Women in Data and Analytics

Join us ONLINE on Tuesday 30th November for a jam-packed evening!

Curious about career pathways in data, analytics and visualisation? Do you want to learn from industry leaders, get career advice, and participate in a hands-on Power BI workshop?

We will start with a panel featuring renowned experts, Leila Etaati, Indira Bandari, Owen Auger, Sudhir Rawat, about career development as a data analytics, data engineer, and data science, what they need, and what skills we need to know. After that, we have a hands-on lab for working with Power BI, extracting data from a data source, then cleaning it and visualizing it to show the current situation of the data better and learning how to visualise data for better storytelling and decision making.

Get your tickets now!

Inspiring Woman of the Month

Eteroa Lafaele

Developer Evangelist - Xero

Tell us about yourself, and your journey in tech/STEM.

It all started when I was in high school - I went to Saint Mary’s College in Wellington - and it was year 12 chemistry. Before the technology side of my journey came in, I was really interested in chemistry. There was a big competition in Wellington, the titration competition, and it was the jam - everyone wanted to get into it, and I got involved in that. From that, in year 12 I got given a scholarship to go to Massey University in the summer of 2012, under the MacDiarmid Institute. I did a lot of nanotechnology and chemistry stuff with them. So my journey really started in chemistry - starting with the S of STEM. I did that for two years while I was in college. Everyone thinks NCEA Level 1-3 are the important parts of college, but I actually did a lot of behind the scenes stuff outside the school year. I did that for two years, and thought I was going to study chemistry - it wasn’t until I did Nanocamp, where I was introduced to computer science.

There was a lab that was on the other side of the MacDiarmid building in Victoria University, that had a whole halfway full of pictures of computer science greats, with a massive plaque at the end. And respect to our brothers, but it was all about the boys, and I felt the mana of “you know what, it’s time to try something new”. I loved chemistry, but it wasn’t really my kind of jazz at the end - I loved the work, but I got stuck in the middle of a basement of Victoria University, with no windows and just me, scientists and pipettes. So it was fun learning it, but I wanted to go meet some other people! After that encounter at the MacDiarmid building, I chose to change from computer science - which brought me from the S to the T of STEM.

The E of STEM was incorporated into the T - when I finished high school, I made the move to AUT. At AUT, the way they did their computer science degree was very different because AUT at the time had engineering and computer science quite close together. The engineering came into my degree because of the coding side - my major was software - we had heaps of papers with the engineering squad. And the M, the M will always be there - you need the maths, the maths is crucial! At this point in my career I may not do a whole bunch of science or engineering anymore, but the mathematics, even until now, it never leaves.

Read the full interview here!

Update on She Sharp

Although we haven’t had an event this month, we’ve been busy planning for next year, as well as our last event of this year, coming up at the end of November. To keep updated about what’s coming up next year, follow She Sharp on Instagram (@shesharpnz), Facebook, Twitter (@SheSharpNZ) and LinkedIn, and join our Facebook group to stay connected.

Our sponsors

A message from MYOB: Win a year’s MYOB subscription and Microsoft Surface Pro with Digital Boost!

Helping small businesses hit the ground running in 2022, the Digital Boost programme (set up by MBIE and The Mind Lab) is giving away two ‘Biz Boost’ prize packs. Each Biz Boost pack includes a 12 month subscription to MYOB and a Microsoft Surface Pro – a great combination to help you stay in touch with customers and manage your business finances in the run up to EOFY.

All you need to do to be in to win, is sign up to Digital Boost – a completely free digital education platform, providing tips, tutorials and training on all things ‘digital business’. To sign up to Digital Boost and enter to win, visit: https://competition.digitalboost.co.nz/ or to find out more about Digital Boost, head to https://digitalboost.business.govt.nz. Entries close 30th November 11.59pm.

A message from AUT:

An update from our newest sponsor Flexware:

Creating a healthy work-life balance by providing flexibility to employees has become more important than ever before with working from home becoming the new norm. At FlexWare we celebrate a healthy work-life balance through several initiatives. One such initiative caters specifically to our many employees who are parents, with each having slightly different requirements. This is why we let them be flexible, not only with when they work but also how many hours a week they work. It’s a win-win for everyone because we get employees who are focused and productive while at work and they get to maintain a balance between their work and life outside the office! We also support our employees while they are on maternity leave by continuing contributions to their Kiwisaver! And the employee favourite seems to be our compressed fortnights initiative. This allows full-time employees to work 9 days in a fortnight instead of the usual 10, meaning they have time to deal with their life admin without taking time off work. In these ever-changing and uncertain times where the boundary between home and work seems to be blending, we encourage all companies to be mindful of what their employees are juggling. Small initiatives we run as employers can have a huge impact on the very people behind the success of a company.