ALD News: Just two weeks to go!
Plus worldwide events, Suw interviewed by the BBC, discounts for group livestream bookings and much more!
Hi there,
There are just two weeks to go until Ada Lovelace Day Live kicks off at the Royal Institution, and we are getting very excited at the thought of seeing all our awesome speakers.
What have we got in store for you at this year’s event? Only seven of the most fascinating speakers we could find!
Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya — Fire saga: Is Iceland at the doorstep of centuries-long volcanic eruptions?
Mamta Singhal MBE — Engineering a rubber duck
Takita Bartlett-Lashley — Crafting calculations: Exploring mathematical artistry in fashion and design
Dr Samantha Terry — Can radioactivity cure cancer?
Joysy John MBE — Transforming teaching in the age of AI
Dr Sarah Bearchell — The Cloud Factory
Prof Anjali Goswami — The evolutionary truth about cats and dogs
If you haven’t got your tickets yet, whether to watch online or visit in person, now’s the time to grab them!
Organise a watch party for your colleagues
We have some fantastic discounts on group bookings for the livestream and want to find five or six companies each interested in buying a couple of hundred livestream tickets for their staff.
11-100: 15% off
101-500: 50% off
501-1000: 70% off
Over 1001: 80% off
Last year, we had over 700 people signed up to our livestream, and it’d be great to beat that this year with 1,000 viewers! We already have a couple of group bookings in, so if you’re also interested in taking advantage of our discounts, please email me at suw@findingada.com.
Timings for the livestream
The live performance is scheduled to kick off at about 19:30 local time, which will be these times around the world:
Wednesday 9 October
Sydney, Australia: 05:30
Auckland, NZ: 07:30
Mumbai, India: 00:00
Tuesday 8 October
Bucharest, Romania: 21:30
Paris, France: 20:30
London, UK: 19:30
Reykjavik, Iceland: 18:30
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 15:30
New York, USA: 14:30
San Francisco, USA: 11:30
Anchorage, USA: 10:30
Honolulu, USA: 08:30
And remember, because the recording will be available for ticket holders for two weeks after the performance, you don’t need to watch live — you’ll be able to dip in and out at your leisure, whenever it is convenient for you!
Worldwide events
We are starting to get notifications in for Ada Lovelace Day events around the world, and have some fabulous events on our list:
Aotearoa NZ, Auckland: Ada Lovelace Day Aotearoa NZ 2024. ALD Live watch party with breakfast and talks by Shalini Guleria, Annie Vella, Reneé Young, Hinke Osinga. 9 Oct, 6:30am–9:30am $5 #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/ada-lovelace-day-aotearoa-nz-2024/
UK, Bletchley: Digital Future Days: Ada Lovelace Day (13-18 years). Join TNMOC for a thrilling series of educational events designed exclusively for school and home-educator groups. 2 Oct, 9:30am–3:30pm £5 #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/digital-future-days-ada-lovelace-day-13-18-years/
UK, Leeds: Agile Yorkshire’s Celebration for Women in Tech. Rebecca Dainton and Penelope Hindle will be talking about their careers in tech, includes a chance to network. 2 Oct, 6pm–8:30pm Free #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/agile-yorkshires-celebration-for-women-in-tech-2-oct/
UK, Leeds: NewRedo’s Celebration of Women in Tech. Talks from Dr Maryam Sani, Penelope Hindle, Jess Sewter, Mala Benn, Mal Browne with opening comments from Councillor Abigail Marshall Katung, Lord Mayor of Leeds. 8 Oct, 10am–2:30pm Free #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/newredos-celebration-of-women-in-tech-8-oct/
UK, Peterborough: Peterborough STEM Festival. A day of coding workshop, interactive science experiments and more aimed at 5-17 year olds and inspired by ALD. 19 Oct, 11am–4:30pm, Free #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/peterborough-stem-festival/
UK, Porlock: Cream Tea with Inspirational Women. Talks from Heather Goldstraw, Diane Turner, Natalie Dyson, Alex Prideaux & Karla Thresher. 5 Oct, 2pm–5pm. SOLD OUT #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/cream-tea-with-inspirational-women-6/
USA, Geneseo: Ada Lovelace Day at SUNY Geneseo. A student/faculty poster session, ALD Live watch party and presentation from Karleen West on supporting women faculty in STEM. 8 Oct, 1:30pm–4:30pm Free #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/ada-lovelace-day-at-suny-geneseo/
Online: Ada Lovelace Day: Celebrating a Pioneer of Computing. Keynote, panel discussion and interactive coding sessions all held on Zoom. Oct 8, 5pm–7pm, free. #ALD24 https://findingada.com/event/ada-lovelace-day-celebrating-a-pioneer-of-computing/
If you’re organising an event or watch party, don’t forget to add your event to our list (if it’s an internal or school event, you can mark it as ‘private’), so that we can keep track of all the exciting things happening around the world!
Women in tech groups 'can’t run on inspiration alone'
I had a chat with the BBC’s Zoe Kleinman recently about the challenge of finding enough funding to keep Ada Lovelace Day going, and the broader issues with the DEI sector and the closure of other organisations such as Women Who Code and Girls In Tech in the US and Tech Talent Charter in the UK.
Zoe also spoke to Caitlin Gould, who runs TecWomenCIC and puts on coding clubs for school girls. Caitlin has encountered exactly the same problem:
Ms Gould says she spends up to 60% of her time trying to figure out where to get funding from, describing the organisation’s financing as “a patchwork quilt”. She told me that often funding comes in the form of a one-off payment, or is offered for a new idea, which makes it difficult to repeat successful campaigns.
“It’s really challenging because there’s so much goodwill,” she says. “I get politicians and people in tech saying, ‘what you’re doing is amazing, how can we help?’, but when I say, ‘well, you can give me some money' they ask if they can volunteer instead.”
On the one hand, it’s nice to know that I’m not alone, but on the other, after 16 years of running Ada Lovelace Day I would have hoped that, as a sector, we’d have become more financially stable by now.
That’s all our news for the moment. Don’t forget to get your tickets now to guarantee your spot at what is going to be an absolutely brilliant show!
All the best,
Suw & the ALD team