(upbeat music) >> Good morning. Welcome back to theCUBE's continuing coverage of Snowflake Summit 22, live from Las Vegas. Lisa Martin, here with Dave Villante. We are at Caesar's Forum, having lots of great conversations. As I mentioned, this is just the start of day two, a tremendous amount of content yesterday. I'm coming at you today. Two guests join us from Slalom, now, we've got Chris Samuels, Principal Machine Learning, and Bethany Mudd, Senior Director, Experience Design. Welcome to theCube, guys. >> Hi, thanks for having us. >> Thank you. >> So, Slalom and Snowflake, over 200 joint customers, over 1,800 plus engagements, lots of synergies there, partnership. We're here today to talk about intelligent products. Talk to us about what- how do you define intelligent products, and then kind of break that down? >> Yeah, I can, I can start with the simple version, right? So, when we think about intelligent products, what they're doing, is they're doing more than they were explicitly programmed to do. So, instead of having a developer write all of these rules and have, "If this, then that," right, we're using data, and real time insights to make products that are more performing and improving over time. >> Chris: Yeah, it's really bringing together an ecosystem of a series of things to have integrated capabilities working together that themselves offer constant improvement, better understanding, better flexibility, and better usability, for everyone involved. >> Lisa: And there are four pillars of intelligent products that let's walk through those: technology, intelligence, experiences, and operations. >> Sure. So for technology, like most modern data architectures, it has sort of a data component and it has a modern cloud platform, but here, the key is is sort of things being disconnected, things being self contained, and decoupled, such that there's better integration time, better iteration time, more cross use, and more extensibility and scalability with the cloud native portion of that. >> And the intelligence piece? >> The intelligence piece is the data that's been processed by machine learning algorithms, or by predictive analytics that provides sort of the most valuable, or more- most insightful inferences, or conclusions. So, by bringing together again, the tech and the intelligence, that's, you know, sort of the, two of the pillars that begin to move forward that enable sort of the other two pillars, which are- >> Experiences and operations. >> Yeah. >> Perfect. >> And if we think about those, all of the technology, all of the intelligence in the world, doesn't mean anything if it doesn't actually work for people. Without use, there is no value. So, as we're designing these products, we want to make sure that they're supporting people. As we're automating, there are still people accountable for those tasks. There are still impacts to people in the real world. So, we want to make sure that we're doing that intentionally. So, we're building the greater good. >> Yeah. And from the operations perspective, it's you can think of traditional DevOps becoming MLOps, where there's an overall platform and a framework in place to manage not only the software components of it, but the overall workflow, and the data flow, and the model life cycle such that we have tools and people from different backgrounds and different teams developing and maintaining this than you would previously see with something like product engineering. >> Dave: Can you guys walk us through an example of how you work with a customer? I'm envisioning, you know, meeting with a lot of yellow stickies, and prioritization, and I don't know if that's how it works, but take us through like the start and the sequence. >> You have my heart, I am a workshop lover. Anytime you have the scratch off, like, lottery stickers on something, you know it's a good one. But, as we think about our approach, we typically start with either a discovery or mobilized phase. We're really, we're starting by gathering context, and really understanding the business, the client, the users, and that full path the value. Who are all the teams that are going to have to come together and start working together to deliver this intelligent product? And once we've got that context, we can start solutioning and ideating on that. But, really it comes down to making sure that we've earned the right, and we've got the smarts to move into the space intelligently. >> Yeah, and, truly, it's the intelligent product itself is sort of tied to the use case. The business knows what the most- what is potentially the most valuable here. And so, so by communicating and working and co-creating with the business, we can define then, okay, here are the use cases and here are where machine learning and the overall intelligent product can maybe add more disruptive value than others. By saying, let's pretend that, you know, maybe your ML model or your predictive analytics is like a dial that we could turn up to 11. Which one of those dials turning turned up to 11 could add the most value or disruption to your business? And therefore, you know, how can we prioritize and then work toward that pie-in-the-sky goal. >> Okay. So the client comes and says, "This is the outcome we want." Okay, and then you help them. You gather the right people, sort of extract all the little, you know, pieces of knowledge, and then help them prioritize so they can focus. And then what? >> Yeah. So, from there we're going to take the approach that seeing is solving. We want to make sure that we get the right voices in the room, and we've got the right alignment. So, we're going to map out everything. We're going to diagram what that experience is going to look like, how technology's going to play into it, all of the roles and actors involved. We're going to draw a map of the ecosystem that everyone can understand, whether you're in marketing, or the IT sort of area, once again, so we can get crisp on that outcome and how we're going to deliver it. And, from there, we start building out that roadmap and backlog, and we deliver iteratively. So, by not thinking of things as getting to the final product after a three year push, we really want to shrink those build, measure, and learn loops. So, we're getting all of that feedback and we're listening and evolving and growing the same way that our products are. >> Yeah. Something like an intelligent product is is pretty heady. So it's a pretty heavy concept to talk about. And so, the question becomes, "What is the outcome that ultimately needs to be achieved?" And then, who, from where in the business across the different potentially business product lines or business departments needs to be brought together? What data needs to be brought together? Such that the people can understand how they themselves can shape. The stakeholders can, how the product itself can be shaped. And therefore, what is the ultimate outcome, collectively, for everybody involved? 'Cause while your data might be fueling, you know, finances or someone else's intelligence and that kind of thing, bringing it all together allows for a more seamless product that might benefit more of the overall structure of the organization. >> Can you talk a little bit about how Slalom and Snowflake are enabling, like a customer example? A customer to take that data, flex that muscle, and create intelligent products that delight and surprise their customers? >> Chris: Yeah, so here's a great story. We worked to co-create with Kawasaki Heavy Industries. So, we created an intelligent product with them to enable safer rail travel, more preventative, more efficient, preventative maintenance, and a more efficient and real time track status feedback to the rail operators. So, in this case, we brought, yeah, the intelligent product itself was, "Okay, how do you create a better rail monitoring service?" And while that itself was the primary driver of the data, multiple other parts of the organization are using sort of the intelligent product as part of their now daily routine, whether it's from the preventative maintenance perspective, or it's from route usage, route prediction. Or, indeed, helping KHI move forward into making trains a more software centered set of products in the future. >> So, taking that example, I would imagine when you running- like I'm going to call that a project. I hope that's okay. So, when I'm running a project, that I would imagine that sometimes you run into, "Oh, wow. Okay." To really be successful at this, the company- project versus whole house. The company doesn't have the right data architecture, the right skills or the right, you know, data team. Now, is it as simple as, oh yeah, just put it all into Snowflake? I doubt it. So how do you, do you encounter that often? How do you deal with that? >> Bethany: It's a journey. So, I think it's really about making sure we're meeting clients where they are. And I think that's something that we actually do pretty well. So, as we think about delivery co-creation, and co-delivering is a huge part of our model. So, we want to make sure that we have the client teams, with us. So, as we start thinking about intelligent products, it can be incorporating a small feature, with subscription based services. It doesn't have to be creating your own model and sort of going deep. It really does come down to like what value do you want to get out of this? Right? >> Yeah. It is important that it is a journey, right? So, it doesn't have to be okay, there's a big bang applied to you and your company's tech industry or tech ecosystem. You can just start by saying, "Okay, how will I bring my data together at a data lake? How do I see across my different pillars of excellence in my own business?" And then, "How do I manage, potentially, this in an overall MLOps platform such that it can be sustainable and gather more insights and improve itself with time, and therefore be more impactful to the ultimate users of the tool?" 'Cause again, as Bethany said that without use, these things are just tools on the shelf somewhere that have little value. >> So, it's a journey, as you both said, completely agree with that. It's a journey that's getting faster and faster. Because, I mean, we've seen so much acceleration in the last couple of the years, the consumer demands have massively changed. >> Bethany: Absolutely. >> In every industry, how do Slalom and Snowflake come together to help businesses define the journey, but also accelerate it, so that they can stay ahead or get ahead of the competition? >> Yeah. So, one thing I think is interesting about the technology field right now is I feel like we're at the point where it's not the technology or the tools that's limiting us or, you know, constraining what we can build, it's our imaginations. Right? And, when I think about intelligent products and all of the things that are capable, that you can achieve with AI and ML, that's not widely known. There's so much tech jargon. And, we put all of those statistical words on it, and you know the things you don't know. And, instead, really, what we're doing is we're providing different ways to learn and grow. So, I think if we can demystify and humanize some of that language, I really would love to see all of these companies better understand the crayons and the tools in their toolbox. >> Speaking from a creative perspective, I love it. >> No, And I'll do the tech nerd bit. So, there is- you're right. There is a portion where you need to bring data together, and tech together, and that kind of thing. So, something like Snowflake is a great enabler for how to actually bring the data of multiple parts of an organization together into, you know, a data warehouse, or a data lake, and then be able to manage that sort of in an MLOps platform, particularly with some of the press that Snowflake has put out this week. Things becoming more Python-native, allowing for more ML experimentation, and some more native insights on the platform, rather than going off Snowflake platform to do some of that kind of thing. Makes Snowflake an incredibly valuable portion of the data management and of the tech and of the engineering of the overall product. >> So, I agree, Bethany, lack of imagination sometimes is the barrier we get so down into the weeds, but there's also lack of skills, as mentioned the organizational, you know, structural issues, politics, you know, whatever it is, you know, specific agendas, how do you guys help with that? Can, will you bring in, you know, resources to help and fill gaps? >> Yeah, so we will bring in a cross-disciplinary team of experts. So, you will see an experienced designer, as well as your ML architects, as well as other technical architects, and what we call solution owners, because we want to make sure that we've got a lot of perspectives, so we can see that problem from a lot of different angles. The other thing that we're bringing in is a repeatable process, a repeatable engineering methodology, which, when you zoom out, and you look at it, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But, what we're doing, is we're training against it. We're building tools, we're building templates, we're re-imagining what our deliverables look like for intelligent products, just so, we're not only speeding up the development and getting to those outcomes faster, but we're also continuing to grow and we can gift those things to our clients, and help support them as well. >> And not only that, what we do at Slalom is we want to think about transition from the beginning. And so, by having all the stakeholders in the room from the earliest point, both the business stakeholders, the technical stakeholders, if they have data scientists, if they have engineers, who's going to be taking this and maintaining this intelligent product long after we're gone, because again, we will transition, and someone else will be taking over the maintenance of this team. One, they will understand, you know, early from beginning the path that it is on, and be more capable of maintaining this, and two, understand sort of the ethical concerns behind, okay, here's how parts of your system affect this other parts of the system. And, you know, sometimes ML gets some bad press because it's misapplied, or there are concerns, or models or data are used outside of context. And there's some, you know, there are potentially some ill effects to be had. By bringing those people together much earlier, it allows for the business to truly understand and the stakeholders to ask the questions that they- that need to be continually asked to evaluate, is this the right thing to do? How do I, how does my part affect the whole? And, how do I have an overall impact that is in a positive way and is something, you know, truly being done most effectively. >> So, that's that knowledge transfer. I hesitate to even say that because it makes it sound so black and white, because you're co-creating here. But, essentially, you're, you know, to use the the cliche, you're teaching them how to fish. Not, you know, going to ongoing, you know, do the fishing for them, so. >> Lisa: That thought diversity is so critical, as is the internal alignment. Last question for you guys, before we wrap here, where can customers go to get started? Do they engage Slalom, Snowflake? Can they do both? >> Chris: You definitely can. We can come through. I mean, we're fortunate that snowflake has blessed us with the title of partner of the year again for the fifth time. >> Lisa: Congratulations. >> Thank you, thank you. We are incredibly humbled in that. So, we would do a lot of work with Snowflake. You could certainly come to Slalom, any one of our local markets, or build or emerge. We'll definitely work together. We'll figure out what the right team is. We'll have lots and lots of conversations, because it is most important for you as a set of business stakeholders to define what is right for you and what you need. >> Yeah. Good stuff, you guys, thank you so much for joining Dave and me, talking about intelligent products, what they are, how you co-design them, and the impact that data can make with customers if they really bring the right minds together and get creative. We appreciate your insights and your thoughts. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for having us guys. Yeah. >> All right. For Dave Villante, I am Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage, day two, Snowflake Summit 22, from Las Vegas. We'll be right back with our next guest. (upbeat music)

>>live from Stanford University. It's the queue covering Stanford women in Data Science 2020. Brought to you by Silicon Angle Media >>and welcome to the Cube. I'm your host Sonia category, and we're live at Stanford University, covering the fifth annual Woods Women in Data Science conference. Joining us today is Tilapia Williams, who's the associate professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and host of Nova Wonders at PBS to leave a welcome to the Cappy to be here. Thanks for having me. So you have a lot of rules. So let's first tell us about being an associate professor at Harvey Mudd. >>Yeah, I've been at Harvey Mudd now for 11 years, so it's been really a lot of fun in the math department, but I'm a statistician by training, so I teach a lot of courses and statistics and data science and things like that. >>Very cool. And you're also a host of API s show called Novo Wonders. >>Yeah, that came about a couple of years ago. Folks at PBS reached out they had seen my Ted talk, and they said, Hey, it looks like you could be fund host of this science documentary shows So, Nova Wonders, is a six episode Siri's. It kind of takes viewers on a journey of what the cutting edge questions and science are. Um, so I got to host the show with a couple other co host and really think about like, you know, what are what are the animals saying? And so we've got some really fun episodes to do. What's the universe made of? Was one of them what's living inside of us. That was definitely a gross win. Todo figure out all the different micro organisms that live inside our body. So, yeah, it's been funded in hopes that show as well. >>And you talk about data science and AI and all that stuff on >>Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, one of the episodes. Can we build a Brain was dealt with a lot of data, big data and artificial intelligence, and you know, how good can we get? How good can computers get and really sort of compared to what we see in the movies? We're a long way away from that, but it seems like you know we're getting better every year, building technology that is truly intelligent, >>and you gave a talk today about mining for your own personal data. So give us some highlights from your talk. Yeah, >>so that talks sort of stemmed out of the Ted talk that I gave on owning your body's data. And it's really challenging people to think about how they can use data that they collect about their bodies to help make better health decisions on DSO ways that you can use, like your temperature data or your heart rate. Dina. Or what is data say over time? What does it say about your body's health and really challenging the audience to get excited about looking at that data? We have so many devices that collect data automatically for us, and often we don't pause on enough to actually look at that historical data. And so that was what the talk was about today, like, here's what you can find when you actually sit down and look at that data. >>What's the most important data you think people should be collecting about themselves? >>Well, definitely not. Your weight is. I don't >>want to know what that >>is. Um, it depends, you know, I think for women who are in the fertile years of life taking your daily waking temperature can tell you when your body's fertile. When you're ovulating, it can. So that information could give women during that time period really critical information. But in general, I think it's just a matter of being aware of of how your body is changing. So for some people, maybe it's your blood pressure or your blood sugar. You have high blood pressure or high blood sugar. Those things become really critical to keep an eye on. And, um, and I really encourage people whatever data they take, too, the active in the understanding of an interpretation of the data. It's not like if you take this data, you'll be healthy radio. You live to 100. It's really a matter of challenging people to own the data that they have and get excited about understanding the data that they are taking. So >>absolutely put putting people in charge of their >>own bodies. That's >>right. >>And actually speaking about that in your Ted talk, you mentioned how you were. Your doctor told you to have a C section and you looked at the data and he said, No, I'm gonna have this baby naturally. So tell us more about that. >>Yes, you should always listen to your medical pressures. But in this case, I will say that it was It was definitely more of a dialogue. And so I wasn't just sort of trying to lean on the fact that, like, I have a PhD in statistics and I know data, he was really kind of objectively with the on call doctor at the time, looking at the data >>and talking about it. >>And this doctor was this is his first time seeing me. And so I think it would have been different had my personal midwife or my doctor been telling me that. But this person would have only looked at this one chart and was it was making a decision without thinking about my historical data. And so I tried to bring that to the conversation and say, like, let me tell you more about you know, my body and this is pregnancy number three like, here's how my body works. And I think this person in particular just wasn't really hearing any of that. It was like, Here's my advice. We just need to do this. I'm like, >>Oh, >>you know, and so is gently as possible. I tried to really share that data. Um, and then it got to the point where it was sort of like either you're gonna do what I say or you're gonna have to sign a waiver. And we were like, Well, to sign the waiver that cost quite a buzz in the hospital that day. But we came back and had a very successful labor and delivery. And so, yeah, >>I think >>that at the time, >>But, >>you know, with that caveat that you should listen to what, your doctors >>Yeah. I mean, there's really interesting, like, what's the boundary between, Like what the numbers tell you and what professional >>tells me Because I don't have an MD. Right. And so, you know, I'm cautious not to overstep that, but I felt like in that case, the doctor wasn't really even considering the data that I was bringing. Um, I was we were actually induced with our first son, but again, that was more of a conversation, more of a dialogue. Here's what's happening here is what we're concerned about and the data to really back it up. And so I felt like in that case, like Yeah, I'm happy to go with your suggestion, but I could number three. It was just like, No, this isn't really >>great. Um, so you also wrote a book called Power In Numbers. The Rebel Women of Mathematics. So what inspired you to write this book? And what do you hope readers take away from it? >>A couple different things. I remember when I saw the movie hidden figures. And, um, I spent three summers at NASA working at JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. And so I had this very fun connection toe, you know, having worked at NASA. And, um, when this movie came out and I'm sitting there watching it and I'm, like ball in just crying, like I didn't know that there were black women who worked at NASA like, before me, you know, um and so it felt it felt it was just so transformative for me to see these stories just sort of unfold. And I thought, like, Well, why didn't I learn about these women growing up? Like imagine, Had I known about Katherine Johnsons of the world? Maybe that would have really inspired Not just me, but, you know, thinking of all the women of color who aren't in mathematics or who don't see themselves working at at NASA. And so for me, the book was really a way to leave that legacy to the generation that's coming up and say, like, there have been women who've done mathematics, um, and statistics and data science for years, and they're women who are doing it now. So a lot of the about 1/3 of the book are women who were still here and, like, active in the field and doing great things. And so I really wanted to highlight sort of where we've been, where we've been, but also where we're going and the amazing women that are doing work in it. And it's very visual. So some things like, Oh my gosh, >>women in math >>It is really like a very picturesque book of showing this beautiful images of the women and their mathematics and their work. And yes, I'm really proud of it. >>That's awesome. And even though there is like greater diversity now in the tech industry, there's still very few African American women, especially who are part of this industry. So what advice would you give to those women who who feel like they don't belong. >>Yeah, well, a they really do belong. Um, and I think it's also incumbent of people in the industry to sort of recognize ways that they could be advocate for women, and especially for women of color, because often it takes someone who's already at the table to invite other people to the table. And I can't just walk up like move over, get out the way I'm here now. But really being thoughtful about who's not representative, how do we get those voices here? And so I think the onus is often mawr on. People who occupy those spaces are ready to think about how they can be more intentional in bringing diversity in other spaces >>and going back to your talk a little bit. Um uh, how how should people use their data? >>Yeah, so I mean, I think, um, the ways that we've used our data, um, have been to change our lifestyle practices. And so, for example, when I first got a Fitbit, um, it wasn't really that I was like, Oh, I have a goal. It was just like I want something to keep track of my steps And then I look at him and I feel like, Oh, gosh, I didn't even do anything today. And so I think having sort of even that baseline data gave me a place to say, Okay, let me see if I hit 10 stuff, you know, 10,000 >>steps in a day or >>and so, in some ways, having the data allows you to set goals. Some people come in knowing, like, I've got this goal. I want to hit it. But for me, it was just sort of like, um and so I think that's also how I've started to use additional data. So when I take my heart rate data or my pulse, I'm really trying to see if I can get lower than how it was before. So the push is really like, how is my exercise and my diet changing so that I can bring my resting heart rate down? And so having the data gives me a gold up, restore it, and it also gives me that historical information to see like, Oh, this is how far I've come. Like I can't stop there, you know, >>that's a great social impact. >>That's right. Yeah, absolutely. >>and, um, Do you think that so in terms of, like, a security and privacy point of view, like if you're recording all your personal data on these devices, how do you navigate that? >>Yeah, that's a tough one. I mean, because you are giving up that data privacy. Um, I usually make sure that the data that I'm allowing access to this sort of data that I wouldn't care if it got published on the cover of you know, the New York Times. Maybe I wouldn't want everyone to see what my weight is, but, um, and so in some ways, while it is my personal data, there's something that's a bit abstract from it. Like it could be anyone's data as opposed to, say, my DNA. Like I'm not going to do a DNA test. You know, I don't want my data to be mapped it out there for the world. Um, but I think that that's increasingly become a concern because people are giving access to of their information to different companies. It's not clear how companies would use that information, so if they're using my data to build a product will make a product better. You know we don't see any world from that way. We don't have the benefit of it, but they have access to our data. And so I think in terms of data, privacy and data ethics, there's a huge conversation to have around that. We're only kind >>of at the beginning of understanding what that is. Yeah, >>well, thank you so much for being on the Cube. Really having you here. Thank you. Thanks. So I'm Sonia to Gary. Thanks so much for watching the cube and stay tuned for more. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

live from Stanford University in Palo Alto California it's the cube covering women in data science conference 2018 brought to you by Stanford welcome to the cube we are alive at Stanford University I'm Lisa Martin and we are at the 3rd annual women in data science conference or woods whiz if you're not familiar is a one-day technical conference that has keynote speakers technical vision talks as well as a career panel and we are fortunate to have guests from all three today it's also an environment it's really a movement that's aimed at inspiring and educating data scientists globally and supporting women in the field this event is remarkable in its third year they are expecting to reach sit down for this 100,000 people today we were here at Stanford this is the main event in person but there's over 150 plus regional events around the globe in 50 plus countries and I think those numbers will shift up during the day and I'll be sure to brief you on that we're excited to be joined by one of the speakers featured on mainstage this morning not only a cube alum not returning to us but also the first ever female president of Harvey Mudd College dr. Maria Klawe a maria welcome back to the cube thank you it's great to be here it's so exciting to have you here I love you representing with your t-shirt there I mentioned you are the first-ever female president of Harvey Mudd you've been in this role for about 12 years and you've made some pretty remarkable changes there supporting women in technology you gave some stats this morning in your talk a few minutes ago share with us what you've done to improve the percentages of females in faculty positions as well as in this student body well the first thing I should say is as president I do nothing nothing it's like a good job the whole thing that makes it work at Harvey Mudd is we are community that's committed to diversity and inclusion and so everything we do we try to figure out ways that we will attract people who are underrepresented so that's women in areas like computer science and engineering physics it's people of color in all areas of science and engineering and it's also LGTB q+ i mean it's you know it's it's muslims it's it's just like all kinds of things and our whole goal is to show that it doesn't matter what race you are doesn't matter what gender or anything else if you bring hard work and persistence and curiosity you can succeed i love that especially the curiosity part one of the things that you mentioned this morning was that for people don't worry about the things that you you might think you're not good at i thought that was a very important message as well as something that I heard you say previously on the cube as well and that is the best time that you found to reach women young women and to get them interested in stem as even a field of study is the first semester in college and I should with you off camera that was when I found stem in biology tell me a little bit more about that and how what are some of the key elements that you find about that time in a university career that are so I guess right for inspire inspiration so I think the thing is that when you're starting in college if somebody can introduce you to something you find fun engaging and if you can really discover that you can solve major issues in the world by using these ideas these concepts the skills you're probably going to stay in that and graduate in that field whereas if somebody does that to when you're in middle school there's still lots of time to get put off and so our whole idea is that we emphasize creativity teamwork and problem-solving and we do that whether it's in math or an engineering or computer science or biology we just in all of our fields and when we get young women and young men excited about these possibilities they stick with it and I love that you mentioned the word fun and curiosity I can remember exactly where I was and bio 101 and I was suddenly I'd like to biology but never occurred to me that I would ever have the ability to study it and it was a teacher that showed me this is fun and also and I think you probably do this too showed that you believe in someone you've got talent here and I think that that inspiration coming from a mentor whether you know it's a mentor or not is a key element there that is one that I hope all of the the viewers today and the women that are participating in which have the chance to find so one of the things every single one of us can do in our lives is encourage others and you know it's amazing how much impact you can have I met somebody who's now a faculty person at Stanford she did her PhD in mechanical engineering her name is Allison Marsden I hadn't seen her for I don't know probably almost 12 years and she said she came up to me and she said I met you just as I was finishing my PhD and you gave me a much-needed pep talk and you know that is so easy to do believing in people encouraging them and it makes so much difference it does I love that so wins is as I mentioned in the third annual and the growth that they have seen is unbelievable I've not seen anything quite like it in in tech in terms of events it's aimed at inspiring not just women and data science but but data science in general what is it about wizz that attracted you and what are some of the key things that you shared this morning in your opening remarks well so the thing that attracts me about weeds is the following data science is growing exponentially in terms of the job opportunities in terms of the impact on the world and what I love about withes is that they had the insight this flash of genius I think that they would do a conference where all the speakers would be women and just that they would show that there are women all over the world who are contributing to data science who are loving it who are being successful and it's it's the crazy thing because in some ways it's really easy to do but nobody had done it right and it's so clear that there's a need for this when you think about all of the different locations around the world that are are doing a width version in Nigeria in Mumbai in London in you know just all across the world there are people doing this yeah so the things I shared are number one oh my goodness this is a great time to get into data science it's just there's so many opportunities in terms of career opportunities but there's so many opportunities to make a difference in the world and that's really important number two I shared that it's you never too old to learn math and CS and you know my example is my younger sister who's 63 and who's learning math and computer science at the northern Alberta Institute of Technology Nate all the other students are 18 to 24 she suffers from fibromyalgia she's walked with a walker she's quite disabled she's getting A's and a-pluses it's so cool and you know I think for every single person in the world there's an opportunity to learn something new and the most important thing is hard work and perseverance that it's so much more important than absolutely anything else I agree with that so much it's it's such an inspiring time but I think that you said there was clearly a demand for this what Wits has done in such a short time period demonstrates massive demand the stats that I was reading the last couple of days that show that women with stem degrees only 26% of them are actually working in STEM fields that's very low and and even can start from things like how how companies are recruiting talent and the messages that they're sending may be the right ones maybe not so much so I have a great example for you about companies recruiting talent so about three years ago I was no actually almost four years ago now I was talking in a conference called HR 50 and it's a conference that's aimed at the chief human resource officers of 50 multinationals and my talk I was talking for 25 minutes on how to recruit and retain women in tech careers and afterwards the chief HR officer from Accenture came up to me and she said you know we hire 17,000 software engineers a year Justin India 17,000 and she said we've been coming in at 30 percent female and I want to get that up to 45 she said you told me some really good things I could use she she said you told me how to change the way we advertise jobs change the way we interview for jobs four months later her name is Ellen Chowk Ellen comes up to me at another conference this has happens to be the most powerful women's summit that's run by Fortune magazine every year and she comes up and she says Maria I implemented different job descriptions we changed the way we interview and I also we started actually recruiting at Women's College engineering colleges in India as well as co-ed once she said we came in at 42% Wow from 30 to 42 just making those changes crying I went Ellen you owe me you're joining my more my board and she did right and you know they have Accenture has now set a goal of being at 50/50 in technical roles by 2025 Wow they even continued to come in all around the world they're coming in over 40% and then they've started really looking at how many women are being promoted to partners and they've moved that number up to 30% in the most recent year so you know it's a such a great example of a company that just decided we're gonna think about how we advertise we're going to think about how we interview we're gonna think about how we do promotions and we're going to make it equitable and from a marketing perspective those aren't massive massive changes so whether it expects quite simple exactly yeah these are so the thing I think about so when I look at what's happening at Harvey Mudd and how we've gotten more women into computer science engineering physics into every discipline it's really all about encouragement and support it's about believing in people it's about having faculty who when they start teaching a class the perhaps is technically very rigorous they might say this is a really challenging course every student in this course who works hard is going to succeed it's setting that expectation that everyone can succeed it's so important I think back to physics and college and how the baseline was probably 60% in terms of of grades scoring and you went in with intimidation I don't know if I can do this and it sounds like again a such a simple yet revolutionary approach that you're taking let's make things simple let's be supportive and encouraging yet hopefully these people will get enough confidence that they'll be able to sustain that even within themselves as they graduate and go into careers whether they stay in academia or go in industry and I know you've got great experiences in both I have I so I've been very lucky and I've been able to work both in academia and in industry I will say so I worked for IBM Research for eight years early in my career and you know I tribute a lot of my success as a leader since then to the kind of professional development that I got as a manager at IBM Research and you know what I think is that I there's not that much difference between creating a great learning environment and a great work environment and one of the interesting results that came out of a study at Google sometime in the last few months is they looked at what made senior engineering managers successful and the least important thing was their knowledge of engineering of course they all have good knowledge of engineering but it was empathy ability to mentor communication skills ability to encourage all of these kinds of things that we think of as quote unquote soft skills but to actually change the world and and on those sasuke's you know we hear a lot about the hard skills if we're thinking about data scientists from a role perspective statistical analysis etcetera but those soft skills empathy and also the ability to kind of bring in different perspectives for analyzing data can really have a major impact on every sector and socially in the world today and that's why we need women and people of color and people who are not well represented in these fields because data science is changing everything in the world absolutely is and if we want those changes to be for the better we really need diverse perspectives and experiences influencing things that get made because you know algorithms are not algorithms can be hostile and negative as well as positive and you know good for the world and you need people who actually will raise the questions about the ethics of algorithms and how it gets used there's a great book about how math can be used for the bad of humanity as well as the good of humanity and until we get enough people with different perspectives into these roles nobody's going to be asking those questions right right well I think with the momentum that we're feeling in this movement today and it sounds like what you're being able to influence greatly at Mudd for the last twelve years plus there is there are our foundations that are being put in place with not just on the education perspective but on the personal perspective and in inspiring the next generation giving them helping them I should say achieve the confidence that they need to sustain them throughout their career summary I thank you so much for finding the time to join us this morning on the cube it's great to have you back and we can't wait to talk to you next year and hear what great things do you influence and well next twelve months well it's wonderful to have a chance to talk with you as well thank you so much excellent you've been watching the cube we're live at Stanford University for the third annual women in data science wins conference join the conversation hashtag wins 2018 I'm Lisa Martin stick around I'll be right back with my next guest after a short break

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, brought to you by Girls in Tech. (upbeat digital music) >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Fransico at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference 2018. About 700 people, mainly women, some men. I think they brought in a school bus load of girls to participate. And really it's a two-day, single track conference. A lot of, just presentations by senior executive women telling their story, how they got to where they were, giving some inspirational advice. And we're psyched to be here. Adriana runs a great, great conference. It's a super organization, and we're excited to have our next guest. She's Wendy Howell, the chief of staff for Cisco Services. Wendy, great to see you. >> Great to see you, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely, so you're here instead of Cisco Live, which I think is great for you. What do think about this event? Why are you involved in Girls in Tech? >> Yeah, so I discovered Girls in Tech probably about three years ago and saw Adriana speak on just some interview. And I went, I don't know who she is, but I love her, and I love her message. So fast forward, attended my first Catalyst about three years ago, found out that we had two VPs that were on the board at Cisco which I didn't know. So, what's going on here? Let's do something with these guys. They were trying to put together a global partnership, and we really, they just couldn't get it over the line. Well, what's the problem? Funding. Okay, well let's fund it and let's just go. So we signed a global partnership two years ago with Girls in Tech. We've done, I think we've sponsored, overall with Cisco, about 15 different events. Catalyst Conference, AMPLIFY Women's Pitch Night. I think we've done eight. Hacking for Humanity events globally. It's just an amazing organization. It's the right organization at the right time. You know Adriana. She is amazing, she's a force of nature. And so I liken myself to be a mini Adriana for Cisco. (laughs) It's the time to get more and more focus on getting women in tech, and especially making sure that we have role models for the young ladies that are coming up in technology. >> Right, right. That's funny, that's how we found Adriana as well. I think she was on at a IBM event many, many moons ago and said you know, we got to get involved. >> It was random. >> The Pitch Night is really fun. You know, that's just a great event. And one of the ones from a couple years ago is really taking off, the little like, tile-like device. >> That's right, that's right. >> Which I can't remember the name, but it's not tile. >> And in fact, I saw one of your interviews, I think it was Sandy Carter. I don't know whether it was >> Yeah. the last year or the year before, I just did volunteer, >> Good, good. and it was great. >> So you know, the sponsorship list has really grow this year, and it's a who's who of corporate logos, >> Absolutely. which is great. We're looking at it over, across the way. And we talked about it a little bit before we turned on the cameras, about how some of the bigger tech companies specifically, 'cause it's kind of a tech focused event, obviously, can be, not only more involved, but a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more organized, a little bit more coordinated in the way that they put resources behind events such as Girls in Tech. So why don't talk to kind of what your experience is there, what are guys doing, how are you trying to add a little bit more purpose and organization behind your efforts? >> Right, and again, originally the partnership, it came together quite fast after we sort of said hey let's just go do this. So then our first year, we really were focused specifically on events, and let's do events together to really get our name associated with the brand of Girls in Tech, which is global, and phenomenoal, and 100,000 plus members, etc. This year, in our second year, I think we're being a little more thoughtful, and we really want to continue to show the ROI for our organization. So we're really focusing more on the recruiting aspect. And there's some new cool things coming out on that front from Girls In Tech. And I really want to just say, hey it's great to have our name associated with Girls In Tech, but what's it doing for us? What are we doing for the women that we're supporting? Let's hire them into Cisco, let's hire them into AWS. So that's a real big key focus area for us this year. Plus the events, 'cause this is, you know, not only is it great for us, but I get to bring my team here and they come away feeling fantastic and amazing, and I get all psyched watching all these young ladies walk around. >> Right. >> Many of them, I'm like, I wasn't even thinking about things like this when I was your age. Back in the day (laughs). >> That's right, dune day, thankfully. >> That's right. >> So that's interesting, in terms of how do you measure your ROI in the investment? Clearly, recruiting has got to big a piece right? You can never get enough >> Yeah. people, and even though machines are going to take everybody's job, Everyone >> That's right one day seems to have a whole lot of open recs, and can't fill the people. So is there anything else that you look at besides just hiring, or is it the number of people that come through the process? How do you measure? 'Cause we know it's not only just good and the right thing to do, but there's real business benefit to participating in diversity programs. >> Absolutely. And I mean, every large organization right now, over the last three years, has come to that realization. This diversity is not just a buzz word, it's a thing. We know that there is greater ideas that come out of it, more diverse ideas, bookings, I mean, there's real, relatable, tangible feedback that you can get from it, right? >> Right, right. So recruiting is a big one for us, but also we look at the impact. You know, every quarter, we sit down with Girls In Tech and we get an impact report of what are you Cisco, what have you done, Cisco, and what has it done for Girls In Tech, and what has it done for us? How many people have we had attend a Hack-A-Thon? How many dollars have we supported with? How many people are going through a boot camp? So that's sort of the way we look at it as well, the impact report, also. >> And do you find it's a higher kind of ROI, in, not so much a smaller organization, but these are relatively small events compared to Cisco Live and a lot of the big events that are in the industry. Is it just a more focused return? Is it a better return? How does it fit in with your whole strategy? Yeah, I would call it more focused. It's more of a niche, but it still provides us, and we're growing, right? So we're only >> Right. the second year in, and I truly believe that if we continue our focus in this area, I can see a strong, high trajectory if you will. >> Right. So just a pitch for companies like Cisco that aren't involved with Girls in Tech, who you may compete with, you may not compete with, you probably partner with out in the ecosystem, what would you tell 'em about this organization and why they should get more involved? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple things. So number one, Adriana herself, and the brand of her, and the brand that is Girls In Tech now. If you think about it, I mean, 10, 11 years now, so going from one chapter to 62 plus, hopefully 75, I think, by 2020 is the goal, and now 100,000 plus members, being associated with this brand is fabulous for your business, but you know, it's also the right thing to do. Because again, I go back to my super passionate about the next generation of female leaders and these role models that the younger folks are seeing. You can't, you can't even put a price on how valuable that is for them. >> It's so funny, talk about the role models, we interviewed Maria Klawe, who runs Harvey Mudd, years ago, at Grace Hopper, and that was such a big part of her theme right? >> Are there people, >> Absolutely. are there women that the younger gals can look up to, and see oh, she looks kind of like me, or I could be like like her one day, and it's such an important thing. And she talked about, you know, Zuckerburg, and Jobs, and kind of the male tech rock stars, if you will, are tech rock stars, but they're not necessarily the ones that some 14 year old [Wendy] 10-25, or 14 13 year old, or 25 is going to look up to and say, that's me >> Exactly. in a few years, if I work, so ... >> Exactly. >> It's such an important piece of the whole component. >> My friend, a buddy of mine, she's the founder of Austin Women magazine. And she has this catch phrase that's fabulous. She goes, the female role models, if you can't see it, you can't be it. So if I'm a 24 year old young lady that's graduating, and I don't see anyone else who looks like me, then what do I do? So that's why I love this event in particular. It's my passion event, yeah. >> Alright, well Wendy, your passion comes through and thanks for taking a few minutes of your time with us. >> Absolutely, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely. Alright, she's Wendy Howell, I'm Jeff Frick. We are at Girls In Tech Catalyst in downtown San Francisco, thanks for watching. (upbeat digital music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, brought to you by Girls in Tech. (upbeat digital music) >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Fransico at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference 2018. About 700 people, mainly women, some men. I think they brought in a school bus load of girls to participate. And really it's a two-day, single track conference. A lot of, just presentations by senior executive women telling their story, how they got to where they were, giving some inspirational advice. And we're psyched to be here. Adriana runs a great, great conference. It's a super organization, and we're excited to have our next guest. She's Wendy Howell, the chief of staff for Cisco Services. Wendy, great to see you. >> Great to see you, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely, so you're here instead of Cisco Live, which I think is great for you. What do think about this event? Why are you involved in Girls in Tech? >> Yeah, so I discovered Girls in Tech probably about three years ago and saw Adriana speak on just some interview. And I went, I don't know who she is, but I love her, and I love her message. So fast forward, attended my first Catalyst about three years ago, found out that we had two VPs that were on the board at Cisco which I didn't know. So, what's going on here? Let's do something with these guys. They were trying to put together a global partnership, and we really, they just couldn't get it over the line. Well, what's the problem? Funding. Okay, well let's fund it and let's just go. So we signed a global partnership two years ago with Girls in Tech. We've done, I think we've sponsored, overall with Cisco, about 15 different events. Catalyst Conference, AMPLIFY Women's Pitch Night. I think we've done eight. Hacking for Humanity events globally. It's just an amazing organization. It's the right organization at the right time. You know Adriana. She is amazing, she's a force of nature. And so I liken myself to be a mini Adriana for Cisco. (laughs) It's the time to get more and more focus on getting women in tech, and especially making sure that we have role models for the young ladies that are coming up in technology. >> Right, right. That's funny, that's how we found Adriana as well. I think she was on at a IBM event many, many moons ago and said you know, we got to get involved. >> It was random. >> The Pitch Night is really fun. You know, that's just a great event. And one of the ones from a couple years ago is really taking off, the little like, tile-like device. >> That's right, that's right. >> Which I can't remember the name, but it's not tile. >> And in fact, I saw one of your interviews, I think it was Sandy Carter. I don't know whether it was >> Yeah. the last year or the year before, I just did volunteer, >> Good, good. and it was great. >> So you know, the sponsorship list has really grow this year, and it's a who's who of corporate logos, >> Absolutely. which is great. We're looking at it over, across the way. And we talked about it a little bit before we turned on the cameras, about how some of the bigger tech companies specifically, 'cause it's kind of a tech focused event, obviously, can be, not only more involved, but a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more organized, a little bit more coordinated in the way that they put resources behind events such as Girls in Tech. So why don't talk to kind of what your experience is there, what are guys doing, how are you trying to add a little bit more purpose and organization behind your efforts? >> Right, and again, originally the partnership, it came together quite fast after we sort of said hey let's just go do this. So then our first year, we really were focused specifically on events, and let's do events together to really get our name associated with the brand of Girls in Tech, which is global, and phenomenoal, and 100,000 plus members, etc. This year, in our second year, I think we're being a little more thoughtful, and we really want to continue to show the ROI for our organization. So we're really focusing more on the recruiting aspect. And there's some new cool things coming out on that front from Girls In Tech. And I really want to just say, hey it's great to have our name associated with Girls In Tech, but what's it doing for us? What are we doing for the women that we're supporting? Let's hire them into Cisco, let's hire them into AWS. So that's a real big key focus area for us this year. Plus the events, 'cause this is, you know, not only is it great for us, but I get to bring my team here and they come away feeling fantastic and amazing, and I get all psyched watching all these young ladies walk around. >> Right. >> Many of them, I'm like, I wasn't even thinking about things like this when I was your age. Back in the day (laughs). >> That's right, dune day, thankfully. >> That's right. >> So that's interesting, in terms of how do you measure your ROI in the investment? Clearly, recruiting has got to big a piece right? You can never get enough >> Yeah. people, and even though machines are going to take everybody's job, Everyone >> That's right one day seems to have a whole lot of open recs, and can't fill the people. So is there anything else that you look at besides just hiring, or is it the number of people that come through the process? How do you measure? 'Cause we know it's not only just good and the right thing to do, but there's real business benefit to participating in diversity programs. >> Absolutely. And I mean, every large organization right now, over the last three years, has come to that realization. This diversity is not just a buzz word, it's a thing. We know that there is greater ideas that come out of it, more diverse ideas, bookings, I mean, there's real, relatable, tangible feedback that you can get from it, right? >> Right, right. So recruiting is a big one for us, but also we look at the impact. You know, every quarter, we sit down with Girls In Tech and we get an impact report of what are you Cisco, what have you done, Cisco, and what has it done for Girls In Tech, and what has it done for us? How many people have we had attend a Hack-A-Thon? How many dollars have we supported with? How many people are going through a boot camp? So that's sort of the way we look at it as well, the impact report, also. >> And do you find it's a higher kind of ROI, in, not so much a smaller organization, but these are relatively small events compared to Cisco Live and a lot of the big events that are in the industry. Is it just a more focused return? Is it a better return? How does it fit in with your whole strategy? >> Yeah, I would call it more focused. It's more of a niche, but it still provides us, and we're growing, right? So we're only >> Right. the second year in, and I truly believe that if we continue our focus in this area, I can see a strong, high trajectory if you will. >> Right. So just a pitch for companies like Cisco that aren't involved with Girls in Tech, who you may compete with, you may not compete with, you probably partner with out in the ecosystem, what would you tell 'em about this organization and why they should get more involved? >> Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple things. So number one, Adriana herself, and the brand of her, and the brand that is Girls In Tech now. If you think about it, I mean, 10, 11 years now, so going from one chapter to 62 plus, hopefully 75, I think, by 2020 is the goal, and now 100,000 plus members, being associated with this brand is fabulous for your business, but you know, it's also the right thing to do. Because again, I go back to my super passionate about the next generation of female leaders and these role models that the younger folks are seeing. You can't, you can't even put a price on how valuable that is for them. >> It's so funny, talk about the role models, we interviewed Maria Klawe, who runs Harvey Mudd, years ago, at Grace Hopper, and that was such a big part of her theme right? >> Are there people, >> Absolutely. are there women that the younger gals can look up to, and see oh, she looks kind of like me, or I could be like like her one day, and it's such an important thing. And she talked about, you know, Zuckerburg, and Jobs, and kind of the male tech rock stars, if you will, are tech rock stars, but they're not necessarily the ones that some 14 year old [Wendy] 10-25, or 14 13 year old, or 25 is going to look up to and say, that's me >> Exactly. in a few years, if I work, so ... >> Exactly. >> It's such an important piece of the whole component. >> My friend, a buddy of mine, she's the founder of Austin Women magazine. And she has this catch phrase that's fabulous. She goes, the female role models, if you can't see it, you can't be it. So if I'm a 24 year old young lady that's graduating, and I don't see anyone else who looks like me, then what do I do? So that's why I love this event in particular. It's my passion event, yeah. >> Alright, well Wendy, your passion comes through and thanks for taking a few minutes of your time with us. >> Absolutely, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely. Alright, she's Wendy Howell, I'm Jeff Frick. We are at Girls In Tech Catalyst in downtown San Francisco, thanks for watching. (upbeat digital music)

>> Narrator: Live from Stanford University, in Palo Alto California, it's The Cube, Covering Women in Data Science Conference 2018. Brought to you by Stanford. >> Welcome back to The Cube, our continuing coverage of Women in Data Science 2018 continues. I'm Lisa Martin, live from Stanford University, and very excited to be joined by our Co-founder, Co-CEO of SiliconANGLE Media and The Cube, John Furrier. John, what an amazing event, the 3rd Annual WiDS event, the third time The Cube has been here, this event, the energy, the momentum, the excitement, you can feel it. >> I really wanted to interview with you all day, but I wanted to make sure that we had the right women in tech, women in data science. (Lisa laughs) You're an amazing host. I thought it was awesome. What a great powerhouse of women. It's just such an honor for The Cube team and SiliconANGLE to be here. We're listed as a global innovative sponsor on there, so it's like the recognition because they have high integrity. The organizers, Judy, Karen, and Margot, when we first met, when they first started, this "Can you bring The Cube?", of course we will! Because we knew the network effect was big here. They were early on, and they took a great approach. They really nailed the positioning of the event. Use Stanford University as a base, establish a global community, which they have now done. It is so successful, this is the future of events, in my opinion. The way they do it, the way they bring in the content curation here at Stanford, but it's open, it's inclusive, they created a network effect with satellite communities around the world. They've created a VIP network of power women, and it's a shortcut to trust. This is the trusted network of women in data science. It's super exciting. I'm so proud to be part of it in a small way. They get all the credit, but just capturing all the data, the interviews are great data. You've done a great job. The conversations were amazing. The hallway conversations went great. It was just fantastic. >> Yeah it was fantastic, and thank you for handing the keys to The Cube to me for this event. The remarkable thing-- One of the remarkable things to me about this event is that they have, in third year, they're going to reach 100,000 people with this event. There were 177 regional events in the last 24 hours, #WiDS2018, in 53 countries. And we were fortunate to have Margot Gerritsen on a few hours ago, and I said, "You must be pleasantly shocked at this massive trajectory, "but where do go from here?" "Sustaining, maintaining, but also reaching out," she said, "to even younger audiences in high schools "and being able to ignite the bunsen burner, "turn it up a little bit higher." What were some of the hallway conversations that you had? >> Well I think the big thing was is that, first of all, the panels on the conversation of the content was not about women, it was about data science, that happen to be women. >> Yes. So the quality of the conversations, if you close your eyes, you'll be like, "There are some serious pros on here". And they had some side discussions around how to be a woman in tech and data science, and how to use your integrity and reputation, but the content program was top-shelf. I mean, it was fantastic, so that was equalizing. The hallway conversations was global. I heard about global impact, I heard that data science is very mission-driven. And you're seeing a confluence of technology and innovation with technology like data analytics, data science, fueling mission-driven, so standard run your business on analytics, but now run society on analytics. So you're seeing a global framework developing around mission-driven, you'll hear the word "impact" a lot, and it was not just speeds-and-feeds data science, although they're plenty to geek out about, but it was more of a higher level order bit around mission, and society. So this is right around what we're seeing at The Cube around cloud computing, cryptocurrency and blockchain, that you're seeing a democracy being rewritten with technology. Data's the new oil. Oil's power in the new global economy, and you're seeing that in all kinds of decentralized forms of blockchain and cryptocurrency, you're seeing businesses transform with data science, so with that comes a lot of responsibility. So, ethics conversation in the hallway. I felt like I was at a TED talk, meets World Economic Forum, meets Stanford Think Tank, meets practitioner. It was like, really exciting. >> And they had keynotes, which we had a few on some tech tracks, and a career panel. Did you get to listen to the career panel? >> John: The career panel was interesting and I'd love to get your thoughts on some of your interviews that crossover, because it was really more about being proud and high integrity. So the word "democratization" came up, and the conversations in the audience when they had the Q&A was, "Isn't it more about respect?", democratization, not that there's anything wrong with that, but "Isn't it about integrity? "What is the integrity of us as a community, "as women in data science, what is the respect, "integrity, and mission of the role?" Of course democratization is a side effect of good news data, so that was super exciting. And then also, stand up, never give up, never worry about the failure, never worry about getting in a blocker, remove that blocker or as Teresa Carlson at Amazon would say. So there was definitely the woman vibe of "Listen, don't take things lying down. "Have a tough skin. "Take names and kick butt, but be proud." >> That's where a lot of the, when I'd ask some of our guests, "What advice would you give your younger self?" and a lot of them said the same thing, of "Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone". My mentor says, "Get comfortably uncomfortable." I think that's pretty hard for a lot-- If I look back at myself 20 years ago I wouldn't have been able to do that. It took a mentor, and just as Maria Klawe has said on The Cube before, the best time to reach and inspire the next generation of females to go into STEM is first semester yoo-nuh-ver-zhen, that's exactly when it happened for me and I didn't plan it, but it took someone to kind of go like Maria said this morning, "Don't be focused "on the things you think you're not good at." So that "failure is not a bad F word" was a theme that we heard a number of times today, and I think, incredibly important. >> And the tweets I tweeted out but it was kind of said differently, I don't know the exact tweet, but I'd kind of paraphrase it by saying Maria from Harvey Mudd said, "Look it, there's plenty of opportunities "in data science, go there." And she compared and contrasted her journey in a male-dominated world with "Look, if you're stuck or you're in a rut, "or you're in somewhere you're uncomfortable with, "from a male perspective or dogma, "or structural system that's not working for you, "just get out of it and go to another venue." Another venue being a growth market. So the message here was there's plenty of opportunities in data science than just data analytics. There's math career paths, there's cryptocurrency, there's blockchain, there's all kinds of different elements. Go where the growth is. If you go where the growth is, you can pioneer and find like-minded individuals. That was a great message I thought, for women, because you're going to find men in those markets that love collaborating with anyone who's smart, and since everyone here's smart, they're saying just go where the growth is. Don't try to go to a stagnant pond where all the dogma and the structural stuff is. That's going to take too long to change. That's my take, but I think that's kind of the message I thought was really, really powerful. And that's the message I'm going to tell my two daughters is "Stand tall, and go after the new territory." >> You can do anything, and that was also a theme of "Don't be afraid to take risks". In any way of life if we don't take risks, we risk losing out on something. That was something we heard a lot. >> John: Let me ask you a question then, because you did the interview. I was jealous, 'cause you know I hate to give up the microphone. >> I know you. (laughs) But I love this event, 'cause it's super awesome. What were some of the highlights for you? Was there a notable interview, was there some sound bites? What were some of the things that you found were inspiring, informational, or notable? >> Oh, all of the above. Everybody. I loved talking with Maria Klawe this morning who, to your point earlier, had to from many generations face the gender bias, and has such a... That her energy alone is so incredibly inspiring. And what she has been able to do as the first female president of Harvey Mudd and the transformation that she's facilitated so far is remarkable. Margot Gerritsen also was a great, inspiring guest for me. She had said, they had this idea three years ago, you were there from the beginning and I said how long was it from concept to first event? Six months. Whoa, strap on your seatbelt. And she said it was almost-- >> And they did it on a limited budget too, by the way. >> Sure. She said it was almost like the revenge conference. Tell us we can't do something, and I heard that theme as well, people saying, "Tell me I can't do something, "and I will prove you wrong in spades." (John laughs) And I think it's an important message. There's still such a gap in diversity. Not just in diversity in gender and ethnicity, there's a thought diversity gap that every industry is missing. That was another kind of common theme, and that was kind of a new term for me, thought diversity. I thought, "Wow, it's incredibly important "to bring in different perspectives." >> And on that point, one of the things I did here in the hallway was a conversation of, this is not just a movement, it's a collection of movements. So it's not one movement, this one is, or women in general, it's a collection of movements, but it's really one movement. So that was interesting, I was kind of like "Hmm", as being a guy I'm like, "Can you women-splain that to me please?" (Lisa and John laugh) >> Yeah, well the momentum that they-- >> What kind of movement is this? (laughing) >> They're achieving. (laughing) I'm sure there'll be a hashtag for that, and speaking of hashtags, I did think it was very cool that today is Monday, #MotivationMonday, this whole day was Motivation Monday to me. And I asked Margot, "Where do you go from here? "You've achieved this in the third year." And she said, "Doing more WiDS events throughout the year, "also starting to deliver resources on demand for folks". Not just females, to your point, this is people in data science, globally, to consume, and then going sort of downstream if you will, or maybe it's upstream, and starting to reach more of that high school age, those girls who might have a desire or interest in something but might think, "I don't think I can do this". >> Well I think one of the things that I'm seeing, and I was glad to be one of the men that stood up, and there's men here, is that men being part of it is super important because these newer markets, like I was just in the Bahamas for a cryptocurrency blockchain event, and there's a lot of younger generations, the whole gender thing to them, they think is nonsense. They should be all equal. So in these new growth areas they're kind of libertarian, but also they're really open and inclusive. It's because of their open-source ethos. So I think for the younger generation in the youth, we can kind of set the table now, and men got to be a part of that. So to be that kind of world where the conversation isn't about women in tech, means that it's all good now, >> Yeah. Right? So the question we've had on The Cube is when we're done with the diversity and inclusion discussion, that means we've accomplished the goal, which is there's no longer a need for that discussion because it's all kind of leveled up. So I mean, a long ways to go for sure, but that's the goal, and I think the younger generations are like, "You old people are like... "We don't view it that way", so we hope that structurally, we have these kinds of conferences where the conversation is not about just women, but the topics, and their gurus at their field. To me, that is the shining light that we want to focus on, because that's also inspirational. Now the stuff that needs to be fixed, is hard conversations, and it's tough but you can do both. And I think that's a message that I hear here. Phenomenal. >> Great to hear though from your perspectives, from what you're hearing with the millennials in the next generation going "Why are you even talking about this?" It would be great if we eventually get there, but some other things that are really key, and some of these companies are WiDS sponsors, Intel and SAP, and what they're doing to achieve, really aggressively, much more gender diversity. We heard Intel talk about it. We heard SAP talk about it today, Walmart Labs as well. And it's still obviously quite a need for it is what it's showing. >> The pay gap is still off. Way too off, yes. >> So that is like, the conversation needs to happen, I'm not trying to minimize that with my other point, but we got to get there. The other thing that's really off, the pay has got to get leveled up and people are working on that. That's great, let's see the progress. Let's look at the data. But the other one that no one's talking about is not only is the pay a problem, the big problem is the titles. So, we've been looking at data amongst a lot of the big companies. Women are getting some pay leveled up, but their titles aren't. So there's still a lot of these little things out there that matter. She's only a VP, and he's an SVP, but she's actually operating at an SVP level, or Senior Director, I mean, this is happening. So much more work to do, but again, the more that they come in with the skills that they got like in here, the networks that are forming, the VIP trust influence networks, it's just phenomenal. I think this is going to really accelerate the peer review, the peer relationships, access to the data, and just the more the merrier. Shine the light on it, turn the sunlight on. >> Exactly, shining a light on the awareness that they're generating, and also that we have a chance to share through The Cube, bringing more light to some of these things that you talked about, the faster, like you said, the more we're going to be able to accelerate making this a non-topic. >> It's our mission. The Cube's mission is to open the content up, get the conversations, document the folks, get them ingested into our network, share our networks open content. The more that that meta data and that knowledge can share digitally, that is the mission that we live for. As you know we love doing it. You did a great job today. >> Lisa: Thank you! It was my pleasure. It's an inspiring event, even just getting prepped for it, and you can hear all the buzz around us that it probably feels-- >> Cocktail party time. It is cocktail party time. Feels pretty darn good. Well John, thanks so much for being our fearless leader and allowing us to come here. And we want to thank you for watching The Cube. We have been live all day at WiDS 2018. Join the conversation. Follow us, @thecube. Join the conversation with #WiDS2018, and please join the conversation and share the videos of some of these fantastic leaders and inspirational folks that we had on the show today. For my co-host, John Furrier, I am Lisa Martin. We'll see ya next time. (electronic music)

>> Narrator: From the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, it's theCUBE. On the ground with Accenture Labs 30th anniversary celebration. >> Okay welcome back everyone. We're here for a special on the ground presentation, our Accenture Labs 30th year celebration of being in business at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, the heart of Silicon Valley. I'm John Furrier. Our next guest is Yvonne Wassenaar, who's the CEO of Airwave. Good to see you, Cube alumni, welcome back. >> Thank you so much, I'm happy to be here. >> So your integral executive at this event here. You've worked at VMware, you've worked at New Relic. You're now at Airware. What do you guys do? First explain what Airware is because this is fascinating. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Airware is the most fun and impactful company on the planet. I'm a bit biased, but fundamentally I explain it as commercial drone software analytics. And the reason I say that is commercial drone is important because it's not just hobbyists, it's businesses using drones to collect data, but ultimately the important part is what do you do with the data? And we provide cloud based software analytics machine learning AI to derive business insights from what they collect. >> And drones are very practical, other than my kids loving them, put the Go Pro on it, but you can go, instead of saying go drive out and check that meter or you know, go out and take those trash out of the power lines, there's all kind of applications that drones could do with not only technical, but also getting data, visual data. So what is that looking like these days because it sounds very magical and fantasy like? What are some of the applications? >> It's a great question, and I want to start with what are some of the changes that have enabled drones to go from personal use to commercial use? The first thing is the technology, and so if you think about the drones, it's kind of like the cell phones 10 years ago when the iPhone came out. It didn't do that much compared to today, but the advancement has been amazing. So we actually had an innovator, one of our customers, duct tape a cell phone to the bottom of a drone like four or five years ago to get the visual imagery that he needed to drive insights. Now you can just buy from DJI or senseFly, really powerful drones, so you're seeing a huge uptake in what drones can do, and then on the other side, you're seeing the ability with cloud based analytics to get insights in things such as, think about it, insurance, rooftop inspection. You don't have to climb a two story steep on a ladder. You can fly a drone up, less time, more safe, and you get the historical information. Mining and quarrying, we do a lot in that space. Stockpile measurement. It's really fascinating all the things you can do. It's almost what do you not do. >> So I've been fascinated with drones ever since two years ago when Amazon had that big hype announcement where packages will be delivered to your home, and everyone can relate to that because they know Amazon delivers packages, but who's going to deliver, how does that work? I mean is there like a name space for like airspace? That's a hard compute challenge, so how will you guys deal with the spacial imagery aspect of it because this is fascinating because a new set of companies are redefining what was an old, established, boring, static industry. I mean Hoover remaps New York City every five weeks, or some number. >> Well I was going to say, what's important is you have the geo spacial coordinates, and so what we do is to actually align the images we take to geo spatially where they are. We use GCPs to do that, and then we know exactly, to the pinpoint, how to stitch images together, how to relate images over time, so actually that piece is quite easy. The harder part is when you're doing like large quarries or commercial inspections, just the volume of data you're collecting and being thoughtful on how you can upload that, process that, that's the more interesting and challenging part. >> And certainly data ingestion's huge, so given that, I've got to ask you the internet of things questions. Internet of things, the intelligent edge. Drones are moving, so they're real time. They're going to the edge of the network, they are the network, and they're pushing the edge out. How are you looking at the IOT? What's your perspective of the current IOT landscape? Intelligent, dumb, not yet defined, hasn't been to school yet? This is a big topic. Microsoft's talking about it, we've been talking about it on a research side, an intelligent edge. >> Yeah, I think we are just on the cusp of what is possible, and to me, I think about the true power being of marrying that visual data that comes from the drone with the other internet of things data. So for example, if you think about, in the aggregate space, in quarries and mining, where we play a lot. You have a lot of big equipment that has a tremendous number of sensors around, fuel efficiency and what's going on with the machine. You can map that against the hull roads that they're driving and other elements, you know that you can see from the sky. You can start to redesign your roads, you can start to get huge fuel efficiencies and other benefits, so to me the magic is really in marrying the different data sources, which is now becoming more possible as like broader technologies in the cloud and analytics of all. >> So I've got to ask you some technical, kind of high level questions. You don't have to go deep under the hood, but because you worked at VMware, you know the federation which is EMC. You guys are helping the storage guys out big time because there's a lot of data coming in. So two questions. How do you move all that big data, big fat data, through little pipes called the airwaves into the storage? What's the strategy? Is there any kind of emerging trends you see with respect to architecture? >> Yeah, so we actually spent a lot of time thinking about how you pull the huge, vast amounts of data and get it into the cloud. I'm not going to give away all of our secrets there, but what I will fundamentally say is we are big users of the cloud, so we're taking advantage of somebody else building up big data centers and their ongoing reduction in cost. Storage only gets cheaper and cheaper, and so for us, what we're really focused on is the processing power and what you can do in the clouds you put your data into. >> So cloud helps you? >> Totally, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> What would life be like without the cloud? Would you be in business? >> It would be really hard, and it would be hard on two fronts. One because it takes a lot to build and scale up your own data centers as a company today, particularly as a startup, but I think even more importantly, the ability to do, you know, training of these AI algorithms on large datasets. You want to be able to look across datasets, and that's most easily done aggregating the cloud. >> So you guys are cloud native? >> Yes. >> So what's your advice to CIOs as they look at their hybrid or private cloud, or on premise IT that's not even private cloud? What, these guys are trying to transform fast. Accenture Labs and others are helping them. What does a CIO have to do to get to the benefits of being that agile? >> Yeah, I think it's a great question, and when I was at New Relic, I was the CIO, so I have a little bit of experience in it. >> John: Trick question. >> What I would say is it is hard and I feel the pain. You have a lot to do to run the day to day business, but ultimately I think being really strategic and carving out the time and the big initiatives, and fundamentally it comes down to, all your new stuff should be in the cloud. The stuff that's really critical that's on prem that you can convert, you should do it, and the rest you got to get rid of it. You can't be held back by legacy because it will only prevent you from innovating and somebody else will. >> And do you see CIOs ultimately going to an operating model that looks like cloud even though it might be on prem? >> It does, particularly some of the larger companies, and for certain applications where you have to have, for whatever reason, data within the company, but it will be more utility based, it will be more burst capacity. You'll see more sharing as the tools and monitoring gets better. >> So I got to get your take. So as AI comes down the pipe, you're in analytics, it's a big part of your business. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> You understand analytics across your career. As jobs get automated away, we have a survey, and Market Size and Wikimon just did that says that by 2025, 150 billion dollars of non differentiated IT labor is going to go away and shift to other high value activities. So automation is going to replace those non differentiating jobs, labor. Okay, that means some other things are going to happen. So you can almost connect the dots and say software, analytics, some sort of new model. How does a company do analytics? Because what are those new value creation, you started a company on drone trend, real application, analytics is a differentiator. How does a company use analytics to help them figure out a differentiating strategy for their future? >> So I think it's a couple things. One is how to use analytics and automation to do what you currently do better, faster, cheaper. The more interesting thing is what you were talking about is if machines are doing that for you, if software's doing that for you, you have more time to think about well what's that next set of more advanced analytics I might do? Or how might I translate into better customer service? Or what's that new business model? So I think rather than jobs going away, it's really you know kind of like in the banks. The ATMs didn't get rid of the bank employees. It just gave them the ability to be personal advisors and take other. >> And they open up more branches. >> Exactly. >> And it's more people. It's actually helped create jobs. >> Exactly. >> Kind of that fallacy kind of goes away. Okay, we've got a little bit of time left. Do a quick commercial on what you guys are doing. Give a plug for Airware. How many employees do you guys have, what stage you're at, what are you guys looking to do? You're hiring, what do your customers look like, who is your customer? Take a minute to talk about your company. >> Yeah, so like I said, Airware's an amazing company. We're about six years old. We're Series C. We've got great investors and backers with Andreessen, Kleiner, Perkins, John Chambers is on our board. We're about 100 people. We've got global operations, both in EMEA and in the US. The beautiful city of Paris as well as San Francisco, so hard to beat that, and fundamentally what we're focused on is global enterprise commercial drone software analytics. And I call it an enterprise because part of the reason I ended up at Airware is I spent 17 years at Accenture. I understand what it takes to sell into enterprise. I know what they're looking for in terms of security, in terms of scalability, deployment, ease of use, and so bringing that, not just fun innovative experiments and innovation departments, but scaled deployments, and we predominantly focus on insurance and agriculture, mining, and construction right now, but we're building a platform that can be leveraged across industries, and so the real value add is how we reassemble the components to quickly innovate for other industries as well. >> I know we got time to break here, but one final question. We're going to be at the Grace Hopper celebration this year for our fourth year as part of our women in tech celebration. With all the recent Silicon Valley scandals around women in tech, I got to ask you. You've been in the business for a long time. You know, you've seen a lot of stories. I'm not going to ask you to share any specifics. What does the future have to look like to get through this novel of the generational shift that's happening, a new generation's coming on board. What kinds of norms and practices would you like to see, and any comment or color you can share on what is the preferred outcome of the current situation? >> Yeah, so I deeply believe that for companies to be competitive, you have to be diverse in perspective skillset and your employee base, and this war for talent, if you're only going after a certain profile, you're going to lose. So I think the winning companies will diversify. I'm on the board at Harvey Mudd, who's done amazing work increasing the number of women in STEM. They had more than 50% of their computer science majors were female last year, so it's definitely doable. I think we all have a lot of unconscious bias, and fundamentally what's going to shift is having more role models, and quite frankly having more white male sponsors. I mean John Chambers is a huge sponsor of mine and that makes a big difference, and so I think we need. >> And including men in the conversation. >> Totally. >> Is a really important part of it. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm 100%. My best sponsors have been men, and that's what we need is that community to make a difference. >> Yvonne, thanks so much for sharing your insight and data here. Accenture Labs celebration. Your role at Accenture, you're working with them, you've worked with them. >> Yeah. >> What's the take here? >> I'm super excited to be here. I was at Accenture for 17 years starting in 1990, so I'm old, and I got to grow up with the labs, and so. >> Were they Arthur Anderson or were they Accenture Consulting at that point? >> It was Anderson Consulting. >> Anderson Consulting. >> I'm that old, it was Anderson Consulting. But I'd say the value of the labs is it's hard when you're a big enterprise company to reimagine the future, and so having places like Accenture Labs where you can see what the possible is and you have somebody experimenting with you is really powerful, so. >> And you've got a good team of people with you. The cloud, really good timing to have a cloud operation too. >> Yeah, yeah I'm excited to be here. >> Yvonne, thanks so much. Cube coverage here at the Computer History Museum. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE, on the ground for Accenture Labs, 30 years. The next 30 years ahead of us. A lot of exciting things, AI, new workforce, great action happening, drones. First of all, the drone racing leak, by the way, is really popular in my household. We're going to have drones in theCUBE >> Yvonne: Maybe we can connect you. >> With Cube coverage with drone cameras, coming soon. Thanks for watching, we'll be right back. (upbeat instrumental music)

(upbeat music) >> Hi, I'm Lauren Cooney, and welcome back to theCUBE. Today we have Jeff Frick with us, who is the general manager of theCUBE, and we're here to learn about what goes on at theCUBE, what the business is like, some of the most fun aspects of what he does, and go from there. >> Jeff: Great to be here. >> Thank you so much. So, Jeff, starting out, really, when did you join theCUBE, and really what are your goals and aspirations for theCUBE as you look to business going forward now? >> My first CUBE gig was, I've known John for a long, long time, reached out. It was actually Splunk.conf 2012 in the Cosmo, I'll never forget, and they needed an extra host, we were over-subscribed, and I went and did that show. I did it with Jeff Kelley, and was really touched by this format where you've got kind of this professional looking, newsy, opportunity for people to tell their story, most people don't ever get to tell their story in that context, which I thought was pretty cool. And then also just to personalize the people behind the tech because since Steve Jobs, and that genre of people, people want to know who the people are behind the technology. So not only the people that run the companies, but who creates it. I think Open-source had a lot to do with that where people are interested in other people, not just the tech for itself. And that's what I really like. >> You bring up a great point with stories, and luminaries, and visionaries. Can you talk about some of those folks that you've had on theCUBE, some of the best guests you've ever had? >> Oh my gosh, we've had so much. People ask me this all the time, I need to prepare my answer better. But like Scott Cook, from Intuit, was just phenomenal. Tremendously successful, still focused on the same core vision that he came up with when his wife was filling out her checkbook, writing checks, about just a better way to organize and manage cash. And that show is so inspirational because it's really a small business show pretending to be an accounting show. We've had Robert Gates on, I didn't get to interview Robert Gates, but served with many, many President's. We're really fortunate, we often get the keynotes. Fred Luddy, from ServiceNow, phenomenal founder, goofy, quirky. Maria Klawe who runs Harvey Mudd College, goofy, quirky, great personality. So there's just so many great individuals and then some that you don't know. We had, an original ServiceNow we had this little older lady who had got a ServiceNow POC through, it's some ancient company, I don't even remember what company it was, and it was just fascinating to me how this, you know, she wasn't young and hip and new and on top of things, was able to kind of see the vision, get it funded, get a project underway, and then eventually build into being a customer for them. And how she was able to do that, and what was the story, and how many peers out there are curious to know how they could do that for their company. And those, I love those stories. >> Those are great. And I think one of the things that we want to look at too is that we want to understand for the most part what are some of the bloopers that you've seen out there? What are some of the things that you've noticed that are funny or were oh my gosh, you know, while you were on air, while you were thinking about different things. Can you tell me a little bit about that? >> Well, of course, the classic one that we've referenced over and over and over, and if you've seen any of our promos you see, it was John Cleese. Ironically again, at another ServiceNow keynote he was doing their CIO Summit or something, and he came on and he basically decided he wanted to rewrite the end of the, it became a sketch, not an interview. And just stood up and threw his water all over John and Dave, fried Dave's laptop, and marched off the stage. Half the people there, we had a huge live audience, were laughing hysterically. The other half were petrified. Unfortunately, a number of those were the client senior executives who didn't really know, and we had to go out and do some investigation and find out he actually does it a lot to people. And in fact the guys ran into him later that night and he said, "Wasn't that fun, wasn't that fun?" So that's one that just jumps right off the page. Another great one was Michael North from the NFL was at an IBM event talking about how they build the schedule. And while the analytics are fine, and you run an algorithm and it can plug a bunch of numbers, it's really the softer side. You know, how do you leverage at that point a Peyton Manning versus a Tom Brady match up? Do you use it to leverage an existing relationship? Do you use it to build a new network? Do you use it in your feature presentation to get the most leverage from that asset? So a whole lot of kind of soft, softer sided things in terms of the decision making. Which I think is what's really interesting. >> Yeah, I think that's great. And I want to take it a little bit further into what are the business aspects of theCUBE? What do you do on a day to day basis? What are the things that matter the most for running this business? >> Big question. So most important area is our customers. So what customer, what value does theCUBE bring to people when they take us to their conference? >> Lauren: And who are the key customers? >> Well key customers, right. IBM, and we've mentioned ServiceNow, Splunk, EMC, Dell EMC now, Vmware and their ecosystem partners. So a lot of enterprise infrastructure, a lot of opensource, and a lot of applications. But really there's three key components to why people bring theCUBE and what we deliver when we're there. One of them is just great content. The format that we have, the conversational tone, the way that it all works, we just get people to say stuff that you wouldn't ever ask them to say, especially on the customer reference ones. So the content is great and, you know, conferences are looking for more great content. The second really is our community and our distribution. You know we are a media company, we're super active in the community, we leverage a lot of social tools. We try to ask interviews and get information that's topical and evergreen and can be used often and over and over, and really run that out through a number of different channels and different formats. And then the third thing, which we didn't use to talk about as much, but we really do now, it's really the theater of our presence. There's something to bright lights and cameras when theCUBE is at an event. It's like, oh, theCUBE guys are here. And we hear it all the time, theCUBE guys are here. >> Everyone likes to be a star. >> Everybody wants to be a star. And it does a little bit of, I won't say validates for the greater good, but certainly within our community when we're at an event it's a signal that something's going on, something's exciting here, theCUBE guys are here, and we're covering it. And we hear that over and over. We have people stop us literally in an elevator to say, I look at your guys' upcoming sheet to make some decisions as to where I should plan my schedule time. And, or we've also heard, you know, I just wait and watch theCUBE all day, I can't go, I just have theCUBE running in the background. And get a taste of not necessarily what happened in all the breakouts and all the keynotes and all the other stuff, but we generally get all the same people who run all the keynotes. You're getting those same folks, but you're getting them in a conversational tone, talking often about many of the similar topics, it's just a different way to get that message across. >> So how do you grow the community further? So you talk about the community you have, you talk about the community that's at large right now. How are you looking to grow your user base and your community further? >> Right, so it's really kind of along two angles. One is kind of this natural bundling of subsets within our existing community. And that's like our Women in Tech coverage that we started years ago. Honestly, you know things were kind of slowing again in November, so we're like, you know, there's some great women, they're not getting highlighted, let's go out and do some Women in Tech interviews and integrate that. So that's kind of more of a horizontal play if you will. In terms of more vertical plays, we're trying to get a little bit out of the application infrastructure space and more into the app space. So autonomous vehicles, autonomous drones, commercial drones, we've done a lot of just app shows as companies do their own shows versus more of an industry show. So like I said, I mentioned QuickBooks Connect was fun. So really getting into some of these other areas that are more application specific and not just kind of infrastructure, per se which is the roots. >> So when you so application specific, are you looking at for example, you know Microsoft for example is a very large company. They have application space. Is that what you're looking for? >> Love to do some Microsoft shows, yeah, we have a Microsoft build and Ignite, they have a number of shows. >> What about Salesforce? Salesforce is doing some really interesting stuff around applications and community and the whole nine yards. >> Right, so before we didn't really go after Salesforce per se, 'cause it was just really big and we were just really small, we were trying to get a lot of our processes and structure in place. Since then we actually covered one Salesforce lightly a couple years back. A friend of mine, Lynn Voinovich, was a CMO and we covered the kick off. >> I love Lynn. >> You know Lynn? But we need to get back to Salesforce, that's one that we should be at, it's an important show, we should be there. >> Great, so let's have, let's kind of end here with a fun fact. So tell me a fun fact about your job or something that you do that perhaps people don't know about. >> A fun fact about my job. Just, it's just a lot. >> Lauren: Let's make it fun, not a lot of work. >> Basically our job is kind of like the proverbial duck, right? When we run production, we do about a hundred shows a year. There is, I always tell people it's like catering. There's about a thousand details that you kind of have some idea about, and there's a thousand ideas, there's a thousand issues that you have just no control. So being able to dance, being able to be like that proverbial duck that looks smooth, and cool, calm, and collected on top, but it's really pumping pretty hard underneath, you know we've got a lot of people, we've got a lot of back end processes, we have a lot of dancing that happens to try to make it really smooth for the guests, really smooth for the consumer. And we screw up and things happen. But I think we're pretty good, and we're constantly trying to improve our process. >> Great, thank you so much, and thank you for being here again. >> Thank you. >> I really appreciate your time. And we'll be back shortly on theCUBE with something that is coming up in about 15 minutes. (techno music)

(energetic electronic music) >> From Phoenix, Arizona, the Cube, at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. >> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here, with the Cube. We are on the ground in Phoenix Arizona at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference. We're really excited to return to Phoenix, ironically, it was two years ago, about this same time, we went to our first Grace Hopper conference that was here in Phoenix, and I don't know what it is with Phoenix, but it seems to be a great place for women in tech conferences. So, we're back, and we wanted to come down and talk to some of the people here that are giving keynotes, presentations, give you a flavor for what's going on, so if you got an opportunity to go next year, it'll be back in the Bay Area. You certainly want to sign up for that. So we're really excited, our first guest Yvonne Wassenaar, the CIO of New Relic, welcome. >> Thank you so much, it's great to be here, I love the Cube. >> Oh, thank you very much, that's right, you were at VMworld, or VMware, I always say world not ware, for years. And we've been doing, I think, the VMworld show for something like six years, or seven years. >> Yeah, super long time, and I watch you guys at reinvents, and a lot of other places. >> Oh great, well thank you for watching. So now you're at New Relic, so for the people that aren't familiar with New Relic, why don't you give them the quick 411. >> Yeah, so New Relic is is a software analytics company, and in the simplest terms, you don't bank in your retail branch, you bank on your phone. What matters is how your software's performing. Both from an application perspective, and a business perspective. So we help you understand what's going on. We're the best, first place to look to understand your digital business. >> It's really interesting, because we've got a premise that we're, at Wikibon, that it's all about, really, your digital engagement model. And you think about banking, how many times do you go into the bank, and actually interact with a teller? It's really moved to this electronic interface, in terms of your relationship. >> Exactly, it's not how warm the coffee is, or how long the teller line is, it's how performant is your application, and do you have the right feature functionality? >> Okay, so you're here, you had a keynote earlier in the week. >> This is the third day of the conference. So first of all, give us kind of what's the vibe been here for the last three days? >> It's phenomenal, and what I love about the Girl In Tech Conference, is that it brings together women of all types. I was speaking yesterday to a student at Stanford, who's here, who has her own non-profit, who's getting her degree to go out and change the world as an enterpreneur, to very, very seasoned executives who sit on boards. And everybody's here to understand what's the change going on, and how do I drive relevancy. And it's just phenomenal. >> Excellent, so your keynote was on how to stay relevant, and how to avoid extinction. >> Yeah. >> So why don't you give us some of the, I'm sure that was a well received one. >> Yeah, well, what's interesting is, change is the new constant. And it's actually riskier to not do something, than do something, today, but what do you do? And everybody says, "Oh, go out and be bold." and being bold's great, but fundamentally, it's hard. And it's easy to say, it's hard to do in practice. And so what my talk was really on, is, how do you address the unconscious fears? How do you say "Yeah, those bad things could happen, but you know what, if nothing bad happened, here's how I could change the world." And then just go after that vision. Free yourself from those kind of unconscious constraints, and really go after it wholeheartedly. >> And so is it more of a willingness to fail? Is it more of a willingness to, you know, look silly, if you feel? I mean, what are some of these unconscious fears, that if you consciously just address them, that will help you kind of overcome them, and be more proactive in your experimentation? >> Yeah, so for me it was very personal. It was some challenges that I had in my childhood, that really made me risk-averse, in ways that I didn't understand. And it's one of the things that they say, "Hey, women should lean in more." And I actually believe the reason that women don't lean in, is that they're trying to aim for a level of perfection, and don't realize it's a numbers game. Failure is not a reflection on you personally, failure is step towards your future successes. And so really it's a mindset change. >> Right, right, and I fundamentally feel too, as we try to innovate on the Cube, and do things different, if we're not failing sometimes, we're not really pushing the envelope enough, right? Everything shouldn't be successful. It's like the old economics newsboy model, right? If you come home with no newspapers, that means you could have sold a couple more probably, so it's not about perfection, it's about trying, and not being afraid to, "Mm, that didn't work out." >> You're spot on, and I led a workshop yesterday as well, on increasing your return on investment. And I literally told the women, I said, "If you are not failing, if everybody on your team's performing perfectly, you're a failed leader. You have to stumble, it's like skiing, if you don't fall, when you're skiing, you're not pushing yourself hard enough, you're not really doing it, so you need to let your team members fall, you have to fall yourself, and that's how you you're pushing the boundaries. >> So how is the reception then, of that message that you're trying to convey? Is it "You know, I know it, I just can't do it", is it, just, "Oh, there's just so many hurdles in the way"? How do you get over the, you know, here's this unconscious thing that you need to be thinking about, okay, now it's conscious, but to actually start to change behavior? What are some of the little behavioral changes and tips and tricks you give people? Because at the end of the day, a lot of times, it's do the behavior, not think about it too much. >> Exactly, I'd say it's a couple things, first off, you need role models, that can help prove to you and your subconcious, that, "My gosh, if those five amazingly successful people did this, and they're telling me, very specifically, the failures they had, and they're still that successful, maybe they're not lying."(laughs) The other thing is, I try to give really specific tips, so one of my favorites is, I'm an ex-consultant, so two by two, what's the business impact? What's your unique value? Throw all the things you're working on in there, you should have one to two that are high impact that you're uniquely skilled to do, hit those balls out of the park. You can get 20 guys to third base, doesn't matter. You got to get one person home. >> Got to get him home, that's great. I'm just curious, because you spent a long time at Accenture, before you jumped into the tech company world, so you probably saw a lot of different companies. What's your perspective at a macro view, of how this environment has changed over the years? I mean, do you see positive change? I know we have a long way to go, but what's your perspective from some of those early Accenture days? >> You know, it's never been a more exciting time. I mean, in some regards, I wish I was that Stanford student, just starting my career, because technology is changing how we do everything, in absolutely amazing ways. But, we need to bring the right level of social consciousness to how we apply it. And we need to figure out new engagement models. And I think those engagement models actually play to the strength of a lot of women we have in the room. You have to figure out how to fuse across different industries. So, the Apple Watch, it's designer, it's technology, like how do you bring those competencies together? You get better stuff done with partners than all internally. VCs are the new R&D innovation engines, so I think the change is really exciting. But you have to be open to new operating models, and new engagement styles, to take advantage of it. >> Right, okay I want to shift gears a little bit, because our audience might not know, but you're actually a very rare breed. >> (laughs) >> You're a woman on boards, and we hear over and over, I'm teasing you, because we hear over and over, there's just not near enough representation of women on corporate boards. You're on a couple of boards. So I'd like to get your perspective on, how did you get on the boards, how do we get more women on the boards? There's always a conversation, is it a pipeline problem? Are there just not enough, are they dropping out mid-career? What are some of the things you can see from your seat on a couple of boards? >> Yeah, so I'm on three boards, I'm on the board of Harvey Mudd, I'm on the board of Idiom, which is the series B start-up, and I'm on the board of the Athena Alliance. And the Athena Alliance is actually an organization, a non-profit focused on getting more women on boards, because I fundamentally believe it is not a pipeline problem, and I say that because there's many senior executive level women like myself, who just are waiting to check off the ten things on the list they think they need to be on a board. And it's studied time and time again, women set really high bars for themselves. So I don't think enough women are putting themselves forward. and I don't think that they're known well enough. We're not unicorns, we're really not. Like there are valleys where we all congregate, (laughs) and so what we need to do, is really help the men, who I think have amazing intention, and want to have greater diversity on their boards, understand how to make the connections, and find the right women with the right profiles to round out the organizations. >> So you think it's really more of a matching issue, the desire is there, but really just making the match when the timing is right, and it's a good fit. >> Yeah, exactly. >> All right, so I'm going to shift gears on you one more time, and talk about education, and specifically Harvey Mudd, because as I'd mentioned, two years ago, we were here interviewing Maria Klawe, still one of my all-time favorite interviews. She's got such phenomenal energy, she's the President at Harvey Mudd College, who are the Athenas, I don't know if you knew the Harvey Mudd gals' teams are the Athenas, boys are the Stags, but talk about education, and what Maria has done, I mean her thing in our interview, is she wants the intro CS, to be the best class you've ever taken. >> Yeah. >> Bar none, not the best computer science class, not the best science class, the best class ever, and I can tell you, my son's at Claremont, it's a really hard class to get into. Your perspective on education, and what somebody like Maria, with her kind of energy, point of view, enthusiasm, does to expanding computer science breadth in women specifically. >> Oh, it's phenomenal, I actually had the opportunity to sit in the intro CS class. And there's a couple really key things they've done. First off, is they've expanded and energized the CS team with new amazing talent, many women, but not just women, other diversity, to just round out perspective, so keeping it fresh. The second thing they've done, is they've realized that CS theory is interesting to some, but not to all, and a lot of women tend to be more purpose driven, so they've created classes like CS biology. Same core concepts, but now solving the problems in a field where they have questions. So they learn the same thing, but in a way that's more interesting. And the final thing is, they've restructured how they run the class. So they don't say, "Hey, here's a question," everybody goes, "Oh, I'll get that!" They say, "Here's a question I want you to think about. And talk to your partner, scribble some notes, and in a minute, let's discuss what you've come up with." and that allows people of all types to be more thoughtful and to get better, well-rounded answers coming out. So they've changed it on all dimensions, and it's just, it's an amazing place to go and be, and see the energy, and really see transformation in work in our education system, because that's where it all starts. >> That's really interesting, the way you say it, to phrase the question so people are forced to think a minute, because I have two daughters, they went to all-girls middle schools, and that's one of the classic plugs for going to all-girls, because the boys, they don't wait, right? >> (laughs) "Okay if I have the right answer, I'm going to get picked! >> "Pick me, I love the teacher, pick me, pick me!" >> You picked me, I win!" >> Right, "and then I'll figure it out," versus people that want to think about it a little bit, and contemplate, and noodle, and maybe try to get the right answer before they raise their hand, so great strategy. So before we let you go, unfortunately we're out of time, how do people get involved with the Athena Foundation, what are you up to, in terms of priorities for the next six months? >> Yeah, so it's the Athenaalliance.org, we're on the web, we're just starting, DLA Piper is one of our sponsors, getting our 501c3 status, there's information there in terms of membership, who we're working to connect with. If any of you listening have board seats and you want women, come to us. If you're a qualified woman, and you're looking to get on a board, reach out, we'd love to hear you, we know you're there, and we know that men want to put you on boards, so let's make it happen. >> What a great service really, doing that matching game, because it's always about the matching game. Well, Yvonne, thanks for taking a few minutes out of your busy day, and we look forward to seeing you again sometime in the Bay Area. >> Great, thank you so much, great stuff. >> Jeff Frick here at the Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference in Phoenix Arizona, we'll be back after this short break. Thanks for watching. (energetic electronic music)