At the FITT lunch in iMAX Theatre. The topic is womens’ communication needs and how new technology like unified communications can help us. The panel members are:

• Patricia Scott, Secretary of the Federal Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
• Holly Kramer, Group Managing Director, Product Management, Telstra
• Adele Whish-Wilson, CEO Momentum Technologies (Australian Innovator of mobile video streaming technology)
• Dr Anna Liu, Group Manager, Emerging Technologies, Microsoft Australia

Panel Moderator: Beverley Head

Interesting takeaways …

Patricia – spoke about how the debate has been focused on telecommunications issues like Telstra ownership & broadband. The challenge now is to actually get broadband out to all of Australia, need to get basic infrastructure right. But womens’ participation in IT/engineering education is falling.

Holly mentioned that Telstra is passionate about usability and user experience

Adele talked about work-life balance and how we need to set boundaries between work and personal life. Don’t be afraid to use the off button.

Anna spoke about demands of young family and about being connected via social networking (like Twitter). How she tried out the new technologies and found out some interesting stuff. But you need to have some time off and we have the ability to choose how we interact, interconnect & contribute. Also spoke about our leadership role in setting example for next generation of women to join the IT industry.