Women in IT Conference targets a wide range of attendees

The 18^th annual Women in Information Technology Conference, held March 3 in the Memorial Student Center on the Texas A&M University campus, attracted an array of women interested in informational technology.

Current students from Texas A&M, Blinn College, Prairie View A&M, Houston Christian School and Texas A&M-Texarkana, along with information systems professionals and CMIS board members attended the conference, which is hosted by the Center for the Management of Information Systems (CMIS). A variety of industries from consulting, education, financial, manufacturing and oil & gas were represented by Texas A&M former students and CMIS board members in the MIS (management of information systems) field.

After a welcome by CMIS Director Robin Starnes, Rich Metters, head of the Information Systems and Operations Management Department, presented some facts from his latest publication, “Gender Equality in Operations Management.”  Then the conference opened up with an “ice-breaker” session. Roundtables of networking sessions were conducted three different times, allowing attendees to move to different tables and network with others. A wide variety of topics included “What inspires or motivates you?“ and “What does your typical day look like?”

The sold-out crowd of close to 200 attendees enjoyed three keynote presentations.

• Brandie Claborn, Vice President of World Wide Communications at Intel Security, provided an informative and timely presentation on the Cybersecurity industry; the need to fill open positions and the strides at Texas A&M in the Cybersecurity area.
• Christine Rose, CIO and Head of Ecommerce at Kendra Scott, highlighted The Power of Passion and Perseverance in her career as well as Kendra’s own statement, “NO is only a suggestion.”
• Stephanie Kinser, Senior Vice President Enterprise Solution Engineering, at Salesforce concluded the speakers with Disruption, Innovation, and Empowerment in the Age of Equality in the age of the technologies that affect our lives, such as the cloud.

A wide variety of prizes and gift cards were awarded to attendees. In addition, CMIS provided scholarships to five Texas A&M students as well as book prizes, The Secrets Leaders Keep and The Confidence Code. Texas A&M Information Technology donated two Air 128GB Wi-Fi IPADS and David Gardner’s donated a Katie Decker Century Tree necklace. Every attendee received a surprise yellow box of fashion earrings donated from Kendra Scott.

CMIS board members sponsoring the conference included Exabyte Members – ConocoPhillips, Deloitte, GM, HP Enterprise, Noble Energy, Phillips 66, and Shell; Petabyte Members – Anadarko, Chevron, ExxonMobil, HP Inc., National Instruments and PwC; Terabyte Members – Charles Schwab, Protiviti, and USAA.

MIS students, faculty and staff assisted in the planning of the event. Additional information on the CMIS and all sponsored events is at http://cmis.tamu.edu.