Advantage Technology was pleased to have almost all of our incredible women attend the Charleston Area Alliance Elevations Professional Women’s Luncheon on June 26th at Embassy Suites, as part of the greater Women & Technology conference hosted by TechConnectWV. As the room was filling, I reflected upon the solid representation of women at our company and the contrast with industry standards. We all have a unique history and serve vastly different, but crucial roles at Advantage Technology. The beauty of hiring diversely is, I rarely find a company that doesn’t require diverse experience and skills, so I consider our mix a competitive differentiator and an asset to our organization. We represented the overall company functions of leadership; IT service; telecommunications; marketing; application development; administration and customer support. It’s the first time in my career history that I could come close to filling a sponsorship table with such a diverse company depiction!
We enjoyed the camaraderie and of course a nice break from the office. Dr. Anne Fischer, program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) amazed us with a summary of her program portfolio. The projects DARPA leads have defense purpose but also serve the commercial sector and community through the benefit of research application. The projects certainly seem to push the limits of what is known to be possible! Concepts like molecular memory (storing data as molecules) boggles our mind; the downstream impact of such research could mean exceptional advancements in storage density that is sure to impact the day-to-day for us.
Learning about specific technology advancements was a welcome exchange for the dedication of time. However, I think the most important takeaway was the boldness of Anne’s message to us all. She encouraged us to be afraid and be confident in ourselves, putting in the hard work to make it so. It takes action to lead – advancing ourselves and our world. It’s those of us that will use fear as a motivator on the path toward success that are sure to someday achieve it.
