What draws 16,000 guests from 83 countries to Houston, Texas, for Grace Hopper’s Celebration of Women in Computing? Surely, being part of a premier event for women in technology is part of the attraction. But there are other, more universal reasons; this year’s event renders a cardiogram of tech innovation’s beating pulse across many industries.

John Furrier (@furrier), Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) and Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), hosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, agreed that this year’s event focuses on companies needing to keep abreast of changing demographics in their workforces and customer bases.

This presents “an opportunity to use software to create a transformation in the actual companies themselves,” Furrier said. “It has nothing to do with hiring more women. It’s just a complete changeover on how we work, how we interact, what news we see, how social interaction happens.”

Grace Hopper’s centripetal swirl to tech’s center

Frick agreed that this year’s event isn’t just about women in tech, but holds that subject within a broader scope.

“We talk a lot about software eating the world and every company is a software company — well, you just have to come here to really see that,” he said. “Macy’s was mentioned in the keynote. Best Buy is here. State Farm Insurance; Deutsche Bank; Honeywell.”

Seeing is believing for future women in tech

Knight said she expects growing numbers of women in tech to set off a chain reaction. “It is so important for young women to look up to the rung on the ladder above them and see people who look like them and say, ‘Hey, I can do that. Look, she did that,'” she said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo by SiliconANGLE