Cisco has hosted its annual Girls Power Tech event at its Dubai office.
\nMore than 60 female students from several schools had the opportunity to interact with technology professionals, Cisco executives, other women role models and peers.
\nAligned with the UN\u2019s global Girls in ICT Day, Cisco\u2019s Girls Power Tech is held annually and offers a special learning opportunity for female students to connect with Cisco and other mentors on-site at Cisco offices around the world.
\nCisco\u2019s Girls Power Tech is a global mentoring initiative that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider educational and career paths in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths).
\nThe UAE version of the event included a number of engaging activities, including inspirational talks by prominent women innovators and guest speakers, a morning chat session with senior Cisco executives, in addition to an Internet of Things (IoT) challenge and a speed mentoring session.
\n“Cisco has multiple initiatives aimed at encouraging young females to pursue careers and education in technology and they stem from our conviction that gender inclusion and empowering women is vital to business and society,\u201d said Mike Weston, Vice President of Cisco Middle East.
\n\u201cThe benefits of gender diversity are reaped by everyone, not just women, and we have a shared responsibility to do more to increase women\u2019s representation in the workforce. Greater inclusion means organizations and the industry as a whole gain diverse perspectives, deeper understanding of customers and markets, and ultimately, better performance levels.\u201d
\nThe activity-packed day featured inspirational presentations by Azza Al Mughairy, a prominent Emirati radio and TV host and role model, who spoke on cyberbullying, and Fatima Al Kaabi, the UAE\u2019s youngest inventor and recipient of UAE Pioneers Award, who shared her experiences on innovation and her inspiring journey with the aspiring girls.
\nAyesha Zainal, Director of Infrastructure Process Development and Performance at du, also spoke on the evolution of telecommunications and what technology could lead to in the future.
\nDuring his welcome address, Shukri Eid, Managing Director \u2013 East Region, Cisco Middle East, said: \u201cAt Cisco we harness the power of inclusion and diversity to foster the best in our people, and to develop a robust community where our differences are our best assets. We will continue our efforts to hire, nurture, promote and support women, especially in technical fields and leadership roles.
\n\u201cPromoting opportunities for women to learn from one another and build connections that cultivate continuous learning and career development remains a top priority for us.\u201d
\nFor nearly two decades, Cisco has made it a top priority to build a diverse talent pool to meet gender diversity challenges in the technology industry. In addition to driving diversity at its workplace, Cisco is also committed to encouraging young women to discover career opportunities in ICT through global initiatives such as Girls Power Tech.
\n“Girls Power Tech demonstrates our commitment towards improving gender diversity in the technology sector. Cisco recognizes that nurturing and generating interest in technology needs to start at an early age, and this is why so many of our colleagues volunteer their time and energy to make this annual event a success,” said Frida Kleimert, Channel Lead \u2013 East Region, Cisco Middle East.
\nGirls Power Tech is not just a visit to Cisco’s offices, but a chance for students to experience the power of Cisco\u2019s digital innovations first-hand, and gain insights into topics such as IoT and innovation, as well as the importance of online privacy and the responsible use of technology.
\nSponsored by Samsung and du, this year\u2019s edition included speed mentoring sessions, where students directly interacted with mentors, and an IoT challenge in which groups of students presented their original ideas on potential use cases.
\nThe aspiring young women also had engaged with Cisco executives, including women role models and men who are advocates for women in technology, to hear inspiring stories about their careers and their vision for what the future holds.
\nThe students also had the chance to connect via video-conference with their peers attending similar sessions at Cisco offices in countries including students in Italy, South Africa, Nigeria and Portugal.
\nSimilar events took place across more than 100 Cisco offices worldwide, reaching out to more than 5,000 young ladies and involving nearly 2,000 Cisco employee volunteers.
\nAs part of its gender diversity efforts, Cisco also holds an annual Women of Impact Conference, a full day event devoted to the development and advancement of women in the technology industry at multiple Cisco sites globally and virtually. Other initiatives include the Cisco Empowered Women’s Network, a network of Cisco customers, partners, and employees, who come together to make a difference for women in IT. \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cisco has hosted its annual Girls Power Tech event at its Dubai office. More than 60 female students from several schools had the opportunity to interact with technology professionals, Cisco executives, other women role models and peers. Aligned with the UN\u2019s global Girls in ICT Day, Cisco\u2019s Girls Power Tech is held annually and offers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":17238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[417,171,809,185],"tags":[293,420,562,184],"class_list":["post-17231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-events","category-more-news","category-uae","tag-cisco","tag-dubai","tag-middle-east","tag-uae"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}