Vidushi Gupta’s Post

Here goes my day 2 experience of AnitaB.org's vGHC21✨ TL;DR: Have inclusive teams in organizations. include art in your STEM lives. Responsibly curate technical experience. Make meaningful AI products and take a pause and relax!💜 It started off with an inspiring welcome keynote by Brenda Darden Wilkerson hosted by Jeanne Sparrow. This informative session gave me an insight on the impact of the pandemic on women careers. The pandemic caused about 55% job loss for women 😥 With this, I also came across how companies with diverse and inclusive teams are flourishing. This was followed by a keynote by Payal Kadakia Pujji about how to turn a failure in a data point. She also spoke about transforming the “STEM” to “STEAM” - ‘A’ for arts. She spoke about how she used dance as her means to make better decisions along with her career at ClassPass and personal goals. Next up, I attended the “Integrating Ethics and Responsibility in the Product Development Cycle” session by Kathy Pham. This session opened my eyes of how one could be mindful and responsible with considering diversity with something as simple as making a form. In a form, why do we have Boolean values for gender? Why do we have the address field marked compulsory in almost every recruiting form? What about people who don’t have zip codes (pin codes)? There was a fireside chat with the famous TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas and Kara Swisher. Topics sprang around how TikTok features have been copied by other competitors, protection of users, how it is a part of the social entertainment domain, the upcoming trends- like Mom talk, home schooling, etc. The concept of Meaningful AI was then introduced to all the #vGHC attendees by Eden Waller Canlilar. She spoke about how we could make meaningful AI/ML applications which go beyond traditional scope and integrate with the user to provide a customized and meaningful experience. Cleo Wade recited a heart-whelming poem alongside describing the importance of pausing in life. It is very essential to take a pause, a step back, embrace the journey and enjoy every moment in the best possible way. The keynote by Margaret Gould Stewart described about building a diverse global community and moving from techno-optimism to techno-realism. The chat with Brenda Darden Wilkerson and Rosa Ramos-Kwok gave me a sense of how JP Morgan has been incorporating diversity and makes it a community for everyone and anyone. What a packed day! Along with these keynotes, I had the opportunity to attend the sponsor booths and 1:1 sessions with a few companies like Schrödinger and Wells Fargo, and universities like George Washington and Vanderbilt. I’m sorry for the long post but I just wanted to make sure, I share my takeaways with everyone whether or not you had the opportunity to attend the #vGHC21 this year🎊 #msftstudentambassadors #microsoftlearnstudentambassadors