WE14: A Global Exchange for Change

SWE's annual conference took place in Los Angeles, CA at the end of October. The fun-filled weekend was packed with lectures, dinners, expos, and networking opportunities - in total, I attended 23 different events!

For me, the most influential portion of the conference was the inspiring female leaders in the engineering community. In particular, three of these women stood out: Tara Mohr, Jessica Matthews, and Felicity Briody. Tara Mohr, the author of Playing Big, spoke about how to leverage your strengths to excel in any area; her key points included silencing your inner critic and unhooking from praise and criticism.

Another thought-provoking speaker, Jessica Matthews, preached the importance of understanding the impact of an innovation in the emotional and social realms by citing examples from her company, Unchartered Play. Unchartered Play creates children's toys (soccer ball, jump rope) that harvest the kinetic energy of play - the harvested energy is then used to power a light, which makes a huge difference in the lives of people in communities without electricity around the world.

Furthermore, Felicity Briody, shared her passion for engineering education in Australia by describing her engineering event model called Power of Engineering. Power of Engineering events have successfully increased enrollment in high school math and science classes as well as raised interest in pursuing a STEM career. The variety and quality quality of the events at WE14 were unbeatable. Can't wait to see what Nashville has to offer next year!

(By Grace Lefebure, originally published in the SWE PNW Newsletter, November 2014)