Reinventing the superhighway of ideas and commerce

Reinventing the superhighway of ideas and commerce

By Jana Marle - Zizkova

What do the Silk Road, our Courage Council and large conferences have in common? They facilitate the exchange of ideas and philosophies.

As a European living in Asia, the history of the Silk Road has always fascinated me. For two millennials, the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of ideas in science and technology, languages,?cultures and philosophies between the East and West. The Silk Road had such a significant impact on modern?civilization, and truly played a key and foundational role to the progress that we are seeing in our society today.?

We have so much to be grateful for in our modern world. To be living in a highly globalized world, and to have the means to connect with people virtually anywhere in the world, thanks to the technologies and digital tools that we have at our perusal. Despite the lack of human mobility and global travels during the pandemic, we found other means to continue the conversations, to inspire thoughts and ideas.

Our Courage Council is in fact a great example of this. It was established in 2021 while social restrictions were still in place. Undeterred by these limitations, we took our dialogues with leaders in the data space digitally. Our inaugural Courage Council gave us a good foundation to spark conversations around diversity in the leadership ranks, giving us good fodder for more conversations to come.

That said, the reality remains that the exchange of ideas is best done in person. With large events finally coming back to Singapore, it’s great to see people coming together on forums and panel discussions as we discuss pertinent issues in our world - today and for the future.

Just last week, She Loves Data participated at the Big Data & AI World Asia in Singapore, where we had our own She Loves Data Live theatre within the show floor. It was a program with two full days of agenda that included a hiring fair by our DEI partners and supporters, DBS Bank and Standard Chartered Bank; as well as keynote presentations and panel discussions aligned to the topics of Data Innovation, MarTech and Digital, and Hiring for the Future.?

The presentations and discussions definitely give many of us in attendance some great food for thought, especially as we think about how organizations and people interact with each other digitally and using data, and how this has an impact on everything we’re doing to drive diversity, equity and inclusion in the data and digital economy.

There’s so much for us to do, and so much to follow through after these discussions. We have our work cut out for us, and I’m really excited for what’s in store. On this note, I also would like to express my gratitude to our organizational partners and volunteers for joining forces with us on this journey. It was truly inspiring to see the spark that everyone brought with them to the event - it reminded me of why we do what we do.

As I look forward to what’s next, I really hope that we continue to inspire each other. It’s important for these platforms, whether it’s a focused-group, roundtable discussion or large conferences, to continue to thrive. It’s at these events and interactions where we can truly share and gain new perspectives and ideas as we seek to find new solutions in our world today.

By Jana Marle - Zizkova

What do the Silk Road, our Courage Council and large conferences have in common? They facilitate the exchange of ideas and philosophies.

As a European living in Asia, the history of the Silk Road has always fascinated me. For two millennials, the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of ideas in science and technology, languages,?cultures and philosophies between the East and West. The Silk Road had such a significant impact on modern?civilization, and truly played a key and foundational role in the progress that we are seeing in our society today.?

We have so much to be grateful for in our modern world. To be living in a highly globalized world, and to have the means to connect with people virtually anywhere in the world, thanks to the technologies and digital tools that we have at our perusal. Despite the lack of human mobility and global travel during the pandemic, we found other means to continue the conversations and to inspire thoughts and ideas.

Our Courage Council is in fact a great example of this. It was established in 2021 while social restrictions were still in place. Undeterred by these limitations, we took our dialogues with leaders in the data space digitally. Our inaugural Courage Council gave us a good foundation to spark conversations around diversity in the leadership ranks, giving us good fodder for more conversations to come.

That said, the reality remains that the exchange of ideas is best done in person. With large events finally coming back to Singapore, it’s great to see people coming together on forums and panel discussions as we discuss pertinent issues in our world - today and for the future.

Just last week, She Loves Data participated at the Big Data & AI World Asia in Singapore, where we had our own She Loves Data Live theatre on the show floor. It was a program with two full days of agenda that included a hiring fair by our DEI partners and supporters, DBS Bank and Standard Chartered Bank; as well as keynote presentations and panel discussions aligned to the topics of Data Innovation, MarTech and Digital, and Hiring for the Future.?

The presentations and discussions definitely give many of us in attendance some great food for thought, especially as we think about how organizations and people interact with each other digitally and using data, and how this has an impact on everything we’re doing to drive diversity, equity and inclusion in the data and digital economy.

There’s so much for us to do, and so much to follow through after these discussions. We have our work cut out for us, and I’m really excited about what’s in store. On this note, I also would like to express my gratitude to our organizational partners and volunteers for joining forces with us on this journey. It was truly inspiring to see the spark that everyone brought with them to the event - it reminded me of why we do what we do.

As I look forward to what’s next, I really hope that we continue to inspire each other. It’s important for these platforms, whether it’s a focused group, roundtable discussion or large conferences, to continue to thrive. It’s at these events and interactions that we can truly share and gain new perspectives and ideas as we seek to find new solutions in our world today.