Reflections on Hopper Down Under and the True Believers

In 2019 we held the inaugural Hopper Down Under conference in Brisbane - a celebration of women technologists created by women technologists. With more than 700 local women technologists in attendance, it was a great way to announce to the Asia Pacific region that, as far as women technologists are concerned,  #wearehere. 

Hopper Down Under is our very own version of AnitaB.org’s Grace Hopper Celebration. AnitaB.org is a nonprofit, social enterprise that envisions a future where the people who imagine and build technology mirror the people and societies for which they build it. Amongst other community-building initiatives, AnitaB.org runs the world’s largest event for women technologists called the Grace Hopper Celebration. Later this year, in September in Orlando, Florida, more than 25,000 women technologists will gather for the Grace Hopper Celebration making another clear statement that #wearehere. A diverse set of people already contribute to the development of the world’s technologies and we need to encourage and grow that contribution.

Ini August 2019 we captured a little bit of that magic in our region, with Hopper Down Under showing that #wearehere. 

#wearehere is the first step in challenging the myth that there are no women in tech or that women somehow choose not to engage with technology. #wearehere is the rally call that will see the establishment of an AnitaB.org community in our region and an increased profile and recognition of the contributions women make to technology.

During Hopper Down Under, as Master of Ceremonies I had a lot to say about change and how change happens. The number of women we have in the local tech industry in the Asia Pacific is not high enough. It won’t be high enough until the percentage of women in tech is equal to the percentage of women in society - about 51%. So how do we achieve this?

I believe it is through events like Hopper Down Under and through the work of organisations like AnitaB.org that are about building communities. And communities don’t get built by people sitting on the sidelines wishing it were so. 

When the local steering committee first started approaching people with the idea of having a Grace Hopper Celebration style event in the region, we were asked to help justify this against sponsorship decision criteria. And it soon became apparent that it is really hard to justify supporting an inaugural conference like this one because it had never been done in the region before and we had no answers to simple questions like: 

• How many people will be at the event? 
• Who is sponsoring? 
• How many submissions are you expecting? 

But despite these uncertainties we found people and organisations who recognised the importance of what we were trying to achieve and came onboard. They demonstrated leadership.

Change does not happen without leadership. It is clear that we need to be doing more to support women technologists in our region, and all of the people and organisations who donated their time and dedicated resources towards making Hopper Down Under happen showed leadership. Which is why I’d like everyone to think about our foundation sponsors. We spoke to a lot of people and organisations about the need for Hopper Down Under and the response of many was to say, “we’ll see how it goes this year and then think about it”. #wearehere because our foundation sponsors thought differently. Our foundation sponsors stood out in being prepared to place their bet on women technologists in the region, and Hopper Down Under would not have happened without them. A big thank you to:

• The Australian National University
• BHP
• Google
• CSIRO’s Data61
• Microsoft
• Monash University
• Northrop Grumman
• QUT
• The University of Adelaide and
• The University of Melbourne

​I like to think of our foundation sponsors, and all the people who attended and volunteered their time to make Hopper Down Under happen as the true believers. The people and organisations who turned up - not fully knowing what to expect but with the belief that we need to do something, to do more to ensure that we have diversity in our local tech communities. Congratulations to everyone involved for showing up and being part of Hopper Down Under. Community-building starts with showing up and being prepared to serve your community #wearehere.

For many attendees, Hopper Down Under was the first time they had attended a tech conference dominated by women. With more than 700 people registered, 79% of delegates were from Australia, and we also welcomed people from the USA, Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, India, China and a large contingent from New Zealand. We had more than 90 student scholars, we received 131 submissions, we recruited 59 volunteers to review all the papers and another 25 people volunteered to chair sessions. We also had our on-the-ground volunteers or “Hoppers”, recognisable by their distinctive t-shirts. On Day 1 of the conference the community rallied behind the event and our hashtag #hopperdownunder was trending #1 for 10 hours straight.

Behind the scenes, the people that spent the last 12+ months making Hopper Down Under happen included the 5 person Hopper Down Under steering committee (pictured left to right) - Sally-Ann Williams, Kat Falkner, Anabelle Cooper, Jane Scowcroft and me.

Also the >30 members of the AnitaB.org team, who worked tirelessly to make this event become a reality. Not all of the AnitaB.org team travelled to Australia for the event but those who did travelled from all over the US and Canada enduring more than 24 hours air travel to attend. For many on the AnitaB.org team it was their first trip to Australia (and their first time trying TimTam slams), but hopefully not their last as they work with us to build up a community here in Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of the Asia-Pacific, where the thirst for technology development is increasingly strong. We were especially lucky to have the Chief Operating Officer for AnitaB.org, Dr Jackie Copeland, give opening and closing presentations at the conference and the amazing Deidra Freeman producing the whole event.

The decision to host the inaugural Hopper Down Under in Queensland has been questioned by some - mainly our southern cousins - who are sometimes surprised to learn that we do any tech at all up here in the north. Yet in Queensland we are responsible for producing 60% of the world’s mining software, we host the world’s first automated port facility - the Port of Brisbane, we operate our world first autonomous mines via integrated remote operations centres here in Brisbane and we are the fastest growing state in Australia for new start-ups. More than half of Queenslanders reckon they have had an idea worth commercialising - which shows we are a state of optimists. 

And blind optimism is the reason this all came about. As someone relatively “new” to technology and seeking ways to redress the gender imbalance in my own field (robotics), I was inspired by the work happening in Australia in astronomy where an influential annual “Women in Astronomy” conference appears to be making a difference. I started asking around about what sort of “Women in Computer Science” conferences might be out there and many people said, “Oh, you mean like the Grace Hopper Celebration”. Being new to technology I was not embarrassed by my lack of knowledge of this event and was also blissfully naive as to its scale and influence, I figured, let’s not reinvent the wheel, maybe they’ll let us have one of these in our region? Then things got tricky. It was the second half of 2017 and while I’d tracked down everything I could about GHC and AnitaB.org I didn’t seem to be able to get their attention, nor were we on their community map. Enter Nicky Ringland who introduced me to Sally-Ann Williams at a SuperStars of STEM event. Sally-Ann was able to get us a foot in the door. 
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There was a lot of talk, we formed our local steering committee, but convincing AnitaB.org to trust us with this significant event boiled down to a face-to-face meeting at my first GHC in September 2018 in Houston Texas, accompanied by Jane Scowcroft. 

Another important player and unsung hero in events was AusTrade. Like our foundation sponsors, AusTrade, (especially Janelle Casey and Gabrielle Hall) were true believers. The Hon Peter McGauran, our Trade Commissioner based in Houston, accompanied us to the meeting with AnitaB.org and the rest is history. AusTrade and AusIndustry went on to also host the inaugural “Australian Women in Tech Pitch” event the day after Hopper Down Under to help support our local ecosystem.

And finally a big thank you to all 700+ people who supported Hopper Down Under by presenting and attending the event. We were able to put together an inspiring program full of awesome content thanks to you. You are the true believers who joined us because you know this is important. You are why #wearehere.

And this is not the end, this is just the beginning. We now have an AnitaB.org community for Australia and New Zealand. Sign up to the group now https://community.anitab.org/groups/australia/

In September we will be holding Hopper events in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne (and hopefully Auckland and Wellington) to livestream segments of the Grace Hopper Celebration from Orlando, Florida. 
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Last week we ignited a flame - it’s now up to you to keep the flame alive. AnitaB.org has challenged all of us to develop action plans to achieve gender parity 50:50 by 2025. Remember, change does not happen through inaction. It is within the power of all of us to contribute to positive change to help us achieve the Vision of AnitaB.org, and see “a future where the people who imagine and build technology mirror the people and societies for which they build it.” This is the start. #wearehere and we now need to take action. So to all of you - you #truebelievers - Let’s keep the dream alive.