LEAD BEYOND – Accelerating Innovative Women Who Change the World #WIELEAD
21-22 May 2018-05-28 San Jose, CA, USA
Gianna Avellis
WIE ILC focused on providing leading-edge, professional development and networking for mid-level and senior women and men with inspiring key notes and tracks focused on Innovation, Executive Leadership, Disruptive Technology, and Empowerment.
There were about 1400+ attendees, 100+ speakers, with attendees from 40+countries of which 90% are professionals. As conference attendee Gianna Avellis had access to plenary keynote sessions and parallel sessions, engaging tracks on innovation, empowerment, executive leadership. She had access to the exhibition and made several contacts with the partners/sponsors of the conference.
Gianna was one of the winners of the Conference participation, and have been supported by IEEE to Conference registration, travel and subsistence. Gianna contacted the past Chair of the conference, namely Nita Patel, a Systems and Software Engineering Director at L-3 Warrior Systems. Nita is the Women in Engineering International Past-Chair, 2nd VP of the Computer Society BoG and on the Eta Kappa Nu BoG. As MGA WIE Chair, Nita led the successful launch of the WIE International Leadership Conference and developed a comprehensive business strategy to fulfil the mission of WIE to inspire, engage and advance women in technology.
The location of the conference was San Jose, the capital of the Silicon Valley, and Gianna enjoyed the creativity, technology and beauty of the location, fuelling her experience within the conference by networking with successful leaders in innovation and contacting several sponsors to investigate possible support to her activities within ITWIIN and MCAA. In particular inside a Session on Women in Technology she raised the issue of Role Models and asked and accepted the collaboration of several speakers at the session who want to participate to the Role Models.net database of role models founded by HUMBOLDT University on Networking and Mobility of Women Scientists, managed by Ira Didenkulova and Gianna Avellis. More contacts with the speakers above will follow the conference. She also invited some speakers at IEE WIE ILC Sessions to come to talk as speaker at ITWIIN Awards and Conference in Venice 9 November 2018, and some invitations are under consideration following chat contacts with Zoom with them, after the conference.