We decided to create a series of lightning talks featuring women in data, under the umbrella of the broader Airbnb “Taking Flight” initiative. The goals were twofold: to showcase the many contributions of women in the field, and to create a forum for celebrating the contributions of women to data science. At the same time, we wanted to highlight diversity on multiple dimensions. For each lightning talk, we created a panel of women from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds, practicing different types of data science. The talks were open to anyone who supported women in data science.
We came up with the title “Small Talks, Big Data” and started with an event in November 2014 where we served food and created a space and time for mingling. The event sold out, with over 100 RSVPs. Afterward we ran a survey to see what our attendees thought we could improve in subsequent events and turned “Small Talks, Big Data” into a series, all of which have continued to sell out. Given this level of interest, several of the women on our team volunteered to write blog posts about their accomplishments (for example, Lisa’s analysis of NPS and Ariana’s overview of machine learning) in order to circulate their stories beyond San Francisco, and to give talks and interviews (for example, Get to know Data Science Panelist Elena Grewal). Many applicants to our team have cited these talks and posts as inspirations to consider working at Airbnb.
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