Summary by Linda Alepin

• Ever walk into a room where the energy was palpable?
• Ever spend an entire day in far-ranging, free and open communication with colleagues you respect and trust?
• Ever know that you were present at the birth of something vital, special, and important?

If you were one of the 80 women at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology Leadership Summit on October 6, 2004 in Chicago , then you have had all three experiences.

On the day before the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, the Anita Borg Institute sponsored a senior women leadership summit that encouraged each participant to speak outrageously about their visions and to initiate powerful actions. Given that the life we lead as individuals, and even more so as leaders, is a direct function of the conversations we dwell in, the opportunity to come together and speak about the future is fundamental to making almost impossible dreams come true.

Creating a Vision

The participants were asked to generate a generous listening for each other throughout the day. They were encouraged to think big, be bold, and move beyond the edges of any "boxes" that were limiting their thinking.

The visions created by these women - whether they were from industry or academia - were bonded by their common passion for the potential of women and technology. While the visions covered a broad range of subjects, they sang in harmony. Here are some samples of the work of the day:

My vision is to:

• Lead an IT organization, both leaders and staff, that is fully energized and engaged in applying technology to make a positive impact on the Girl Scout Movement and its members, especially the girls.
• Create a University with no "Faculties" where students and faculty members can pursue their learning and creativity without artificial boundary restrictions.
• Have the best-positioned, brightest, and most influential people in the United States place enormous value on science, math, technology, truth, knowledge, and depth.
• Hear the US President declare that we are going to create a post-petroleum society before one is forced upon us.
• Be a key driver in helping to shape the future of computer science where it becomes a fundamental part of all curricula as a foundation for learning - it becomes the new liberal arts degree!
• Make the "engineering college" open to a more diverse population (students, faculty, and administration). Break away from engineering stereotypes in educational and research models as well as rewards structures.
• Have computing and communications technologies improve the lives of all people in the world, not just the top 10%.

From Vision to Action

As futurist Joel Barker once said, "Vision without action is only a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."

The rest of the "all too short day" (as some said in their feedback) was spent in small groups working to take the visions from almost impossible to specific, definitive actions. While challenged by having breakout rooms on a different floor than the main group facility, the participants outlined hundreds of possibilities for fulfilling their visions. They created quantifiable milestones and built pathways from the future back to the present. Finally, the next logical actions to take towards these visions were detailed and committed to.

Maria Klawe, Dean, Princeton ’s School of Engineering and Science, recently wrote of her progress on the initiative she invented that day - an Oprah show on "Rags to Success" stories of women in technology.

“This project is part of a broader effort to raise public awareness of the wonderful opportunities for everyone, and especially women and minorities, in computing and engineering careers. We are assembling a list of possible candidates that we hope to pitch to Oprah for a show that would highlight women for whom a computer science or engineering education or career provided a path from a challenging childhood to a successful adulthood.”

If you would like to be one of these candidates, please email a one to three page life’s story to Dr. Maria Klawe ( Klawe at princeton dot edu ) as soon as possible. The finalists will get the opportunity to appear live on Oprah!

So be watching to see the fulfillment of this vision that started on that eventful day in October.

Moving Ahead

October 6 was a special day, but, as all days, it was merely a limited point in time. The importance of the day will be proven out over a much longer period in the thinking, the relationships and the actions that started there. If only it were possible to trace all the outcomes from the day, what a beautiful tapestry one would be able to see. It would be a picture of women’s abilities to build the world they want to live in.

As Maya Angelou once said, "If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."

Or, perhaps collectively, the importance is evident in Hillary Clinton’s words - "The challenges of change are always hard. It is important that we begin to unpack those challenges that confront us and realize that we each have a role that requires us to change and become more responsible for shaping our own future."

Without the dedicated efforts of Fran Allen, Cindy Goral, Margo Seltzer, and Telle Whitney, this summit never would have come about. They are inspiring leaders whose visions of women’s futures in technology are to be applauded and supported.

Linda Alepin is CEO of Center for New Futures , a consulting company dedicated to supporting people who dare to shape the future. Center’s long relationship with the Anita Borg Institute goes back to Anita herself who once said, "In a session with Center, I started to think and speak about things that were wildly bigger than what I had previously considered."