{"id":153306,"date":"2020-06-10T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=153306"},"modified":"2020-06-10T06:24:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T11:24:45","slug":"ictp-109-preparing-thrive-future-gig-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2020\/06\/ictp-109-preparing-thrive-future-gig-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"ICTP 109:  Preparing to thrive in the future gig economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The gig economy is a growing segment of the workforce, and thanks to COVID-19, it is likely to become even more crucial. In an online panel discussion with: Therese Turner-Jones, of the Inter-American Development Bank; Melissa Sassi, of IBM; Nadeen Matthews-Blair, of the National Commercial Bank Jamaica ; and Juleen Gentles, of the University of Technology, to commemorate International Girls in ICT Day 2020, the panel shares tips and advice on how to thrive in the gig economy, and how to keep more female talent in the tech workforce.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/837407191&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;\"><a style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" title=\"ICT Pulse Podcast\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-673719274\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ICT Pulse Podcast<\/a> \u00b7 <a style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" title=\"ICTP 109: Preparing to thrive in the future gig economy\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-673719274\/ictp-109-preparing-to-thrive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ICTP 109: Preparing to thrive in the future gig economy<\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong>This episode is also available in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/ict-pulse-podcast\/id1373550291\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/playmusic.app.goo.gl\/?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&amp;isi=691797987&amp;ius=googleplaymusic&amp;apn=com.google.android.music&amp;link=https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/m\/Icau5acn2xiyl5yjuh7orl2mt54?t%3DICT_Pulse_Podcast%26pcampaignid%3DMKT-na-all-co-pr-mu-pod-16\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Play Music<\/a> and on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/ict-pulse-podcast?refid=stpr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stitcher<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The gig economy is not new, but has become increasingly crucial, as organisations continue to appreciate the value and benefit of hiring individuals with specialist expertise execute specific tasks as or when needed. Thanks to technology, particularly the Internet, both the hiring entity and the individual have greater flexibility and control in the workplace, which not only benefits the bottom line for organisations, but also fosters greater work-life balance among gig workers.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, education has moved online, and we are called to invest in our future by up-skilling and by actively engaging in continued professional development, in order to stay relevant. Further the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace and the future of work should not be underestimated, as it has forced organisations to not only better leverage technology, but also to streamline their operations \u2013 including their workforce \u2013 in order to have a chance of surviving the economic downturn that has already begun.<\/p>\n<p>However, many of us are still holding on to the workplace practices 20 and 50 years ago, although it is changing right before eyes. <strong><em>Preparing to Thrive in the Future Gig Economy<\/em><\/strong> was the theme of one of the online panel discussions held on 23 April to commemorate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/en\/ITU-D\/Digital-Inclusion\/Women-and-Girls\/Girls-in-ICT-Portal\/Pages\/Portal.aspx\">International Girls in ICT Day<\/a>, which had been organised by Nicole Pitter-Patterson, and the team at Caribbean Girls Hack. The discussion was recorded and is now available for further listening here, on the ICT Pulse Podcast.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Introducing the Panelists<\/h3>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"153338\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2020\/06\/ictp-109-preparing-thrive-future-gig-economy\/2020-girls-in-ict-day-panelists-ttjmsnmbjg\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Girls-in-ICT-Day-Panelists-TTJMSNMBJG.jpg?fit=1024%2C335&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1024,335\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"2020 Girls in ICT Day Panelists (TTJ,MS,NMB,JG)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Girls-in-ICT-Day-Panelists-TTJMSNMBJG.jpg?fit=300%2C98&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Girls-in-ICT-Day-Panelists-TTJMSNMBJG.jpg?fit=1024%2C335&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-153338\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fgd.dfv.mybluehost.me\/.website_c81a1e61\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Girls-in-ICT-Day-Panelists-TTJMSNMBJG.jpg?resize=1024%2C335&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Girls-in-ICT-Day-Panelists-TTJMSNMBJG.jpg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Girls-in-ICT-Day-Panelists-TTJMSNMBJG.jpg?resize=300%2C98&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Girls-in-ICT-Day-Panelists-TTJMSNMBJG.jpg?resize=768%2C251&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/therese-turner-jones-17561819\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Therese Turner-Jones<\/a><\/strong> is the General Manager of the Country Department Caribbean Group (CDCG) of the IDB. The countries covered by the CDCG are the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, and via the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Originally from the Bahamas, Therese has been the CDCG General Manager since 2013, and would have been at the helm of many of the recent initiatives of the IDB in the Caribbean region. She thus fully appreciates the importance of ICT, generally, and in driving the economic and social development of the region.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/melissasassi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Melissa Sassi<\/a><\/strong> is the Global Head of IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator, which is focused on empowering early-stage startups through technology and business acceleration. She is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MentorNations, a youth-led digital skills movement that seeks to empower underserved communities to transform their lives through technology, and has taught tens of thousands of young people to code across twelve countries. Melissa is also the Chair of the Digital Intelligence initiative Working Group of Institute of the Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and is a Founding Member of the Coalition for Digital Intelligence.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/nadeenmatthews\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nadeen Matthews Blair<\/a><\/strong> is the Chief Digital and Marketing Officer of NCB Jamaica, and is also the Chief Executive Officer of the NCB Foundation. As the Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, Nadeen spearheads the Bank\u2019s digital transformation programme; and through the NCB Foundation, she aims to provide meaningful opportunities in areas such as education, community development\/sports, and youth leadership\/entrepreneurship. Nadeen has a Master&#8217;s of Business Administration from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, and graduated cum laude from Binghamton University with a Bachelor of Science in Financial Economics.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/juleenkgentles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juleen Gentles<\/a><\/strong> is a final year Computing student at the University of Technology, Jamaica. She is an advocate for both women and the black community in technology, and has worked with regional social enterprises such as Youth Can Do IT and Caribbean Girls Hack to empower and enable others to be not only consumers of digital content, but also creators. Her work and mission has been acknowledged by entities such as Microsoft Windows Insider, the International Telecommunications Union, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and Huawei Technologies, to name a few. She is also a is a public speaker and storyteller, who is deeply inspired by her heritage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Key discussions points<\/h3>\n<p>Although the focus of the discussion was the gig economy, in light of the fact that it was also International Girls in ICT Day, we also had to focus on one of the longstanding challenges in the tech space: how to keep more female talent in the tech workforce. So in addition to that topic, we also sought to address the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are some of the key skills and tools that are essential for success in the gig economy?<\/li>\n<li>How are recent university graduates approaching work and the workplace?<\/li>\n<li>And, going forward, how should we position ourselves for the gig economy?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We would love to hear from you!<\/p>\n<p>Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ICTPulse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ict-pulse-consulting-limited\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a> pages, or via Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ICTPulse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>@ICTPulse<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Select links<\/h3>\n<p>Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/therese-turner-jones-17561819\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Therese Turner-Jones<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/melissasassi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Melissa Sassi<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/nadeenmatthews\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nadeen Matthews-Blair<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/juleenkgentles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juleen Gentles<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/nicole-pitter-patterson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nicole Pitter Patterson<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iadb.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Inter-American Development Bank<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IBM<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mentornations.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MentorNations<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jncb.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Commercial Bank (NCB) Jamaica<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ncbfoundation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NCB Foundation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.utechjamaica.edu.jm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University of Technology, Jamaica<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/en\/ITU-D\/Digital-Inclusion\/Women-and-Girls\/Girls-in-ICT-Portal\/Pages\/Portal.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">International Girls in ICT Day<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cgirlzhack\/\">Caribbean Girls Hack<\/a><\/li>\n<li>ICT Pulse Podcast episode, <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2YrRIr5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>ICTP 066: Tech innovation and disruption at the National Commercial Bank Jamaica, with Nadeen Matthews-Blair<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li>ICT Pulse Podcast episode, <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2G87pJE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>ICTP 063: ICT in the Caribbean \u2013 from a donor agency\u2019s perspective, with Therese Turner-Jones of the Inter-American Development Bank<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ycdi.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Youth Can Do I.T.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Image credits:\u00a0 Gerd Altmann (<a href=\"http:\/\/pixabay.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pixabay<\/a>);\u00a0 IDB; M Sassi; NCB; J Gentles<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Music credit:\u00a0 Ray Holman<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The gig economy is a growing segment of the workforce, and thanks to COVID-19, it is likely to become even more crucial. In an online panel discussion with: Therese Turner-Jones, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[355],"tags":[71,40,32,50,223],"class_list":["post-153306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-businesses","tag-expertise-hr","tag-information-society","tag-productivity","tag-women","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/We-are-hiring-job-notice-geralt-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-DSG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153306"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153341,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153306\/revisions\/153341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}