ONCWIC 2011!

In 2011 the Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing (ONCWIC 2011) was held at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario and was attended by more than 135 women in computing representing 15 universities across Ontario, as well as women working in industry and academia. The event was clearly a major success. The participants were fully engaged, and the level of excitement and energy at the conference was palpable.

Highlights of the conference included the opening festivities held at the well-known Second City in downtown Toronto where lots of fun and laughter was had by all. This was followed the next day by the well received keynote by Alice Bonhomme-Biais, Senior Software Engineer for Google. Other exciting and informative talks were provided by Jennifer Stott, Director, Payment Technology, RBC, Lydia Lee, VP & CIO, University Health Network and John MacRitchie, Regional Director, OCE. Not to mention the prestigious participants in the IBM Panel and RIM Group Discussion, the CCICT speaker and student presenters and talk about academia by UofT's Associate Professor Kelly Lyons. An added bonus was the popular industry and academia booths where everyone enjoyed the opportunity of meeting and networking with friends and colleagues as well as industry and academic representatives.

To see the full program and learn more about our speakers, please click here. To see a list of our sponsors, to whom we are ever grateful, click here. And to view photos of the event click here.

And to everyone that played a part in the success of ONCWIC 2011 - thank you!

When asked what the highlights of the conference were for them, here's a sample of what participants had to say:

• I think all the career advice was invaluable. I was most inspired by the Crisis Management Presentation (Alice Bonhomme-Biais, Google) and the practical talk by Jennifer Stout, RBC.
• Speakers in industry telling their stories and experience. Cate Hustons’ (Google) presentation and videos.
• I really enjoyed the entire Friday night session. The atmosphere was great, the Jeopardy was a lot of fun and the Second City show was a great way to end the evening.
• The opportunity to network. I met several people who I’m sure will be invaluable in the social, academic and professional aspects of my life.
• Being inspired by speakers and learning about cool/important work with impact technology such as "In Surgery Modeling".
• I have found my mentor!
• Meeting other women who have excelled in our field and hearing their stories.
• Having honest, forthright and supportive discussions with women and exchanging ideas with technically-minded people.
• The health presentations (Lydia Lee, UHN and Amber Simpson, Vanderbilt University).
  
• Talking to presenters and having discussions (Melanie Veltman, RIM Session).
• Meeting great power women in computing, and networking.
• Networking with others, learning about OCE programs and learning from other’s experiences.
• I really valued information from the sponsors.
  

• Find out more about past conference: 2010, 2011.
  

UofT Women in Computer ScienceAMC-W
Grace Hopper Conference
Anita Borg Institute
AWC
CATAWIT: Bring it On
Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow's ICT Skills
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