This was the sixth ADT event that our very own Jo Francetti (Front End Architect) has hosted in TM Towers. This meet-up featured a number of different speakers and their experiences in the tech community.
Our first speaker of the evening was Zara Farrar (@CreaFarrar), Creative Producer & Head of Women’s Group at Government Digital Service (GDS). GDS is not your stereotypical governmental department – the office is bright and open adorned with bunting and Post-its. There are posters with guidelines and helpful advice on the walls, so it has the feeling of a vibrant, collaborative environment. Unfortunately, like many tech workplaces, it has not always been quite so inclusive. Zara spoke about her involvement in the GDS women’s group, set up after multiple cases of sexism and exclusion were reported by colleagues. The group gathered evidence of exclusive behaviour, and backed up with research, presented a paper to the leader of GDS on the problems and potential solutions.
Their paper was well received and actions were taken to improve colleague’s knowledge of how to foster an inclusive environment. So far, with help from colleagues across GDS, they have rolled out unconscious bias training to all line managers, they now run monthly talks by “Inspirational People”, and they host multiple Codebar training events. They’ve also set up a “Reverse Mentoring” scheme for senior civil servants, the idea being that managers are paired with junior staff members to help them find out what people outside their usual sphere think about working at GDS and open up lines of communication. This leads to improved working environments for staff at all levels.
Next up was Sasjkia Otto, the Founder of Carpool Vote (carpoolvote.com). This is her newest open source project, which aims to pair voters who have difficulty getting to their polling stations with people who are able to give them a lift. While at a “Hack Brexit”, a hackathon aiming to “create dialogue and action for a country divided”, Sasjkia realised that disabled people, those less able to travel and people from poorer, less privileged areas have greater difficulty getting to polling stations, meaning not only that many people weren’t able to exercise their right to vote, but that voting results would potentially be skewed. She set up Carpool Vote in order to address this issue and has started making traction in the US with multiple action groups willing to support her project. Jo Franchetti herself is volunteering her time to the project, working on the backend of the website. The site is still in need of development work, so if you’d like to contribute, click here.
Our final speaker was Cedric Kisema (@c_nak), a software developer who is heavily involved in multiple diversity initiatives across London, including CodeFirstGirls, Women who Code and Codebar to name a few! Cedric very kindly stepped in as a last-minute speaker on the day, and spoke passionately about stereotypes in the technology industry. Cedric realised early on in his career that he doesn’t fit the “developer stereotype” – he is well dressed, socially comfortable and black (not often features that many associate with developers, rightly or wrongly). He spoke about the harm that stereotypes can do to the confidence of those who don’t fit them and how people in the industry can go about supporting those who want to end this stereotype. He mentors people who do not fit the “cishet white male” stereotype who are trying to get into development, he has created his own training program and syllabus for his students and he’s had great success getting them on the first rung of the ladder of their tech careers.
Thank you to everyone who came along to the event. The next event will be a panel discussion held in the Ticketmaster Field on 20 October, be sure to join us!
Get more details and see more photos about this latest meetup here. To find out more about ADT events visit this website.
