now here's your host Jeff brick by Jeff Rick here with the cube we are on the ground at the vm women at vmworld what he calls his conference a side panel the discussions a side program side panel awesome joined by Robin Matlock the CM who just let a great panel discussion we had Laura McKenzie on she great a great keynote to beginning so first off terrific event thanks for having us we're happy to be here and thank you for coming I appreciate you covering this absolutely so talk about you know why are you doing this why is this important to the VMware you know women in tech is just such an important topic and really diversity in in all businesses and we find that here at the conference you'll find the ratio of women to men is really kind of small and this is a great opportunity to get women together talk about some of the issues not just women actually you want to correct that women and men together talk about some of the issues that are both opportunities and challenges for getting one more involved in tech we do you think it's an important topic we want women to feel inclusive being here at vmworld yeah and as Paul mentioned up on the panel you know the studies clearly show that when you have a diversity of opinions around innovation you're trying to solve a problem chances are you might find a better way to to skin that cat so clearly is a business benefit as well as a social benefit it's so true you know I think that for innovation one of the really things that can stop it is just 1-track thinking right and diversity helps bring different ideas different perspectives different ways of looking at things and so yeah we're a big believer that if we're more inclusive if we have more diversity we're going to drive more innovation and then drive the business which is what it's all about so you made some interesting comments on the panel that want to follow up on one was that you know you just did your thing you worked hard you believed in in the magic hand and here you are a successful businesswoman theam of a terrific company of probably the biggest tech event going on that you run terrific need and then suddenly kind of woke up or sounds like it were made aware what was kind of at it that process was like not everybody is fortunate to me to kind of just work and do my thing and reap the benefits yeah I what I acknowledged to the panel was that you know women in business wasn't really my torch it hasn't been my cause and it's only been as I've matured in my career that I've recognized that at the end of the day even though my career has been a great run I've had a tremendous you know I feel very blessed very grateful for the great success I've had but I recognize that I have a responsibility to women and when you really look at the data the numbers don't lie and the reality is we don't yet have equality and so as a senior executive woman I feel a real sense of accountability and responsibility to get more involved and get engaged and to help my women colleagues so talk about it because now you're doing some fun stuff you said you're working with girls who code and some other organizations how has that been you know it's been a fun experience of lightning what are some of the surprises that you found along the way yeah well recently I I met with a group girls who code and I have to say I was blown away these young women were sharp articulate technical creative daring bold and I was actually really inspired and I think the key is how do we just foster that and not let that die because they certainly have it right now at the age of 16 17 18 and I think the key is to make sure they have it at 37 38 and 40 and I think Renee zog made an interesting point we just had her on talking I was telling about the lorries little exercise where we were supposed to write down good things about yourself accomplishments assassin known at my table could do it in the whole two minutes so you know it's like think about somebody else compliment somebody else and she said she really realized that in complimenting herself it's really about helping other women helping the cause helping other people see that this can be a successful leader so you know you really need to kind of taught your own horn not necessarily for yourself but really did for other other executives I think this notion is sponsoring others and really making sure that you are enabling other people to be successful men and women but I think women it's a maybe something to really focus on and how are you introducing them into the workforce or how are you introducing them into their colleagues and setting them up for success is really important I think the other important thing we learned today was this factor that your horn for women sometimes can make you not come across as likable and that's a factor we also have to deal with in this balance of positioning ourselves effectively but also not losing those likeable points or managing that yeah it's interesting that that's still that still is pervasive it's crazy so last question first day of work for a bunch of new hires down at the campus of Palo Alto a bunch of women in the crowd diverse crowd what do you tell them welcome to the vmware well first of all we invest in all of our new talent one thing is about how to help them be successful at this great company we try to ground them all and what is our purpose we talk a lot about our epic values its core I think if you talk to any 19,000 VMware employees they could recite for you what are our epic values and we live by that and certainly diversity is a big part of our culture so we route them in that and then we also create a lot of mentoring opportunities and sponsorship opportunities so that those new hires they have someone that they can go do they have a buddy we really believe in that giving them a chance to you know get to know themselves the organization how to be successful at the company awesome well Robin thanks again for great event here and obviously a fantastic vmworld 2015 but 23,000 people and they stream by the cube every day on the way to quino's I love it all right here we go day 3 here we go come all right Jeff Rick here on the ground at the vm women at VMware 2015 you're watching the cube thanks for watching