Memories From My First Summit
A few years ago, I went to my first multi-day professional conference — the 2018 Women in Technology International (WITI) Summit. I remember really enjoying the feeling of sitting at a fancy table with a bunch of accomplished women, sipping coffee while networking and enjoying our catered lunch. Hearing the from the key note speakers who were mostly female C-level execs from various Silicon Valley companies was pretty inspring for this up-and-coming technical writer.
Out of all of the sessions at the summit there were a few that really stood out. Here are my impressions and learnings from a few them.
VR
Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with VR by now, Right? Flying, drawing, traveling, it seems like the opportunities are endless. Wait. Is that a good thing?
Medical advances, sure. Education, awesome! Virtual reality that’s indistinguishable from actual reality? Uhh... We’re likely at least a few years away from blue-pill red-pill scenarios, but it does seem like our daily lives resemble sci-fi flicks more and more. And the marriage of AI and VR makes me wonder how soon we’ll get to something that we may not want to be a part of.
But then again, most technologies have had skeptics at one time or another. I’m sure that the telephone got its fair share of criticism too. Regardless of which side of the fence you fall on, it’s clear that VR is here to stay.
Creating your personal brand
That’s so what I’ve been trying to do, buut I’ve been a bit passive about it. It’s been something that I’ve considered subordinate to a lot of areas of personal development, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that what I want people to think of me professionally is largely influenced by what I make a conscious effort to be known as. It’s pretty important to know how you want to be perceived because that helps you figure out who you want to see yourself as. Donna Ciarini made me see that during her coaching session. It was really eye opening and I think a lot of people could benefit from her coaching. She gave valuable advice to let your strengths and values be known. Definitely an important thing to remember.
C-IQ
I’d been hearing about the various types of IQs for a while before going to Mark’s talk at the conference. Conversational IQ isn’t something that I’d really paid attention to before, but after a brief exercise and an awesome talk from Mark, I realized that it’s a powerful tool for making work pleasant and creating a positive culture.
In a nutshell, C-IQ is about having effective conversations that make people feel good. How to have these types of conversations? By taking the time to find common ground with the person or people you’re talking to. All it takes is to find some things in common. This may seem hard, but it gets easier the more open you are to sharing things about yourself and learning about other people.