Highlights from Datacenter Changemakers Iceland

We highly recommend that all datacenter industry professionals follow the events and webinars of DATACENTER FORUM, the biggest community of datacenter professionals in the Nordics.  

The 2nd-annual edition of Datacenter Forum Reykjavík took place this fall, and we were of course joining in on the discussion and networking.  

You can access a recording of all sessions now on their webpage. We especially want to highlight the last episode of the day, where our CTO, Eyrún Linnet, participated in a panel discussing the challenges of attracting and retaining talent to the digital infrastructure sector, exploring diversity, inclusion and social governance.  

A statement that caught our attention is the fact that 90% of the global datacenter industry is male, which clearly shows the urgency of the topic but also that the opportunities to improve on diversity are huge.  

The key questions addressed in the panel were:  

• The industry needs more people to facilitate growth. How can we introduce the industry to a broader and more versatile group?
• How can we push for more women in tech and technical infrastructure? What needs to be done differently?
• What are the attributes companies look for in applicants who want to enter the industry?
• Are there specific challenges in Iceland?  

Some reflections from the session that are worth sharing once more and summarizing here:  

• It is incredibly important for women and men to take the stage, demonstrate activism, and drive diversity and inclusion in many ways to reach the 60% goal.
• We should look to industry sectors that have improved successfully on diversity in the past.  
• It´s not just about the sector upscaling constantly, but to take the opportunity to upscale yourself from your own biases.  
• Workplaces should emphasize inclusivity even in the hiring process.
• It´s important that the industry is adapted to be inclusive of people with different perspectives and skill sets.  
• Language inside the workplace matters. Make sure you and your colleagues use a language that is inclusive.  

Thank you for a hugely inspiring discussion and exchange; Bastiaan Janssen, Eyrún Linnet, Paula Gould and Sigríður Mogensen, for facilitating the Ask Me Anything discussion, and many thanks for inviting us to be a part of it!  

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