Fidelity’s Women in Technology Special Interest Group (WITSIG) prioritizes connection and employee development. This Employee Resource Group (ERG) offers an event series, WITSIG Presents, to help associates network, develop skills, and learn about how technology can be used to solve real business problems. This event series began in 2018 and has increasingly grown in demand by the WITSIG community – over 3,400 associates strong.

We interviewed two women from the WITSIG Presents team to obtain more information about how this event series began, where they are currently and what they look forward to in the year to come. Keep in mind, the WITSIG and WITSIG Presents team is made up of individuals who hold full-time positions within Fidelity and have a desire to expand their community and leadership skills within a space they are passionate about. This is a group of inspiring women!

Name: Nora

Title: Business Integration and Operations

Name: Emily

Title: Senior Data Engineer

Tell us about WITSIG Presents

WITSIG Presents is a global workstream within WITSIG that focuses on curating events for a broad audience of our members, allies, and other Fidelity colleagues who may want to learn more about Fidelity or technology outside of their role. These events provide opportunities for speakers to share their knowledge and journey and for attendees to learn about how technology can be used to solve real business problems in other areas of Fidelity or at other companies in the industry.

How do you identify speakers for WITSIG Presents events?

When identifying speakers, we try to focus on the topics that are current and relevant to the firm’s strategy and find individuals either within Fidelity or externally who are credible and would bring life to the subjects. Technology focused events are typically from the perspective of solving a real business problem. This keeps the conversation from becoming too technical, since audience members are not always in a technical role but still want to learn more about how beneficial it can be. Events are not always technology based – we look to cover a range of topics that are relevant and meaningful for our audience.

What are some of the past event topics you spoke about?

WITSIG Presents has covered topics such as What’s New in Fintech with Hannah Arnold a Venture Partner within Investment Management Operations, A Day in the Life of Portfolio Manager Nidhi Gupta, co-manager of the Fidelity Advisor New Insights Fund, and How Fidelity Makes Healthcare Easier with Tiffany Miller and Jean Cronin, Leaders in Fidelity Digital Technology. We choose topics based on feedback from past events’ surveys or suggestions from our WITSIG team.

Walk us through the trajectory of WITSIG Presents since the beginning.

WITSIG Presents was introduced in 2018. It evolved from a number of smaller events growing from 30 attendees to an average of 380 people attending in 2021. In 2020, the series became an all-virtual experience which allowed us to expand into a global program so we could share the events more broadly and engage speakers from across the Fidelity sites.

In your personal opinions, which event in 2021 was most exciting to host?

WITSIG Presents hosted a discussion on Fidelity’s Data Strategy and the Analytics Platform which drew a record-breaking attendance rate of 500 live viewers. Mihir Shah, Leader of Fidelity Data Architecture, and Melinda Hamel-Graziano, Product Leader for the Analytics Platform, took us through their vision for the Analytics Platform, technology capabilities and approach, and the opportunities seen ahead. Mihir stated during the event, “when we first came up with the data strategy, we made WITSIG the primary audience when we first unveiled it. I am really glad to continue that tradition”. Our members were glad as well. The event was so informative and interactive, so much so that we had to create an event Q&A document afterwards to ensure no question went unanswered. When events are well received, it makes it exciting and motivates our team to seek out what other topics our community would enjoy.

What do you most look forward to in the 2022 season of WITSIG Presents?

In 2022, we want to continue to highlight the value women in technology bring to Fidelity through our events. By expanding our partnerships across the company and choosing speakers who are able to discuss their career journeys and exciting topics, we hope to grow our community of learners, innovators and achievers and bring new knowledge to their day-to-days or larger goals.