About 9 months after I returned home from the Richard Tapia conference, I began working at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). I was hired to do sys admin and web work. Every day was exciting because of the office buzz about the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC).
It was about 3 months before the conference would be unleashed on Chicago. I was told stories of how undergrads had come to previous conferences and landed great jobs from sponsoring companies. I was inspired and touched by stories of how women technologists of earlier generations were committed to GHC as a way of helping women in the ranks work their way up the leadership latter. It was so motivating to hear about how this conference, like any other, has a unique blend of technical talks and professional development. GHC sounded like a utopia where women could be women, and continue to wear their love of technology on their sleeves.
October comes and I secretly - until now, anyway ;) - wondered how much of what I heard was hype. After all, most of what I heard was from fellow staffers. Even IT nerds and do-gooders like us at ABI know a thing or two about marketing!
It is Thursday morning, the first plenary session of the conference. I look across a sea of women of different ages, technical interests and cultural backgrounds. They are attentive, excited, inspired, motivated. I felt an immediate connection to the group.
Like the Tapia conference, GHC felt like a second home. I had only been handed my ICS degree 5 months earlier, so I was new to the field. It did not matter.
I met students worried that they too were imposters – I reassured them *we* aren’t. We exchanged advice to one another on how to overcome the intimidation that comes with the fear.
I met professionals in industry and academia that faced challenges in taking their careers to the next level. I had the benefit of watching them swap strategies on how to navigate big and small organizations while growing their leadership.
I met HR and Diversity professionals from our sponsoring companies. They sought advice on how to attract and keep more women in their organizations. They expressed their commitments to diversity in the workplace, and even found quite a few good hires over the course of three days.
Best of all, I talked shop with everyone I could. Technologies surrounding internet security issues particularly captured my attention that year. I walked away just a tiny bit smarter and it felt good.
So, no, it was not hype. I came to experience GHC as the home it has become for many women in computing. For this reason, 3 years later, just under 90 days until the next Tapia and GHC I am looking forward to going home. And this time I can bring my big kid because we got childcare!
Is the Tapia conference or GHC like going home for you? Contact us We’d love to hear your story.
(This post is part 2 of 2 of Finding a Place in the World of Computing. Read part 1)