Our amazing ambassadors Kay Chopard, Helen Chua, and Mei-Lin Ooi represented Women In Identity at ID Week Asia earlier this month! They did an amazing job at presenting our ID Code of Conduct, and spreading awareness about our research. As a result, many new members signed up and we hit the 3000 members mark! Continue reading to hear all about Helen & Kay’s experience at ID Week Asia.
Kay:
This year for the first time, Identity Week Asia, highlighted women in the Identity industry. They rolled out their theme of Transformative Women as an overall goal for the conference. They also put out several community poster boards to gather input on how to take this important theme and move it forward. The Women in Identity members present provided most of the input to the conference organisers for things they could be doing now and in the future to promote Transformative Women in digital identity. We look forward to seeing what their next steps will be and collaborating with them to make this a priority.
Women in Identity has an ambitious mission to gather the ecosystem around the challenge of ID Exclusion. Part of this work is raising awareness globally. Different markets are at different stages in acknowledging and understanding the problem of ID Exclusion, which impact people from all walks of life, all genders, all nationalities. It is a universal problem no nation or company has managed to solve. Part of this work is our research - the ID Code of Conduct - which is increasingly the focus of international industry events like ID Week Asia.
Helen:
ID week Asia was such a great event this year with a good turnout of more than 2000 people. WiD was well featured with a booth, a speaking slot where we could proudly present our ID code of conduct, a roundtable and a couple of panel speaking engagements. We were able to discuss topics like contactless biometrics, onboarding, and identity verification. In each of our discussions, we emphasised the message that diversity is an important element for an all inclusive solution and invited organisations to support us and those who believe in our cause to join us so there will be a voice in their organisations.
During the 2 days, we had many like-minded professionals show up at our booths to join us as members. So today we are proud to say we have passed the 3000 member mark!
Kay:
Kay explained that our SE Asia market is not at the level of maturity on ID inclusion unlike the US, Canada, EU and UK markets. That would have explained the lower membership in this region. But the market is getting more aware in this area and more are willing to join us to speak up for the cause. The market is also very small compared to any other country.
With the low maturity in ID Inclusion,, it will take a while for local organisations to support our mission. And like what Kay said, hopefully members will get informed through our newsletters and website and over time hopefully their organisations will join and sponsor us.
Most people, especially men at the event, think women in identity is only for women. Kay and I had to explain why it's called women in identity and everybody can join to promote our vision.
Women in Identity supports everyone who is ID Excluded.
Helen:
Personally as a WiD representative, I have enjoyed meeting people from all over the world and talking about their diverse experiences and their views on the topic of identity. The interesting thing is we discussed the identity of individuals, we also realise that it's important to identify organisations that we deal with. So it's not just about the identity of people but the identity of organisations as well. It's a very refreshing and humbling experience for me as there is so much to learn from these people who come from different backgrounds and cultures.
We do want to thank one of our sponsors iProov for helping with our booth while we were away at our speaking engagements and taking breaks. We are privileged to have Kay fly all the way from the US to attend this event with us. Both iProov and Kay's support was invaluable.
Want to get involved? Does your organisation have a Code of Conduct? Join our amazing Sponsors in supporting this ground-breaking work. Find out more about our research and how to sponsor here: https://www.womeninidentity.org/cpages/code-of-conduct