SW*AID - December Networking Event

Hello lovely ladies,

We’ve nearly reached 50 members 🎉 - so do invite your friends and colleagues to join us.

December Networking Event

We’ve scheduled our last event of the year, and we’d love to see you all there.

A casual final event of the year to allow our wonderful women to connect or catch up. We're keen to hear what you've all been learning about AI throughout the year, and a bit of forward thinking for next year. New faces always welcome.

Date - Wednesday 11th December 2024

Time - 8.15am - 10am (breakfast and coffee provided)

Theme - What I Learnt About AI This Year

Location - Ashfords LLP, Tower Wharf, Cheese Lane

Welcome to Our Organisers

We are now a team of three organising this network. Just in case you don’t know us, here’s a little intro:

Laura Gemmell

Laura is the founder of Taught by Humans, an edtech company dedicated to equipping individuals and businesses with essential future of work skills - starting with AI and data - through a friendly, human-centred approach.

A self-confessed data dork, she brings over a decade of experience from roles at Monzo, PwC, Worldpay, and ambitious start-ups. She also holds a PhD in AI Education.

Laura believes technology, particularly AI, should work for everyone in society, and is committed to making that vision a reality.

Hannah Pettit

Hannah is an Associate in the Technology team at Ashfords LLP, specialising in data protection.

Hannah provides legal advice to companies and organisations of all sizes, from early stage start-ups to international group companies, on a range of technology contracts, as well as their data protection compliance journeys.

Hannah has a particular interest in AI and the data protection considerations when developing and implementing new AI technologies.

Freya Pearce

As Head of Engagement at ISL Talent, Freya Pearce supports tech founders on the critical aspects of building an effective startup team. That includes everything from establishing a clear Employer Value Proposition to setting up streamlined hiring processes. Freya focusses on practical solutions to hiring challenges, like benchmarking roles, enhancing DE&I, and securing the right talent for resilient growth.

Freya’s interest in AI stems from her focus on tech innovation and supporting founders in emerging industries, and how AI is inevitably shaping the future of the talent & recruitment industry.

Other AI Events

AI West - Celebrating Bristol as an AI City - 14th Nov 5.30pm

Some of us will be at the AI West event next week - which will have a panel discussion between:

• Nigel Toon - CEO of Graphcore

• Annela Seddon - UoB Associate Pro Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation and Professor of Physics

• Sadaf Alam - CTO for Isambard Digital Research Infrastructures, Including Isambard AI

• Rosie Bennett - Innovation Lead at Bristol Innovations. AI venture development and Non Executive Director at EarSwitch.

So great gender representation for an AI event!

Plan for Next Year

Step 1 - be more organised…

As such, we have been making some plans and will be sharing a calendar with you soon.

• Quarterly events - mix of coffee mornings, more structured events with panels

• Learning groups - facilitating those who want to learn similar things together (whether it’s an intro to using ChatGPT well, something very technical or on the policy side)

• AI discussion group - (similar to a book / podcast club) an opportunity to connect and discuss topics around AI (with the aid of books, articles, podcasts, etc)

We’re working on the plans and logistics at the minute - so if you have any suggestions or thoughts, please let us know [or if you’d like to help in any way].