[Techno Music]
>> Narrator: Live, from Orlando, Florida
it's the Cube
covering Grace Hopper's celebration
of women in computing.
Brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media
>> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick
here with the Cube.
We're at the Grace Hopper Celebration
of women in computing 2017,
18,000 women and men here at the Orlando Convention Center
it gets bigger and bigger every year
and we're really excited to have our next guest,
the soon-to-be looking for a new job, and former CEO
but still employed by AnitaB.org, Telle Whitney,
the founder of this fantastic organization
and really, the force behind turning it from,
as you said, an okay non-profit to really a force.
>> Yes
So Telle, as always, fantastic to see you.
>> Oh it's great to see you, glad to welcome you back
and glad to have you here.
>> Yes, thank you. So, interesting times,
so you're going to be stepping down
at the end of the year,
you've passed the baton to Brenda.
So as you kind of look back, get a moment to reflect,
which I guess you can't do until January,
they're still working you,
what an unbelievable legacy, what an unbelievable baton
that you are passing on for Brenda's stewardship
for the next chapter.
>> Yes, I mean, I've been CEO for the last 15 years
and under that time period, we've grown into a global force
with impact, well over 700,000 people.
We have well over 100,000 people who participated
with the Grace Hopper or the Grace Hopper India.
It's grown, and what's been really exciting
the last few days, is hearing the stories.
>> Jeff: Right, right.
>> Of how, the impact that this, the AnitaB.org
has had on the lives of young women
but also mid-career and senior executives.
It's very inspiring to me.
>> It is, it's fantastic, and I think the mid-career
and more senior executive part of the story
isn't as well-known, and we've talked to,
Work Day was here, I think they said they had 140 people
I think I talked to Google, I think they had like 180.
And I asked them, I said, is there any other show,
besides your own, that you bring that many people to
from the company for their own
professional development, and growth.
And there's nothing like it.
>> That's true. The reason why the Grace Hopper celebration
has grown as significantly as it has is because
more and more organizations, companies,
bring a large part of their workforce.
I mean, there are some companies that have brought
up to 800 people, and sometimes even 1,000.
>> Jeff: Wow
>> And there's a reason why, because they see the impact
that the conference has on retention and advancement
of the women who work for them.
>> And that's really a growing and increasing
important part of the conversation,
>> It is.
>> Is retention, and two, getting the women who maybe
left to have a baby, or talk about military veterans
getting back in, so there's a whole group of people
kind of outside of the traditional took my four years
of college, I got a CS degree, now I need a job,
that are also leveraging the benefits of this conference
to make that way back in to tech.
So important now as autonomous vehicles are coming on board
and all these other things that are going to displace
a bunch of traditional jobs.
The message here is, you can actually get into CS
later in life and find a successful career.
>> Yes, we have a real diversity of attendees.
So about a third of them are students, and that's really,
they're brought here by their universities
because that makes a difference.
We have a great group from the government.
So there's this real effort to bring state-of-the-art
technology into our government, initially spearheaded
by Megan Smith but really has grown.
And the government brought quite a few women.
And yes, we do have re-entry people.
The companies are looking for women who are very interested
in getting back in the workforce.
The wonder about our profession, is that
they're in desperate need of talented computer scientists.
And so, because of that, more and more organizations
are being innovative in how they reach out
to different audiences.
>> And outside of you, I don't know that anyone is more
enthusiastic about this conference than Megan Smith.
>> Yeah (laughs)
>> She is a force of nature. We saw her last year,
we were fortunate to get her on the Cube this year,
which was really exciting.
And she just brings so much energy.
We're seeing so much activity on the government side,
regardless of your partisanship, of using cloud,
using new technology, and that's really driving, again,
more innovation, more computing,
and demand for more great people.
>> Yes, we're very blessed that Megan has continued
to come here every year.
She came back this year, she sat on the main stage,
and she has really been, her message to so many
of the young women is that, consider government technology
as something you do, at least for a while.
And I think that that's a very important message
if you think about how that impacts our lives.
>> Right, for the good. >> Telle: Yes.
>> And that was a big part of her message,
she went through a classic legal resume,
and some other classic resumes
where you have that chapter in your career
where you do go into government and you do make
a contribution to something a little bit bigger
than potentially your regular job.
It does strike me though, how technology
and software engineering specifically
is such an unbelievable vehicle
in which to change the world.
The traditional barriers of distribution,
access to capital, the amount of funding
that you used to have to have to build a company,
all those things are gone now through cloud,
and the internet, and now you can write software
and change the world pretty easily.
>> Yes. Technology has the possibility
of being equal access for anybody.
Open-source, anybody can start to code through open-source.
There are many ways for anybody, but particularly women
to get back in.
But I also like to think about many of the companies
here who bring their diversity, they bring their
senior executives, they bring this large number of women
and they create this view across the entire company
of how to create a company that's impactful
as well as, you know, developing the products
that they are invested in.
>> Jeff: Right.
>> I mean you can have impact in many different ways,
through companies, through non-profits, through government,
through many different ways.
>> Right, and not only the diversity of the people,
but one of the other things we love about this show
is the diversity of the companies that are here.
Like you said, as government, as I look out
there's industrial equipment companies,
there's entertainment companies, MLB is right across from us
and has been there the three days.
So it's really a fantastic display of this kind of
horizontal impact of technology, and then of course,
as we know, it does make better business
to have diversity in teams.
It's not about doing just the right thing,
it's actually about having better bottom-line impact
and better bottom-line results.
And that's been proven time and time again.
>> Well yes, and, so what I know is that every company
is a technology company.
If you think about the entire banking industry,
they have this huge technology workforce.
Certainly classic technology companies have
a lot of engineers, but insurance, and banking,
and almost anything. I mean, we have a lot increasing amount
of retail, Target, Best Buy, places like that.
>> Right. Okay so I tried to order in a horse
so you could ride off into the sunset at the end
of this interview, but they wouldn't let me
get it through security. >> Okay
>> But before I let you go, I'd just love to get
your thoughts on Brenda, and the passing of the baton.
How did you find her, what are some of the things
that you feel comfortable, feel good about,
beyond comfortable, to give her the mantle, the baton,
if you will, for the next chapter of AnitaB.org?
>> I've been very blessed to lead this organization
for 15 years, and this is my baby.
But there is nothing more heart-warming than to be able
to talk to a visionary leader like Brenda.
Brenda is extraordinary. She really believes in
computer science for all. She believes that all women
should be at the table creating technologies.
She has a vision of where she wants to take it
and yes, she just started last Sunday, so we have to
give her a little time. (laughs)
>> You were right into the deep end right? Swim! (laughs)
>> But she is just, I mean, I just feel very blessed
to have Brenda in my life and I will be there in any way
that she needs for me to be there to work with her.
But she is going to be a great leader.
>> Oh absolutely. Well Telle as always, great,
and as you said, you're more busy than maybe you expected
to be here, so to find a few minutes to stop by the Cube
again, thank you for inviting us to be here.
It is really one of our favorite places to be every year.
Finally my youngest daughter turns 18 next year,
so I can bring her too. And congratulations
for everything you've accomplished.
>> I love to be here, thank you for coming.
Glad we could talk.
>> Alright, she's Telle Whitney, I'm Jeff Frick,
if you're looking for a highly-qualified woman in tech,
she might be on the market in 2018.
(Telle laughs)
Give me a call, I'll set you up.
Alright, you're watching the Cube, from the Grace Hopper
Celebration of women in computing. Thanks for watching.
(techno music)