Gathering together on Thursday morning, more than 400 women and allies attended the annual AVIXA Women’s Breakfast, an event that recognized the efforts of women within the AVIXA Women’s Council and the industry at large, while also providing a touch of inspiration. Headlining the event was technologist Noelle Russell, founder and chief AI officer of the AI Leadership Institute, who gave the keynote “Scaling Responsible AI: From Enthusiasm to Execution.”
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The event marked the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Council, which is dedicated to creating opportunities for women who work in the technology and AV industries to network and support each other. The Council was first established in 2015, and has grown to a global membership of 1,119, with local groups established throughout the Asia-Pacific Region, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
That goal was readily evident with the extensive shoutouts and words of appreciation shared from the stage, highlighting members and leaders who have contributed to the Council’s progress and expansion. Leaders particularly honored the Council’s former co-chair, Tammy Fuqua, who then took the stage to movingly speak about her recent battle with cancer, encouraging all in attendance to get checked out.
Honoring one of the industry’s noted trailblazers, Mary Cook, who passed last year, AVIXA, NV5, and WAVIT collaborated to create a scholarship in her honor, and so the inaugural Mary Cook Empowerment Scholarship was presented to Alexandra Garip of AVI-SPL.
Following a video introduction from a lifelike AI avatar of herself, Russell took the stage to deliver her keynote on Responsible AI, sharing her personal journey and how she drew on her experience as a mother of six, including a special needs child, to help influence development of AI-based technologies like Amazon Alexa. A recurring theme throughout her often amusing and inspiring tales of working at Microsoft, Amazon, and elsewhere was the need for the teams developing AI systems to be inclusive in order to better reflect and answer end users’ needs.
Russell recounted how she was often the only woman and only Latina in the room in development meetings and was able to draw upon her background and needs to see aspects of technology implementations that others would have missed, such as taking it upon herself to develop now-popular mindfulness apps for Alexa. Emphasizing the need for intentional and ethical AI development, Russell closed on an inspirational note, encouraging the audience to “live with purpose and then hopefully enjoy it along the way.”