I hope your new year has started off to an optimistic note. I am sure you will agree with me when I said that last year was full of global women on the rise in our 2019 Year end Newsletter, with lots of progress made in both the workforce and the entrepreneurial space. We also reported that our pioneering Women-in Tech program , Miss.Africa Digital for 2019 had an outreach in 12 African countries and we shall keep firing up and expanding our territories to empower women and girls.
There are plenty of reasons to believe 2020 will continue this in force, as we see more even females entrepreneurs on the rise. We are at a unique point of transition and many of the hurdles experienced by women are going to be a thing of the past, meaning the universe is aligning to our favor. The workforce and the entrepreneurial platforms are becoming increasingly diverse as more women, including women of color, seek to make their visions a reality and capitalize on it.
Women – especially women of color, who have been #hiddenfigures j ust like the four trailblazers; Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, called “human computers ” did the complex calculations that made space travel possible and paved the way for women of color to make history in fields including science, math, and technology.
Today we have many “hidden figures” who would include many African women, which need to be discovered. It could be our moms, sisters, daughters or colleagues.Despite, as we move forward, there are also t he obvious challenges which women have to focus on and try to overcome: Doing it all yourself – working smart not hard , investing in support network, and Work-life-balance, which I advocated for in my 2019 New Year’s newsletter .
While the gender gap is evolving, women have to be cognizant of these challenges and change attitudes and habits to adapt and innovate with impact and purpose. Thus, continue to #InnovateYou . Look around you, what can you give an innovative touch?
2020 is all about soaring higher and doing the “undoable” therefore, our theme this year is ‘A new way of empowering -Impact and purpose’. Make 2020 work for you!
Thank you for being part of it all, lets walk this space together with confidence and resilience.
Our 2020 Tech Forecast
2019 brought along several developments and innovations, albeit with some cyber security challenges on the side. Indeed internet of Things (IoT) remains the ever present opportunity. It is the gift that keeps on giving.
Technovation of the Health sector seems to be the heavy focus for 2020, which is welcome. This very key industry that saves humanity has been on the last mile in advance in the digital revolution. The other is the decentralization of the financial currency through the growing influence of the growing but misunderstood crypto and block chain economy.
These are some of our predictions to watch out for:
- The workspace as we know it will evolve with A.I. and automation software taking over some jobs.
- The rise and rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
- 5G development and adoption will continue and the vulnerabilities of IoT as a net effect.
- Organizational focus on the security of cloud apps and systems.
- Fintech prioritization on financial health, with a more holistic view of customer experiences.
- Innovation of the gig economy continues.
- Will multicloud become reality?
- Mobile money will continue its pervasiveness.
- Cryptocurrency will fight for its relevance.
- Focus on reduction of data costs will rise.
- Voice assistants profiferation to more devices.
What will continue: Focus on the growth of Women in the tech industry & workforce, block chain startups, cryptocurrency, cyber attacks especially on cloud and smart phones, investments on quantum computing.
What will be challenged:
AI and ML negative effects, Censorship, Big Data breaches Facial Recognition technologies, mis-information and deep fakes.
What will be on the rise:
Self-awareness on personal data by end users, ethics, morality and accountability in businesses and politics, flat organizations, an inclusive society model, on-demand Internet streaming services, biometric data driving more wearables.