4 minute read
Bayanihan for International Women’s Day
NATALIE PEREZ
Natalie is the SheLeadsTech Coordinator of the ISACA Melbourne Chapter. In this article, she reflects on her experience leading the organising of the International Women’s Day event with other organisations that share the same objectives in their programs, i.e. increase the representation of women in the technology industry. Natalie who is a dual Australian-Filipino citizen, fondly connects her experience with a Philippine value known as Bayanihan, where a community/ group of people work together for a common goal.
In the Philippines ‘Bayanihan’ means communal unity, people helping each other to achieve a goal without expecting reward. Bayanihan is a centuries old tradition in the Philippines. In earlier days, a common example of Bayanihan was house moving. Houses were ‘nipa’ huts made from light materials such as bamboo and coconut leaves and townspeople gathered to carry a house on their shoulders to move it from one block of land to another. Those people might have been either family members, relatives or neighbours.
A house moving Bayanihan has a leader who provides instructions and leads the way to where the house will be moved whilst community members walk together, sharing the load of carrying and moving the house. A whole house is a heavy load, but the community is in unison and its spirit is strong.
I felt the Filipino spirit of Bayanihan when we planned and ran the full-day International Women’s Day event on 7 March 2022. The event had almost 1500 registered participants, 1300 of whom attended. The virtual sessions also attracted participants from across Australia and elsewhere.
In September 2021, I started to think about programs and events SheLeadsTech Melbourne could offer in 2022 and which organisations we could partner or collaborate with. One of the initiatives that came to mind was International Women’s Day for 2022. Its theme, ‘Break the Bias’, aligned with SheLeadsTech’s purpose, vision and mission.
International Women’s Day is held in March every year. My experience with the 2021 event taught me that early planning is essential, in particular identifying the organisations with which we would like to collaborate to contribute something to the International Women’s Day program.
I identified the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN) as one of the organisations SheLeadsTech Melbourne would like to work with. SheLeadsTech Melbourne already had the collaborative relationship with AWSN from previous initiatives such as IWD 2021 and Go Girl Go for IT CyberEdition. I also thought of reaching out to ISACA Sydney Chapter’s leads who were part of the 2021 International Women’s Day event which SheLeadsTech Melbourne took part in.
The core working committee with volunteers from SheLeadsTech Melbourne, ISACA Melbourne Chapter and ISACA Sydney Chapter was set up in December and commenced planning and organisation. With the Omicron strain of COVID being more infectious than other strains, and its effects still unknown, there was no certainty people would return to work in the central business district. So the decision was taken to run the morning sessions virtually and the afternoon sessions hybrid. Each group was assigned two slots and agreed to set extra allocations to have at nine sessions. The working committee reached out to people championing increased representation of women in the tech workforce and they offered books they had authored to be given as presents to speakers.
The social media tiles and digital programme were published two weeks before the event, and the committee from SheLeadsTech Melbourne, AWSN and ISACA Sydney posted these across their social media pages and newsletters. The committee was also supported by their respective lead organisations: ISACA Melbourne, AWSN, AISA and One in Tech Foundation, which advertised the events.
Collectively, the sessions had approximately 1500 registrations, from Australia and elsewhere. These sessions included topics on the theme Break the Bias: presentations and panel discussions with CISOs, senior leaders, coaches and subject matter experts located in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Auckland and elsewhere. Guidance to better understand and manage biases was provided and inspiration came from authentic and honest conversations with panel members.
So, what was my role in the International Women’s Day event? I took the leadership role and I provided directions on how the event should be planned and organised. Before we started planning and organising this joint International Women’s Day event I had not known or worked with any of the committee members, except for Reshma Devi who is diversity director for the ISACA Melbourne Chapter and the AWSN chapter lead for Melbourne. Most of the members in the working group committee may have already known each other from previous initiatives. For me, leading the committee whilst knowing only one member was a breakthrough. It enabled me to shake off my belief that I could not lead a group of people I did not know.
Should we do this again? My answer is – “Why not?” Just like the spirit of Bayanihan, organising a full day event with 10 sessions for International Women’s Day is a huge load and lifting the load required a community of several organisations. I would not be surprised if we came together to do this again when the opportunity arises.
www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-perez-74298436
