Tarah Wheeler

Despite various noble initiatives designed to inspire girls to seek careers in the STEM fields, women are still vastly outnumbered by men—and the disparity is only getting worse. To Tarah Wheeler, women don’t need more inspiration—they already love science! But they do need help dismantling widespread and insidious discrimination: forces that mean ‘diversity’ looks like one token woman amid scores of men; that mean women make much less than their male peers; and that ensure they rarely ascend to the same level of influence.

This isn’t the result of some conspiracy, Tarah Wheeler argues—rather, it’s a larger problem of unconscious social biases that companies rarely confront, and can barely resolve, beyond the safest initiatives. So, in this large-hearted, emboldening talk, Wheeler shows students, professionals, associations, and companies how to fight for meaningful gender equality at work. For women in particular, she outlines tools to succeed where it counts the most: the paycheck. With advice on salary negotiation, when to change careers, how to mentor others or start a business, balance family matters, and even how to best format resumes or ace interviews, Wheeler lays out practical advice for anyone, no matter where they are on the corporate ladder. And, with stories from her own successful career, she explains the many doors in and out of tech: how those in marketing, art, programming, English, mathematics and more can find meaningful work in an enormous industry. 

It’s time to stop watching women get sidelined, stuck, or overlooked in tech, and time to let them bring their wealth of creativity and innovation to the field—at all levels of influence. 

Reports of cybersecurity leaks—and major scandals—have dominated headlines for years. But for many of us, protecting information still seems like someone else’s problem—and job. If this sounds familiar, ask yourself: do you have a comprehensive plan in place to protect your most important assets? If something goes wrong, how will you react, put out fires, and recover lost trust? Have you considered the consequences of information falling into the wrong hands in 10, 20, 30, or 40 years?

Tarah Wheeler has made a career out of advancing the public’s understanding of cybersecurity. At Symantec, she worked as the principal security advocate and senior director of engineering—and even edited the volume Website Security Threats for Dummies. In this talk, she brings depth, warmth, and sparkling humor to an otherwise complex, but necessary, subject. From learning the fundamentals of cryptocurrency to how the Internet of Things might provide a gateway to hackers, absorbing how a robust cybersecurity plan operates to covering security at live events, Wheeler offers a razor-sharp breakdown of what you need to know—and do—to protect yourself, your partners, and your clients.