A nautically themed report on the exquisitely organised event by ECU’s Women in Engineering (WiE)
On Tuesday Jun-10, WISE Task Force members, Sarolta Pudney and Dave Flanery represented WISE at Edith Cowan University’s Women in Engineering (WiE) networking cruise. Dave reports below.
As the cool evening breeze drifted across Perth’s newly revamped Elizabeth Quay, cruise-goers were warmly welcomed by WiE’s executives. The evening kicked off with a welcome speech by WiE President, Breanna Cameron. After an icebreaker, the cruise roared into full steam with enthusiastic networking between students, recent graduates and industry professionals.
The engineering students’ backgrounds were a mix of civil, mechanical, electrical, mechatronic and computer science – all poised and ready to get started in the subsea industry! Despite the alluring sweets table and sea-legs bar, WISE members stayed on task to encourage the young women (girls?) of WiE to pursue exciting careers in the subsea energy sector.
As the evening rolled on, the event’s main sponsor, Defence Force Recruiting, provided an all-female group of presenters to inspire attendees to try a career in an industry dominated by males – brave women indeed. With the theme communication, their stories included personal motivations and the challenges they faced pursuing their dreams. Parallels to subsea energy abound.
We met so many bright, enthusiastic students, who promise to stay engaged with WISE in the months to come as they near graduation and beyond.
David Flanery is Business Development Manager for Deepwater Australasia, a specialist in subsea installation and corrosion control, he also sits on the Subsea Energy Australia board and is an active task force member for WISE.
