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Meet the 2021 WE Local India Advisory Board

The WE Local India Advisory Board is made up of 20 women from across India who represent a cross-section of industry and bring with them diverse experiences. This group guides the content direction, provides local insight and supports the overall planning for the conference, taking place virtually 22nd – 23rd April 2021. Hear from three of the advisory board members on some of their favorite WE Local India memories.
Meet The 2021 We Local India Advisory Board
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The WE Local India Advisory Board is made up of 20 women from across India who represent a cross-section of industry and bring with them diverse experiences. This group guides the content direction, provides local insight and supports the overall planning for the conference, taking place virtually on 22nd – 23rd April 2021. Hear from three of the advisory board members on some of their favorite WE Local India memories.

Preetika Hingorani, Black & Veatch

Meet The 2021 We Local India Advisory BoardI have attended several conferences in the past, but when I entered my first WE Local India conference in March 2017 I was amazed to see a room of 600 women. The positivity and energy I felt that day was something that I had never experienced in any other conference. Though I was the sole attendee from my organization (Black & Veatch), I did not feel alone.

One of the best experiences was networking with the SWE global leadership team and professionals from different organizations in the engineering industry. Every woman I met greeted me with a smile and introduced herself. It was such a warm and welcoming feeling!

There were several power-packed sessions and I totally loved the sessions by Priya Kumar (author) and Renee Moore (motivational speaker) as both of them made me feel confident about myself and they encouraged all attendees to dream big.

During lunch, I happened to bump into an old classmate whom I had not seen since school and that made the conference even more special for me. Walking out of the conference after the closing keynote, I felt so good about myself, learnt several new trends in the engineering industry, had made many new friends and reconnected with an old school friend. I think that’s what SWE Conferences do to you – broaden your horizon and your network!

These are some of the friends, new and old, that I made in the conference – Shivani Koul, Rupali Patil, Aarti Shinde, Garima Yadav and Stueti. This bond has become even stronger over the last three years!

“That’s what SWE Conferences do to you – broaden your horizon and your network!”

Sharanya Sachin Menon, Project Manager, Menon Pistons Ltd.

Meet The 2021 We Local India Advisory BoardWhat I remember most distinctly from my first experience at the WE Local India conference is the feeling I left with. I am a mechanical engineer and I work in my family business—Menon Pistons Ltd.—which is involved in the manufacturing of auto-components. During my educational and professional journey, I had seen fewer and fewer women around me as I progressed through engineering school and work. At WE Local India, for the first time in my life I was surrounded by amazing real-world women engineers and leaders, all under the same roof, with advice and inspiration that still drives me to this day. I was filled with a feeling of belonging in the world of engineering, technology and leadership. I witnessed first-hand the life-changing impact that exposure to role models and a supportive network of women can have on our lives. This drove me to start a SWE Global Affiliate in Kolhapur to bring this feeling of inspiration to the women in my hometown.

Chetana Prasad, Senior Program Manager, Trane Technologies

Meet The 2021 We Local India Advisory BoardHow many of you remember the many ‘firsts’ in your life? Whether it was our first job, first paycheck, the first words and first steps taken by our kids – all of these firsts and more are memorable. One more that I add to the list of my firsts is SWE’s WE Local India conference that was held in 2019 for the first time in Bengaluru! It was my first WE Local conference and my first time serving as a member of the Advisory Board. Being a member of the Advisory Board, I got to meet, interact with and spend a lot of quality time with wonderful ladies from various backgrounds who have achieved a lot in their lives – networking combined with a personal connection was the biggest takeaway. All of us connected at various levels, even beyond SWE. This enabled us to learn a lot from each other, which otherwise isn’t that easy when we are stuck in our daily routines. One of the other big takeaways for me was the speed mentoring session that I participated in – not only was I able to share my experiences with young women engineers, but I got to learn a lot from them as well. I believe we can learn from others and do not always have to go through the same hard life lessons ourselves!

 

Want to learn more about the WE Local India Advisory Board? Read the board members’ full biographies here.


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