23-25 April 2024
Virtual & In-Person*
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Megs
Shah
CEO of Parasol Cooperative | Global Head of Commercial Data and Analytics Capability at CSL Group
"Pandemic, Passion and Purpose: A story about building tech 2 protect victims of abuse & what you can do to drive large scale impact and change in your orgs"
"Pandemic, Passion and Purpose: A story about building tech 2 protect victims of abuse & what you can do to drive large scale impact and change in your orgs"
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Session: Pandemic, Passion and Purpose: A story about building tech 2 protect victims of abuse & what you can do to drive large scale impact and change in your orgs
In March 2020 when we all heard “Stay Home. Stay Safe.” For survivors that message was the most frightening thing they could hear… their first thought? “What if home isn’t a safe place?”Domestic violence was dubbed the shadow pandemic where globally the UN noted an increase of 25% in domestic abuse and in some countries that number jumped with calls to police upwards of 50-60%. In her research, Adiel Kaplan of NBC News, found calls to domestic abuse support organizations were short and frantic due to the fear of getting caught. The Marshall Report and several news sources have reported that as many as 50% of cases are unreported due to this fear amongst other reasons such as language, cultural and societal pressures, and isolation, which the pandemic exasperated.
This past couple of years have brought on unprecedented change and domestic violence organizations struggled to implement new technology and ways of working with little or no ways to collaborate outside of their organizations, banking on previous relationships or coalition meetings to collaborate and triage overflow of requests from survivors.
As entrepreneurs who have firsthand experience with the effects of abuse, Megs and Fairuz, co-founders of Parasol Cooperative, set out to research and identify the biggest challenges faced by survivors and organizations that could be solved through technology by harnessing its power to serve the most vulnerable populations. This Ted talk style presentation by Megs helps people understand how the pandemic, passion and purpose affected a change for victims of abuse by building technology that protects and how every organization can use a few key principles to drive such change within their organization and in their local communities.
Key Takeaways
- How organizations can use a few key principles outline in the talk to drive large change within their organization and in their local communities.
- How focusing on the end user, survivors in our case, can help you be in their shoes when solving problems using technology
- How we as women in technology can find and harness our passion for tech and purpose to solve complex problems can affect meaningful change in the world
- How to find your passion and purpose
Bio
Named as one of the seven Women in Science Worldwide leading the way through COVID-19 by UN Women, technology expert Megs Shah is an award-winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker and business strategist. With over 20+ years in corporate technology, leadership and finding unique ways to use technology to solve problems, her career expands over several industries including federal government, pharmaceutical, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, and finance. Megs worked her way up from an entry-level position to earn her seat at the C-Suite table. She is passionate about helping domestic violence and human trafficking organizations learn about the best uses of technology and the leadership strategies they need to accelerate their work of protecting people. This passion stems from her past personal experiences and is visible in her work and leadership at The Parasol Cooperative and at CSL where she is currently the Global Head of Data and Analytics across the CSL Group of Companies.