No matter how you analyze it, WE16 was a resounding success. With 11,724 attendees, a record number gathered for SWE’s Annual Conference in Philadelphia. That number includes collegiates and professionals from 24 countries as well as 1118 girls and parents who participated in our outreach event Invent it. Build it.
The Keynote Breakfast, Awards Banquet, and Celebrate SWE were all sold out. Attendees chose from more than 250 professional development sessions.
The WE16 Career Fair had 547 booths and 308 exhibitors. In fact, our post-conference survey showed the Career Fair was the highlight of the conference for many attendees.
More than 100 schools and universities were represented by attendees. Collegiates made up more than half of those who gathered for WE16.
WE16 attendees represented many disciplines of engineering. Mechanical engineers made up the largest percent (19.7) followed by chemical (14.3), electrical (9.8), biomedical (6.6), civil (5.4), industrial (5.2), computer science (5.2), aerospace (4), and computer engineering (3.5).
Besides the Career Fair, attendees chose networking, sessions, the Keynote Breakfast, and Invent it. Build it. as highlights of WE16 in our post-conference survey. Respondents also said they were inspired to learn about the many options available to engineers and the companies working to overcome bias in the profession.
Attendees were eager to share their conference experience on social media. The #WE16 hashtag reached more than 350,000 timelines. @SWEtalk tweets earned 54,000 impressions during the conference, and our Snapchat filter was used 1,400 times.
WE16 attendees left the conference with more than inspiration and memories. They took home 3,500 luggage tags, 1,500 Constance & Nano comic books, and 500 WE Local bookmarks.
We hope you’ll join us for our next annual conference, WE17 in Austin, October 26-28, 2017. Until then, you can attend a WE Local conference in Pittsburgh October 17-19, San Jose October 24-26, Pune March 22-24 or Amsterdam May 17-19.
