Successful Launch of LISTnet Women in Tech

On a recent Thursday morning amid bagels and Surface tablets, Sharon Keenan and Tami Davidman of EisnerAmper and Janet Dwyer of Talent Browser had a successful meetup featuring Laurie Carey of LC Consulting taking a room of 25 (mostly) women through a mind mapping exercise.

 
Mind mapping is a method of capturing information used for a variety of tasks including brainstorming, identifying new opportunities, organizing, and managing projects. The technique plots out thoughts using keywords that trigger associations in the brain to spark further ideas. Mind maps help break down the most complex of problems into core components, and enable people to mm add layers, importance and details and consider tangents and consequences in greater depth. 

Laurie took us through an interactive session where we each started to create our own Mind Map, “When we teach Mind Mapping it is not about sitting in a class room learning to use a product.  We take real problems and facilitate the work with you as you learn to utilize Mind Mapping and address business or professional goals.”
 
And let’s not forget the main purpose of the event: networking. The new Women in Tech (“WIT”) group is focused on growing the role women in technology on long island. The technology sector does not have a stellar reputation for diversity or inclusiveness. That’s why meetups like this are so important.  According to CNBC, today’s technology community can get stuck in the "five men and a whiteboard syndrome." based on the success of technology companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google. These companies have become the model for the perception of a successful start-up. As CNBC points out, this archetype has become so culturally ingrained that the popular HBO show "Silicon Valley" features a stereotypical start-up that employs only men. It’s easy to become comfortable with this model, but in reality, we know the true story is and should be different. If you look past Facebook, Twitter and Google, you will see many successful technologies companies that had a diverse group of employees, which was part of the reason for their success.

It’s up to us to get together, collaborate, learn, inspire, support each other, and have fun. Stay tuned for information on the next meetup, scheduled for February 11, 2016.