The Stemettes #MonsterConfidence Event

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. 

Social Media Who to Follow Webinar

I was delighted to be invited to take part as a presenter on the Student to Stemette webinar on the 19 November.

The theme for the session was Social Media who to follow.

I was invited as a representative from academia, along with two other presenters from industry and recruitment. We were each asked to speak for approximately 10 minutes to share our experiences of social media with students who are part of the Student to Stemette programme. My talk shared how social media can be used to connect, communicate, collaborate, curate and create. I spoke about the value of building a personal learning network through LinkedIn and Twitter, where we can engage in conversations, ask questions and share useful information. You can hear what I said in the video below (I am the first of the the three presenters). 

At the end of our presentations we took questions from the participants. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm and interest in how they can develop their digital presence. Student Mary Akinyemi who is studying maths at the University of Exeter writes a blog called QUIRKY RAMBLINGS & SEASHELLS - A great example of how we can all can develop our writing skills and share interesting posts. These can be personal interests or linked to the academic subject area we are studying or working in. 

What is Student to Stemette?

Student to Stemette is bringing together girls aged 16+ and women currently working in STEM. A cohort of girls have been given the fantastic opportunity to build a one-on-one relationship with mentors. In addition a series of public webinars provide advice, guidance and connections from a network of other women working in STEM.

This first Student to Stemette mentoring cohort have been matched with 'Big Stemettes' currently working at Deutsche Bank. They all have STEM backgrounds and are helping their mentees explore the different paths on which they can use their STEM skillset. They will share their skills, time and their own networks. Student to Stemette is currently part of Deutsche Bank's current wider Born to Be Youth Engagement programme.

Links

Below are just some of the channels you can learn more about the Stemettes:

http://www.stemettes.org/

https://twitter.com/Stemettes

https://twitter.com/StudentStemette

https://www.linkedin.com/company/stemettes

http://stemettes.wordpress.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/Stemettes