I was delighted to be invited by Anne-Marie Imafidon to give one of the keynotes at the Stemettes #MonsterConfidence Conference in Sheffield. The event is aimed at girls interested in STEM and co-run with Monster, a leading job site in the UK.
Anne-Marie is the CEO of the Stemettes and she can be found on Twitter as @aimafidon. Amongst other awards, Anne-Marie was recently announced by Computer Weekly as one of the most influential women in the UK.
My keynote focused on the importance of networking and building an online presence. I wanted to encourage the girls attended to learn to use social media in a professional context to connect, communicate, curate, collaborate and create. Drawing on the work of Stepper, I expounded on the value of working out loud and sharing achievements so that others can learn from these experiences. Ultimately I wanted to help them see the value in building networks online through the use of social media.
The importance of networking and building an online presence #stemettes #monsterconfidence from Sue Beckingham
It was a fabulous event and I took great pleasure in being involved throughout the day. This included 'speed dating' sessions where the student attendees spoke to myself and others to ask questions and learn about how we had developed our careers.