Strawman vision & planning for 2024/2025 DEI-SIG events

[PaulaPaul]

We are seeking a person or person to be the primary contact(s) for organizing BBM events; the SIG can funnel candidate hosts to these people, who can arrange speakers, promote the events, and work with host companies to deliver the event.

[PaulaPaul]

For 2024, we need help finalizing a schedule details for Big Boost Monday events.

Suggestions include:

• BBM events quarterly?
• A special BBM event in cooperation with the Grace Hopper Celebration
  • @PaulaPaul has contacted Mike Wilson about connecting BBM with the Grace Hopper Celebration. The Opening Plenary GHC begins on Tuesday, Oct 8, and it would be amazing to have a huge BBM on the Monday evening before the Plenary!
  • If there is a member company that has offices in Philadelphia (where the conference will be held) we could get great attendance from women and non-binary attendees of GHC

@Perelmuter - can we find potential member companies who may be able to host a large BBM event in October?

We may also be able to 'piggy back' a BBM event with Discover Financial's Global Accessibility Awareness Day event in May, which will feature the FINOS A11y Theme Builder project.

[KaajalAminSharma]

Are we still working with Zngly for BBM as Mike would drive these events.
Previously the events were monthly, there was a big push for all platinum FINOS members to all host a BBM. Last year we tried to compile a calendar for the year which helped fill in the gaps. Not sure if any have been committed for the rest of the year?

[PaulaPaul]

Hello @KaajalAminSharma, @Perelmuter and @psmulovics - I had a lovely call with Mike at Zngly this morning; he confirmed with me that there would only be one more BBM event this year, a global event on October 7th which is the Monday evening prior to the plenaries for the Grace Hopper Celebration. It is also the start of global mental health awareness week.

Mike let me know he would like to reconnect and sort out details in mid-late May. We can then put this on an official calendar, but in the meantime we will need to determine if there is a venue in Philadelphia (the conference location) that can host GHC attendedes and participate with the related BBM event around the globe on that day.

@Perelmuter @psmulovics @KaajalAminSharma - are there member companies in Philadelphia with a location near the convention center who may be able to host a BBM event the evening before the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC)?

If so, then we can have a BBM in Philadelphia, then take up the question of whether or not member companies may want to chip in and make that event part of the formal GHC agenda and drive even more attendance. Since many of our member companies are present at the event, it can be a shared marketing and recruiting event for FINOS member companies participating in GHC this year.

[PaulaPaul]

@psmulovics @Perelmuter @KaajalAminSharma - on Peter's suggestion I've created a spreadsheet with the names of FINOS member companies having offices in major financial centers around the world that we can use as a resource for reaching out to find potential BBM hosts. @Perelmuter if this is helpful for business development feel free to add other potential FINOS members-

Global BBM Locations and Potential FINOS Hosts

[psmulovics]

I think you created that file in the wrong folder, @PaulaPaul ?

[PaulaPaul]

Thanks for the help @psmulovics! I've fixed the link above and posted it below. @KaajalAminSharma @Perelmuter let me know if you have access to this:
Global BBM Locations and Potential FINOS Hosts

[PaulaPaul]

ThoughtWorks? UST?

[PaulaPaul]

We've resolved event positioning with FINOS, and we have the following items on the schedule:

• FINOS meetup, hosted and sponsored by Discover, on Global Accessibility Awareness Day (May 16) to build community for FINOS Accessibility Theme Builder
• FINOS meetup, sponsored by Wellington Management, and hosted by FINOS ambassador Paula Paul in collaboration with the DEI SIG
• (Tenative) A BBM event in collaboration with the FINOS DEI SIG, on the Monday evening before the Grace Hopper Celebration plenaries, Oct 7th, in Philadelpha. Sponsoring FINOS member TBD

Other events will be added to a common calendar, to be created for Ambassador event planning and DEI SIG focused events.

[KaajalAminSharma]

@psmulovics @Perelmuter @KaajalAminSharma - on Peter's suggestion I've created a spreadsheet with the names of FINOS member companies having offices in major financial centers around the world that we can use as a resource for reaching out to find potential BBM hosts. @Perelmuter if this is helpful for business development feel free to add other potential FINOS members-

Global BBM Locations and Potential FINOS Hosts

So sorry for the delay in responding to this, I cannot access google docs from work. Great start on pulling this list together. I will ensure I have added to this before next SIG Call

[KaajalAminSharma]

Before we finalize any new events, I think we should review:
1- What we want the events to be about, decide on the themes/ aim we want to tackle at the event
2- Strategic locations we want to host in, which members are based in these locations, who our contacts are there

I wil pull some ideas together, any ideas of the best way to share these? just in comments box?

Also happy to host a call with any interested parties to discuss themes/ideas around these events

[KaajalAminSharma]

For those that could not attend the June SIG, here are the events notes we covered:

The SIG needs to define what we are trying to achieve from the events that map to existing DEI SIG goals agreed around creating opportunities to develop, advance and retain diverse talent.

Each event we host should focus on these goals and include the following elements:
1- Knowledge transfer and best practices around this
2- Networking opportunities
3- Inspiring events to attract new people in to Tech.

With this in mind, I suggest starting small and look at hosting 2 events before the end of the year.

• We need to leverage the communities we already have so suggest NY and London as starting points
• Being mindful on the summer, people on leave and students on break, we should look at hosting these events between Sept and November

Next steps to include:
1- Agree and finalize the event themes
2- Propose dates for the events
3- Call out to members to host and for speakers
4- Look to develop local working groups building up a critical mass of people that can help

Additionally, for these events to be a success, we need to get engagement from the the FINOS members. There are huge amount of platinum and gold members who are not part of the SIG- how can we do a call out to these groups to be part of the DEI and SIG and remain engaged?