference were mostly there for marketing companies. They were at the boots promoting the company and socializing with the other male engineers that were there looking for work. While this was an informational and marketing conference, I still found this interesting.
On a side note, the innovations being made through engineers of all kinds is one of the reasons I love it so much. Currently, babies that are born "blue" (a serious lack of oxygen) are being treated significantly better because of engineering technologies such as 3D printing. After the babies are born scans of their hearts (deformities are all) are translated into a software than then prints out an actual model. This allows the doctors to look at the heart before they actually begin the surgery so that they can better understand how to approach the patient's particular situation. Innovation only occurs when teams are able to fully collaborate. Given that teamwork is so essential, I'd like to once again argue that it is incredibly important to have input from both genders.
Stay tuned for more fun events and information!!
Hi Liz,
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool experience! Was this something you found on your own, or did your internship set this up for you? Did you get a chance to speak with any of the women at the conference? Did you happen to ask how they got to where they are, or what appealed to them about their current position? Or the men at the conference? I would be really interested to know how they would answer!
Hello Mrs. Kate,
DeleteI attended alongside the sales team from my internship. I didn't get a chance to talk to a lot of the females about engineering because, as I mentioned, they were mostly at the booths marketing their company. However, I was able to talk to a lot of the men at the conference to learn about their companies. For example, the president of MJS introduced me to one of the people on the Arizona Council of Technology and I was able to talk about females in the industry with him. He told me that the influx of women was very visible and that he was eager to see how my project answers the question of "What is really pushing these women into STEM fields." It was a great conversation that encouraged me that my project will mean something to me both now and in the future.
Conferences are a great way to benchmark your products by seeing what the competition and also people in other industries are capable of. It is also a great place to network as you said. It brushes you up on your social skills and elevator speeches. The sampling of engineers at these events may not completely reflect an accurate percentage because mostly higher up engineers go to these events and as the percentage of women increases, most of them may not have worked their way up the corporate ladder high enough to go.
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