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Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor. Today, we are joined by Jennifer Hayman. She's the Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications and Events for Ann Arbor SPARK. We're talking about "Women in Tech." This is an event that takes place this coming Monday, September 28th, as part of Ann Arbor SPARK's a2Tech360. A series of events are planned over the course of the 10-day event, and all of these are part of the city's endeavor to celebrate innovation in the greater Ann Arbor region. First of all, welcome, Jennifer!
Jennifer Hayman: Thank you! Thanks for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: As one of Michigan's premier gatherings, Women in Tech is going to attract innovators, entrepreneurs, executives, and many others. Tell me about this particular event, if you would.
Jennifer Hayman: Yeah. So, it's one of our most popular events during a2Tech360, and it's grown larger and larger every year, and we always try to change it up, so that there are interactive networking opportunities. It's a really engaged group of people that tend to come to this event particularly, so it's really fun. This one, this year, is set for Monday, September 28th. We're hosting it at Washtenaw Community College in the Morris Lawrence building, which is a beautiful, beautiful building with lots of light, and we really enjoy being at WCC. But the goal of the event really is about helping women navigate careers and technology at every stage. So, if you're somebody entering the field or moving into leadership, changing directions or figuring out what comes next, this is a great opportunity to really make those connections and You never know who you're going to meet in the audience, but it's always a great event!
Caroline MacGregor: My next question is regarding the current status of women in the tech field. When it comes to representation of women, I know that there are statistics out there that show about 29% of the overall STEM workforce is comprised of women. Are you seeing more women getting into the technical field?
Jennifer Hayman: Yeah. I mean, there's been such a big drive in the last 10, 15 years to really get more women in the room in these meaningful tech careers and not just at sort of the behind the computer, but really at the table and making the decisions. And I think that we've made some great strides. We will always benefit from from highlighting the people that are doing that work that are at the top and making the decisions and advocating for the folks on their journey up to that. So, we really focus a lot on mentorship and both sides of that, whether you've got this wealth of experience that you want to share and you want to mentor someone, or you're somebody earlier in your career and you need a mentor. And that's always been a big part of the conversations around advancing women in these STEM fields, not just giving them a voice, not just giving them a place, but really encouraging women to sort of show up for each other and make space for each other, and I think that we have a lot of great examples of people doing exactly that.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my guest today is Jennifer Hayman. She's the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications, and Events for Ann Arbor SPARK. And we are talking about "Women in Tech." This is an event taking place this Monday, September 28th, as part of Ann Arbor SPARK's a2Tech360 series. Tell me a little bit, if you would, about some of the particular tech areas that we are taking about. I mean, obviously, there's different fields. But like software engineering, data science, that type of thing, what other fields are we seeing more women participate in when it comes to technology today?
Jennifer Hayman: Yeah. I mean, really anything, everything, engineering, software, absolutely, AI, obviously is huge. You know, one of the smartest people in our ecosystem, I think, is Adalia Sigaldry, which is quantum computing. We have so many examples in our ecosystem of really incredible women doing incredible work. At South by Southwest last year, SPARK and University of Michigan innovation partnerships had an opportunity to host a panel conversation, and we had Charlie Childs sort of talking about her amazing tech where they are doing essentially like eliminating the need to test on animals and being able to sort of mimic that with science. And so, there's incredible tech happening everywhere, and women are absolutely at the top of the pile with being at these conversations and advancing these roles for themselves and for folks under them.
Caroline MacGregor: Given what you've just said that women are participating more in this field, including in the area of AI, there are some statistics that say women still make up only about 22% of global AI talent, and there's still a deficit in executive roles. Are you seeing changes with regard to this?
Jennifer Hayman: I wouldn't be able to speak to the stats of that, but I do know that, in the Ann Arbor region and, obviously, in our partnership and our work that we do with the University of Michigan, I think that there's so many great examples of women inventors and founders and all sorts of different angel and VC groups that are focused on supporting women entrepreneurs and founders in business. So, I wouldn't be able to speak to the trends from a numbers percentage point, but absolutely that we're seeing more and more of them. We're seeing and more great examples. And what I love about it is that they are very keen to share their knowledge and expertise and help guide others.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my guest today is Jennifer Hayman. She's the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Events for Ann Arbor SPARK, and we are talking about "Women in Tech." This is an event taking place this Monday, September 28th, as part of Ann Arbors SPARK's a2Tech360 series. And you've got quite an array of speakers lined up for this Women in Tech event. Tell us a little bit about them.
Jennifer Hayman: Yeah! We've got Alana Karen is coming to us. She spent more than 20 years at Google, and she's fascinating! She's the author of a book, and she's actually in her second edition of it, called "The Adventures of Women in Tech." So, her work looks at the real experiences of women building careers in technology, the opportunities, the challenges, the decisions. And so, she's going to come in and talk to us about that, and the nice thing is that we always want to make the event really practical and actionable. So, every attendee will leave with a copy of her companion workbook, so the ideas and the conversations from that day can continue well beyond the event. We'll also have two panel conversations featuring women working in technology and leadership, including people from Oracle, Charles Schwab, Switchbox and Cargility. So, we really want our attendees to hear different perspectives, different career journeys, rather than suggesting that there's one path to success.
Caroline MacGregor: So, obviously, it's a great opportunity for women to explore things like startups, find career resources, and participate in all the networking that's available. The speakers you've talked about are top notch! These are leaders in the industry, so they certainly will serve as great mentors to women wanting to explore the area.
Jennifer Hayman: Absolutely! Yeah! And networking is a huge part of the day. Trista Van Tine is a local founder in our ecosystem. She has developed an app called Nunchi, which is a networking app. So, we have partnered with her, and we have kind of an exclusive version of that app for women and tech attendees that they can continue those conversations, they can network within that app, stay connected. We'll also have resource tables featuring organizations and programs from across the region that attendees can leverage to help take that next step. So, it might mean professional development, career resources, industry connections, learning about how AI can be used in their business, all sorts of different opportunities that we really wanted to bring into the room. So, it's an important part of what we want the day to accomplish that. It shouldn't just be a great conversation while you're in the room. We want people to leave with actual contacts and resources, relationships, and ideas they can act on. And we often get feedback after the event that the networking was so powerful, and this person made this connection and that connection. And we even have an example. The company is not going to come to mind yet. But somebody that attended the Women in Tech event a few years ago decided to move their business to Ann Arbor because they felt like it was such a supportive ecosystem. And that's what we love to hear That's really kind of the goal of that.
Caroline MacGregor: I know that when you and I talked previously, we discussed the rankings and Ann Arbor is really high up with regards to its ecosystem, as you mentioned, for this industry. What do you credit this to?
Jennifer Hayman: Yes! We always like to say we punch above our weight because we really do. I mean, Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, obviously, is a huge driver in that, but the entire community that has been cultivated here just is so supportive of startup businesses and founders and creating this city that is so great at networking and connecting with each other. You have really incredible co-working spaces and all sorts of different meetup groups and different folks that are influential in the ecosystem that really are open to sitting down with anybody to just have coffee and talk about their career journey or what resources they could help with or recommend. It's really powerful! The people in this ecosystem are really powerful!
Caroline MacGregor: All right! And just for our audience, tickets are $75. Is that correct?
Jennifer Hayman: Correct. The event will probably sell out, but we try to make room for everybody. So, if you haven't registered yet, we would love to have you!
Caroline MacGregor: Well, thank you! I've been speaking with Jennifer Hayman. She is the senior vice president of marketing, communications, and events for Ann Arbor SPARK. And we've been talking about "Women in Tech," an event that's part of Ann Arbor SPARK's a2Tech360, and it takes place on Monday, September 28th. Thank you, Jennifer, for joining us today!
Jennifer Hayman: Thank you! I appreciate it!
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
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