Here’s the final entry of my coverage on the Web Summit I attended last year. Topics are all still relevant, and always on the look-out to get involved with some ‘geeky’ talk and trigger the conversation about women in tech.
If you are not yet following what David Cuartielles, the Co-Founder of Arduino platform has to say, you’re missing out. If you can, get hold of an Arduino kit for yourself or for your kids. Arduino are, after all, helping you go from ‘zero to hero’, to become the builders of what you want to build. Imagine a world where you are able customise your gadgets the way you want them to work! Imagine building something like this to decorate your house with at Christmas.
Following up that, bit more of that hackin’ action.
Bonin Bough, VP Global Media and Consumer Engagement at Mondelēz International (formerly Kraft Foods), is a man who believes that ‘the best way to predict the future, is to hack it! We have to break things to unlock value and potential.’
And he is one helluva engaging presenter! Welcome to Hack-o-nomy!
Some facts he brought up based on research:
– 6bn of the world’s population own a mobile, while 4.1bn own a toothbrush.
– Smartphones and social media are as addictive as drugs.
His main concern, working in FMCG sector, is how can brands customise a customer’s experience? What does the future of connectivity look like?
Home-based prototype based on the Quantified Snack Markup Language (QSML).
Oreo – Twitter – Trending Vending – Experiment Number 0308 (Enhanced) from MAYA Design on Vimeo.
And finally, I want to cover the topic that affects me directly too – ‘Women in Tech.’
The talk by Cathryn Posey, the founder of Tech By Superwomen, gathered – as you can imagine – a lot of women in one room. But it was also great to see how so many men represented in the audience too.
I think the key thing to highlight about this talk is that it’s not about ‘fixing women’ to help them adjust to working and being accepted in the tech world. In fact, today, women are more likely to adopt new technology than men.
And what is also clear is that we need to stop playing the men vs. women game as it’s not a battle between them, but about diversity and building partnerships between the genders. And – thanks to someone from the audience who called herself the ‘Grandma of Tech’ – it’s also time to stop neglecting the older generations too. They are more tech-savvy than we think they are!
If you want to get more insights about the topics mentioned connect with me. And for update on what’s happening on the tech job market.