The Click List Showcase

We were delighted to partner with our Sponsor, AGL, to host a The Click List showcase on Tuesday 12th February in Docklands.

MICE BTN mag and The Click List

Australia’s Vic ICT 4 Women, an organisation for women in IT, has launched The Click List – a national list of qualified and female tech speakers. The  list is a free resource for event organisers to ensure gender equality at their events, according to  Vic ICT 4 Women Board member Rowena Murray, who said event organisers can no longer blame the limited pool of qualified women. Read the full article here: http://www.impactpub.com.au/micebtn/mice-news/86-news/mice-news/21640-ict-4-women-launches-speakers-list

Women Love Tech love The Click List

A list of engaging female tech speakers has been launched called The Click List by the group Vic ICT for Women, a professional organisation for women in IT. All too often there is a lack of female representation for event organisers to ensure gender equality at their events …. but now that is set to change. Vic ICT 4 Women, Board Member, Rowena Murray, said event organisers can no longer blame the limited pool of qualified women. “Australia has some of the most highly qualified, dynamic and interesting female tech speakers – we’re so sick of hearing the excuse that there were no women available. It’s time to put an end to the ‘all white middle-aged man’ panel – event organisers can do better than that.” Read the full article here: https://womenlovetech.com/list-of-female-tech-speakers-launched-called-the-click-list/

New list of female tech speakers aims to end male-dominated events

Event organisers who claim they ‘can’t find any women’ are fast running out of excuses, with a number of new resources opening up promoting female speaking talent. The latest is The Click List, and comes from Vic ICT 4 Women to focus on STEM events. It’s a free resource, offering female tech speaker suggestions for those organising panel sessions and other events in the sector. It aims to expand over the coming months, and already features speakers including research scientist Dr Caitlin Byrt, Uni Super CIO Anna Leibel and AGL CIO Dayle Stevens. I spoke to Rowena Murray, a Vic ICT 4 Women board member and key creator of the list, who told me it’s time to end the ‘all white middle-aged man’ panel. Read the full Women’s Agenda article here: https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/new-list-female-tech-speakers-aims-end-male-dominated-conferences/

Female tech speakers set to disrupt male dominated industry

row murray rowena murray

Vic ICT 4 Women board member Rowena Murray said Australia has some of the most highly qualified, dynamic and interesting female tech speakers. “We’re so sick of hearing the excuse that there were no women available,” she said. “It’s time to put an end to the ‘all white middle-aged man’ panel – event organisers can do better than that.” Murray believes a stronger female presence at tech industry events will have a positive flow-on effect for women in the workplace. “The lack of female representation at tech events is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “Not only is there a shocking gender gap in the tech industry, but it’s rife with discrimination. Women in tech are paid around 20 per cent less than men, are criticised more harshly, and it’s much harder for women to break into leadership roles.” Read the full article on CIM here: http://www.cimmagazine.com/female-tech-speakers-set-to-disrupt-male-dominated-industry/

Women in tech push for more speaker roles at events

A group of women who work in the technology sector has set up a list of their peers who can serve as speakers at tech events, in order that they can be better represented at such events. Vic ICT for Women, a professional organisation for women in IT, has kicked off The Click List — a country-wide list of highly qualified and engaging female speakers — in what it says is a move to “disrupt the male-dominated tech industry”. Rowena Murray, a board member of the organisation, told iTWire that the move was to meant to slowly increase female participation in tech conferences and other tech events. Read the full iTWire article here: https://www.itwire.com/strategy/81920-women-in-tech-push-for-more-speaker-roles-at-events.html

The Click List on ABC Radio Talk

Informed, entertaining, thought-provoking radio that asks the questions that Melbourne wants asked. Compassionate, confronting, and never dull, Jon Faine isn’t afraid to tackle the big issues and the big names while letting you have your say. Listen to Row Murray discuss The Click List, starting at the 1:11 mark on ABC Talk Radio here: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/mornings/mornings/9472474

Inspiring the next generation of female ICT leaders

According to a report by Australia’s Chief Scientist, women comprise just 16% of the total STEM workforce, a glaring statistic that has resulted in an increased focus to improve gender parity from leaders and organisations across society. In a bid to turn this around, a new initiative has been launched with the aim of inspiring more women to take up roles in ICT and disrupt what has traditionally been a male dominated industry. The Click List, which was unveiled by Vic ICT for Women – a professional organisation for women in IT – is a national list of highly qualified and engaging female speakers who work in the field of technology. Read the full article in The Educator Online here: https://www.theeducatoronline.com/au/technology/innovation/inspiring-the-next-generation-of-female-ict-leaders/247155

AFR talks to The Click List

The Click List Row Murray Chris Skipper Conway

“A group of women in the Victorian technology industry have joined forces to bring more exposure to female leaders in the sector, and attempt to combat the endemic problem of “manels” (male-only panels) at tech conferences.” “Vic ICT 4 Women board member Rowena Murray told The Australian Financial Review she had been to so many conferences with manels she had lost count, so it was launching The Click List as an online directory for events organisers to discover top female speakers and experts.” Read more: http://www.afr.com/technology/tired-of-menonly-tech-conference-panels-vic-ict-4-women-creates-the-click-list-20180219-h0wcb3#ixzz58EGrd0qC Thanks to Yolanda Redrup for speaking to us about something we’re so passionate about.

Nomination News

The Click List and VIC ICT for Women teams are absolutely thrilled with the nominations that have been coming in since we started inviting people to become a part of a movement to gain a female, POC and non-binary share of voice in the STEM industry. We wanted to post and let people know that we have received over 150 nominations in the past week or so, and we have another list of over 200 speakers that we already know and love, to invite to be a part of The Click List. So if you have nominated, or have spoken with VICT4W in the past and are wondering if your invitation is coming by carrier pigeon, please bear with us! We’re so thrilled with the response and are getting through the nominations as quickly as we can. If you’d like to nominate someone for The Click List, please head over here and do so! Thank you for your patience everyone; we’re blown away.

Australian businesses warned to prepare now for legislative changes on way

Australian businesses have been warned that they need to start preparing for legislative changes that will be introduced early next year. The long-awaited Notifiable Data Breaches Bill legislates that from February 2018, businesses can no longer keep quiet about cyber security breaches.  The Bill legislates that any organisation that is accountable to the Privacy Act will be required to inform the Australian Information Commissioner and members of the public if their data has been compromised. The new legislation mandates that businesses must notify government authorities as soon as is practical of a business being aware, or ought to reasonably be aware, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that there has been a serious data breach. The Bill brings Australia into alignment with other countries and will provide Australians with greater clarity about the privacy of their personal information. There have been a number of highly publicised breaches in Australia, and plenty of evidence that organisations haven’t had effective process or procedures in place to prevent the breaches. Not informing affected parties has also been an ongoing trend among companies. Australian cyber-security provider Alanta-Group CEO Rodd Cunico said there were an estimated 14,800 cybersecurity incidents affecting Australian businesses in 2015/16. These have resulted in significant direct and indirect costs, relating both to resources to investigate the extent of the intrusion, understanding the harm and the legal costs when impacted third parties may sue for negligence or breach of contract. Cyber attacks include information warfare, cyber espionage, cyber crime, cracking and cyber terror. Motivations include military or political dominance, gaining intellectual property, economic gain, ego and political change, he says. Cyber security is the responsibility of every single person within an organisation, he says. “The threat from cyber and terrorist acts has never been greater. Almost daily we hear of organisations and nation states that have been compromised, lost critical business or customer data, held to ransom or suffered material damage to their reputations,” Cunico says. “I’ve watched these risks amplify in line with the adoption of mobile devices, social applications, cloud computing and the ever-increasing range of internet and digital services including IOT connected devices.” Preventing your organisation requires coordinated efforts throughout an information system. These includes looking at application security, information security, network security, disaster recovery, operational security and end-user education, Cunico says. “Your organisation is only as strong as your weakest link. It’s paramount that employees understand the importance of avoiding phishy emails, keeping software updated, using secure internet connections and multiple strong passwords or multi-factor authentication. Chris Skipper-Conway is the CEO of Melbourne specialist IT recruitment firm GMT People. She has noticed a rapid increase in the number of employers seeking specialist IT experts with a demonstrated understanding of cyber security. “Cyber security is big business in Australia, and employers are constantly approaching us with specialist requests for IT experts with experience in the IT space. It’s not surprising given that cyber breaches result in billions of dollars’ worth of financial gain around the world every single …

Good luck to Board Member Kellee Ireland

Kellee Ireland

VICT4W is absolutely thrilled for our Board Member, Kellee Ireland, on being a 2017 finalist for the Telstra Business Women of the Year (Corporate and Private). With over 600 applicants, we’re thrilled she’s made it this far. You can read the press release here: https://www.telstrabusinesswomensawards.com/news/2017/victorian-finalists-with-generous-intentions-announced-in-telstra-business-womens-awards/ Kellee Ireland is no stranger to hard work. She was already employed full-time in the spatial industries and raising three children when she added part-time study to her load. She was then promoted to the role of Executive Director of the Spatial Industries Business Association (SIBA) and after 9 years has recently taken up the challenge at Spookfish, a cutting edge spatial industries tech start-up. Kellee works with some of Australia’s finest thinkers in geospatial information systems – the technology that uses data to show where, why and how things happen. This technology is now available to consumers via their smartphones. Having state and federal governments regularly engage with SIBA events to shape policy around digital transformation and data, Kellee has been a crucial bridge between the various stakeholders in this growing industry. As an advocate for women in business and leadership, Kellee was appointed to the Board of Victorian Women for ICT.