More than 250 Technology & Operations and Actuarial & Analytics employees joined a recent speed networking event hosted by Travelers’ internal professional business groups EmpowHER+ and Women in Actuarial & Analytics (WIAA) for employees across the Tech & Analytics organizations.

The virtual event created a networking opportunity between employees and Travelers’ senior leaders to promote collaboration, while enhancing personal and professional growth through upskilling and continuous learning.

“Learning and development are a crucial part of our culture at Travelers,” said Tracey Cournoyer, Vice President, Data Engineering, Enterprise Data & Analytics. “As a leader, it’s important for me to enable and encourage networking opportunities like this for our employees’ career development.”

Participants joined virtual “round robin” rooms with nearly 40 Travelers leaders from all businesses and disciplines and had the opportunity for introductions and question and answer sessions.

“I appreciate the chance to learn from other Travelers employees and the work they and their organizations do,” said Tracy Patterson, Director, Middle Market Field Operations. “An event like this helps me get a broader view of what is happening around the company. Networking is a very important part of career development.”

Networking opportunities like these allow employees with different responsibilities and duties to connect to gain new insights and a better understanding of how to succeed.

“This event provided access to our most senior leaders, along with an opportunity to meet and learn more about peers and partners,” Steve Palasek, Vice President, Engineering Infrastructure & Cloud Services said. “Networking opportunities like this show that senior leadership is invested in us. They are there to guide, but also learn and listen, which is empowering to the broader organization.”

The overall goal with this event was to go beyond typical networking opportunities and hopefully open the door for employees to connect with leaders and each other further.

“Chatting with leaders from across the company helped boost my own happiness as an employee,” said Hakema Hussein, Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics. “It was fun and the experience motivated me to achieve more career goals.”

EmpowHER+ is a Technology & Operations group designed to inspire women to achieve their full career potential and drive business outcomes for Travelers. WIAA is an enterprise-wide professional business group whose mission is to increase the influence of actuarial and analytic women at Travelers by enhancing culture and fostering business development.