I’m pleased to say that the venue for this year’s Ada Lovelace Day Live! event has now been confirmed! We will be holding our annual science cabaret at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London on the evening of 13 October.

Conway Hall is owned by Conway Hall Ethical Society and was first opened in 1929. The name was chosen in honour of Moncure Daniel Conway (1832 – 1907), anti-slavery advocate, out-spoken supporter of free thought and biographer of Thomas Paine.

The Hall now hosts a wide variety of lectures, classes, performances, community and social events. It is renowned as a hub for free speech and independent thought.

Conway Hall has a fantastic track record of hosting not just free speech, humanist and political events, but also tech events and, as such, their remit fits in very well with the work we’re doing here at Ada Lovelace Day.

“We are incredibly proud to be in a position to be one of the many splendid sponsors of this year’s Ada Lovelace Day,” said Dr. Jim Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of Conway Hall. “As a charity with a long pedigree of rational thought and supporting intellectual human endeavour, Conway Hall Ethical Society naturally aligns to many of the same principles of Ada Lovelace Day. However, as the day itself will no doubt make clear, there is much work to be done to make the future just as interesting!”

Conway Hall has a capacity of 400, and has recently been refurbished, so we are really looking forward to seeing you at this historic venue!

It’s still very early in the year for us, so we’ve a lot to organise and will be back in due course with more details of speakers and tickets.

We also still have some sponsorship packages for the event available, so if you’d like to support women in STEM by sponsoring one of the most exciting, enjoyable and educational events in the STEM calendar, please take a look at our prospectus and get in touch!

Guest post from Sarah Wilkin and Elizabeth McCarthy, University of Oxford

To launch the award-winning Engage: Social Media Michaelmas series hosted at the University of Oxford and celebrate this year’s Ada Lovelace Day (14th October), the Educational Enhancement team worked in partnership with staff from the Bodleian Libraries and Wikimedia UK to lead a wikipedia editathon. In line with the occasion, the day centred on enhancing online coverage of female contributions to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The afternoon began with a fascinating talk by Professor Ursula Martin about the history and work of Ada Lovelace and then continued with an engaging training session with three enthusiastic Wikimedia trainers. The event was well attended by staff and students from multiple departments across the University who all worked hard to enhance several articles on female scientists. Energy levels were maintained high by a delicious Ada themed cake which further contributed to what was an enjoyable and thoroughly productive afternoon of editing!

The Bodleian Libraries are planning a display of Ada Lovelace material as well as a number of related events for 2015, including an academic symposium and events exploring Ada’s contributions to music, mathematics, computing, popular culture and more.

Guest post by David Wells, Senior Lecturer, Secondary ITT, University of East London

Six female Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) student teachers lead an evening session to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day; Dana Addo, Jagdeep Matharu, Melissa Thomas, Hamda Ahmed and Sabrina Sahebdin.

They talked about Ada Lovelace and her later followers. They researched current female involvement in technology, giving an enlightening overview of their history.

Melissa and Dana pointed out that women hold only 28 % of IT jobs and discussed the possible Influences on this. They suggested that from their research it’s very strange because 92 % Year 5/6 girls enjoyed IT and 86% wanted to continue to study the subject in secondary school but only 3 wanted to undertake it as a job.

They had researched a range of initiatives to try to counteract the stereotyping of women in IT, including:

Geek gurl diaries: This is a website designed and managed by an ex UEL student IT teacher, Carrie Anne Philbin. She has set up a network for students and professionals and has written and published resources for teaching IT and Computing.

Following this Stacey Pogoda, a UEL Senior Lecturer in Gaming and Games Design, told her personal story and that of others who have been persecuted for being women in the field of IT and Gaming.

The trainees made a powerful case for using female role models when teaching classes about IT and Computer Science. They offered advice about how to encourage primary school girls to enjoy and take up the subject.

They finished by saying “We think making a difference begins at school.”