2024: We Fired up
Let’s reflect on a year of levelling up in AI and Digital. Hannah Maude shares her favourite moments from 2024, full of energy, connection, education and bold strides into the AI Age.
Women Thriving During Change
Whilst talk of the future of AI can be fear inducing, when community comes together to discuss and learn more about AI, you can soon begin to feel empowered.
In February, Fire Up Skills ran our first in-person event of the year at the Microsoft Reactor in Sydney.
Focusing on new knowledge and making career transitions, the event was titled ‘Women and AI: How to Thrive in Change’.
Nick Hall from Google talked through how to make an AI Model using a relatable topic: movies. Good timing given the upcoming Oscars.
Felicity Jones from Salesforce talked about the transition from radiography to her role where she can now help the public sector succeed through technology. Fariha Shuvakhana moved from a marketing and branding background to Skutopia and talked about the transferable skills including the willingness to learn that she encourages with her teams. Sanaz Kalantari is a certified development and leadership coach. She shared insights from her career moving from engineering into People Development roles at Microsoft. Sanaz shared insights into how we can address fears that might arise when it comes to learning AI and other new skills.
“I’m excited for the productivity AI will bring, but also the time and space for doing things we haven’t had the chance to do before” said Fariha Shuvakhana
A great night of learning both the technical and the behaviour skills we can lean into as we transform our own careers. It was great to see so many new faces there too!
Women working in Digital and Technology
I was contracting with Diageo at the time of International Women’s Day and took part in an online series with women working across the globe in Digital & Technology. From Digital Transformation & SAP integration to Digital Marketing and eCommerce, it was great to hear insights and celebrate women working in the field.
Highlights included:
💫 Curiousity to solve problems: find how things work, learn & be quick to adapt
💫 Customer and User-centricity at the core of what you’re trying to do is key
💫 Invest in yourself, is this field for me? Research and network to understand more
💫 Identify and apply transferable skills, business thrives when we get new perspectives
💫 A helping hand: each of the speakers are committed to sharing knowledge - just ask!
Can AI be a Force for Diversity and Inclusion?
The future needs leaders who see opportunity and risk, who represent their customer base, who look ahead.
When formidable women in AI meet formidable women leading companies, good things happen. In May, that’s what happened.
Creating a safe space where any question, no matter how seemingly minor, can be asked is fundamental to Fire Up Skills events.
Here female business leaders were able to quiz Annelies Tjetjep from AutoGen AI, Siobhan O'Sullivan from the Australia Computer Society and & Chethana Krishnakumar a software engineer at Atlassian. about AI, the future and their career advice.
The emphasis was on how we make the future of work and the future of AI inclusive and diverse. Anthony Njenga, Director of Supply and Logistics, shared how leaders could further accelerate diversity and inclusion in their teams whilst transforming their businesses. He shared a story of his goal to increase women in a manufacturing plant he once led - it is possible he declared, you have to be intentional.
We are up for the challenge. An amazing event made even better with views of the Harbour Bridge, Sydney!
2024 saw a new level of connection and education. From corporate training programmes (Digital Commerce 101 with Diageo Australia, top right), to AI Fundamentals Summer School with the SmartWorks charity (bottom left, 80 career coaches, stylists and co-ordinators joined), to running events to drive gender diversity in work, in leadership and in AI (Hannah Maude speaks at the Accenture event in London in July, hosts a panel for International Women’s Day and top left). The team who made up the first event of 2024 at the Microsoft Reactor in Sydney.
Women Leading in the Age of AI
Hannah Maude, Laura Chase, Lorelei Brice, Helen Shill and Sherift Akintunde-Shitu discuss how women can lead in the AI Age
Our first event in London where Fire Up Skills partnered with the team at Accenture for a fantastic evening in July.
Some of the insights froim an attendee who posted on LinkedIn afterward are below.
It is predicted that 44% of tasks will be automated by 2027, and 70% of jobs ‘at risk’ (or, jobs that are fast changing) are - you guessed it - held by women.
But what about the jobs being created, or those that MUST be created? How do we make those, and find them for ourselves?
These big topics were tackled by a powerhouse panel of speakers at our July event in London, including Sherifat Akintunde-Shitu from Accenture, Laura Chase from WeAre8, Helen Shill from BBC, Lorelei Brice from LinkedIn and Alice Perkins from Diageo.
Building and maintaining inclusive workplaces is urgent and constant work, as panellist Helen Shill pointed out, ‘the new age of talent is being driven by the talent, not the c suite, and they don’t want to work for your company!’
Change is only a problem if we don’t embrace it, and we just need to know enough to ask the right questions - we don’t need all the answers! Ace points from the fireside chat between Hannah Maude & Alice Perkins.
Thanks to Accenture, our speakers, and an audience of smart women so eager to be part of making the AI Age better.
Fire Up Skills made its debut in London, partnering with the Accenture UK & Ireland team for a top quality event - just before the England semi final!
Knockout headlines
Alice Perkins from Diageo
“AI enables me and my team to get to the thing further down the list, freeing up time to get explore and test various hypotheses”
Sherifat Akintunde-Shitu from Accenture
“People are one of the core pillars of AI implementation, proactive must be be taken to help women to reinvent their careers and thrive”
Lorelei Brice from LinkedIn
“Not many people have an AI degree! Those that invest in upskilling will win and the risk is being left behind if not”
Helen Shill from BBC
“The new age of talent is being driven by the talent, not the c-suite”
Hannah Maude, founder of Fire Up Skills
“I want to turn this risk into opportunity. With new AI skills and our current skill sets and strengths, we could all become change makers for the future”
Sinead Fitzgerald from Microsoft speaks about her career journey and hopes for AI at Fire Up Skills October event.
Driving Change with AI
In October, we learnt how AI was driving change in organisations, especially focused on people, HR and new projects.
“You’ve done more than host an event - you've created a community of fearless AI innovators!”
One of our best accolades yet, shared on LinkedIn by one attendee of our October event ‘Driving Change with AI’ (thank you!).
The event focused on driving change with AI especially in the arena of the workplace. As always, we discussed pathways for career and personal success.
Sinéad Fitzgerald from Microsoft stated: "When it comes to AI - Be the person to drive the change - nobody is coming."
Sam Garven, the co-founder of Canopy, shared “Think of AI like sprinkles on a chocolate cake - first, know what makes your product unique, then enhance it with AI”
Anish Singh brought data into sharp focus: In a world where everything can be replicated at lightning speed, your data is your shield. But here's the kicker - he shared how one CEO's simple habit of lunching with employees led to a 34x revenue increase! It's like Richard Branson always says - take care of your employees first, and they'll take care of your customers.
Raiza Rivera, Head of IT Business Partnering at Blackmores, discussed a fictional example of going about designing a new product development system with Hannah Maude, talking through how a systematic approach to AI implementation (Problem → Expectations → Processes → Capabilities → Solution) was the gateway to organisational transformation.
The real AI Revolution needs humans and good communication to work.
It becomes crystal clear that AI isn't just about algorithms and automation - it's about people, curious humans pushing boundaries and building bridges. It's about seeing challenges as opportunities and barriers as stepping stones. An evening of fantastic connection and insights.
Thanks to our event attendees who posted on LinkedIn and shared their insights after the event. Like this one above!
Fire Up Skills Masterclasses 2024
Each 60-minute Masterclass was jam packed with information - and including energising Q&A’s. Thanks to the experts Dr Zena Assaad, Nick Hall, Cassandra Goodman, Julia Bardmesser, Dr Amina Crooks, Hannah Maude, Andy Sutton and Stacey Edmonds for covering everything from Data Essentials, Spotting Deepfakes and Misinformation to how to adopt AI.
