DDD Perth 2017

As my first ever DDD Conference I was super impressed with the way the event was organised. I think its easy to forget that all of the organisers both prior to, and on the day, are volunteers doing it on top of normal jobs! As someone who volunteers for a few NFP groups: I can tell you this can be many hours ??

I was also really impressed with the diversity at the conference and how the committee had really made a huge effort to attract more women speakers and this was reflected by the diversity in the overall attendance of 330+.

The venue, food, and quality of speakers was incredible and the general vibe throughout the day was passionate; people excited to be part of the conference. The toughest part of the day was choosing between which presentations to go and see, when I wanted to see them all!

Some of the speakers I enjoyed and would highly recommend looking up if you missed their talks were:

• Gojko Adzic (Keynote) and his very humorous examples on AI
• Nathan Jones on culture, shiny tech and ‘architects’
• Jasmine Quek and her story around the benefits of feedback
• Patima Tantiprasut on the fine balance we all walk between productivity and burnout
• Kris Howard (Locknote) on the importance of adding value to our industry and all actively working towards making it better!

I had a great time (and a lot of laughs) on the panel during afternoon tea with Nathan, Patima and Rami (eventually ??). We all fielded some questions from Aiden, Derek and the audience around practical advice on encouraging kids (and girls) into tech, culture, and diversity, amongst other things.

VGW sponsored a great after party with a fantastic turn out and great vibe (the black jack went down a treat and the bar tab just seemed to keep getting topped up!). There was a lot of mingling and meeting new people and I had quite a few people ask for coffees post-DDD to chat more about my talk on ‘Attraction and Retention of Women in Tech’ - which was everything I could have hoped for!

Thanks to all the people who took the time to leave feedback on my talk it was really valuable; as my first large conference presentation I learnt a heap and (surprisingly) had a lot of fun doing it ??

I have included some key takeaways from my talk below – and am also very happy to have a chat with anyone that is looking for practical tips on getting more women into their organisation and improving retention.

1. A passion for learning doesn’t discriminate (and this is the most important criteria we should be recruiting for)
2. Diverse organisations and teams are more successful
3. Each ‘Criteria’ point you place on your job advert is a potential objection for women who think they need to have 100% to apply: use ‘desirable’, or better yet don’t use criteria
4. Use your job ads and ALL social media and career pages as an opportunity to promote your company culture and benefits
5. Without interviewer training we are all just inclined to hire people that are “the same” as us; culture is shared values not 'Do I get along with them’
6. Transparent processes for performance reviews, promotions and salary reviews will make conversations easier for women and will assist in both attraction and retention.
7. Leaders play a huge role in retention and need to understand unconscious bias and proactively monitor it within their teams.
8. Practice what you preach! Don’t make promises during the interview process that you can’t keep!