Continue to Aspire to Inspire

The end of the calendar year marks the halfway point in the SWE fiscal year, a great time to reflect on what we have accomplished and what awaits us!

WE21 was an amazing event, attended by several thousand people safely in person in Indianapolis, and even more people through the online virtual platform. Thank you to everyone who participated in the CLEAR Health checks each day, and to everyone for wearing masks and taking precautions to keep all of us safe.

The split career fair, in person during conference week and virtually the following week, helped us welcome many new organizations to SWE. It was inspiring to see the numerous small businesses and startups on the career fair floor, not only because they were hiring SWE members, but also because some had brought their innovative products with them. As I walked around the exhibit hall, I heard so many great conversations about the design, test, build, and manufacture process, and could sense the excitement each person had about engineering a better solution. Everyone had clearly taken to heart the advice of our keynote speakers and were pursuing their passions.

If you weren’t able to travel to Indianapolis in October, the upcoming We Local conferences are another opportunity to make connections, learn from one another, and continue to aspire to inspire. I’ve found these events to be full of the great development and learning content you expect from SWE, while their smaller scale allows me to meet even more people and learn their stories at a slower pace.

I am grateful to have connected with so many of you in person at the conference. One of the best parts of the event for me was spending time in the hallways, lounges, and networking sessions, connecting with you! Your stories inspire me and help to reinvigorate my excitement about what SWE does.

Our FY23 slate should be announced by the time you are reading this. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination or provided feedback — and a special thanks to our nominating committee, who reviewed the packages and spoke with the nominees. Several changes were made to the process this year, at the recommendation of our FY21 special directors, to ensure we are inclusive in our call for and selection of a group of leaders who reflect the diversity of the engineering profession and the global population. An external review of the leadership application and selection process is currently ongoing as a part of the larger consultant assessment of our internal diversity, equity, and inclusion. I expect their recommendations will result in further changes to the process next year. We have similarly made updates to the FY22 SWE awards package, which was made available earlier in January. Awards nominations are due by March 31, 2022. Please help us recognize some remarkable women, men, companies, and teams next year.

Until then, I hope to see you at a WE Local event in Albuquerque, Des Moines, Buffalo, Bengaluru (virtually, as of this writing), or London, where we will all continue to #AspiretoInspire.