Speakers Announced for Women Who Code CONNECT 2018 Conference
Written by WWC Team
International Nonprofit’s Premiere Tech Event to Feature Keynotes and Workshops with Industry Leaders from VMware, Microsoft, Slack, Github, Twitter, eBay, PlayStation and Others
SAN FRANCISCO – April 19th, 2018 — Women Who Code (WWCode), the world’s largest and most active organization dedicated to supporting and inspiring women in tech, has released details about their upcoming CONNECT 2018 Conference. This includes a full list of keynotes and speakers, as well as sponsors and partners that will be joining with the international nonprofit to support their annual, premier tech event, which is taking place April 28th at Twitter HQ in SF.
Speakers for CONNECT this year include Pat P. Gelsinger, CEO at VMware, Lili Gangas, Chief Technology Community Officer at the Kapor Center, Sara Haider, Director, Product Management at Twitter, Duretti Hirpa, Senior Engineer, Integrations at Slack, Ryan Petersen, Founder & CEO at Flexport, Erika Kato, Engineering Manager at PlayStation, Alexandra Suich Bass, Media Editor at The Economist, and Regina Wallace-Jones, Chief of Staff, and Head of Seller Operations at eBay.
“I am very excited to participate in the WWCode CONNECT conference because I believe it’s important to continue to empower women in the tech industry,” said Erika Kato, Engineering Manager, PlayStation. “It’s important to see qualified and skilled women achieve and accomplish their goals. Not just to inspire us all, but also extend our creativity, for us all to move to that next level or start something new. WWCode allows us to see and think of these things, to support each other, and move forward together.”
Women Who Code CONNECT 2018 is made possible through the generosity of a number of sponsors. The event will be held at Twitter HQ, which has graciously agreed to open the full facilities of their offices to the conference. Other supporters include VMware, Nike, Walmart Labs, PlayStation, Ziff Davis, Hired, ThoughtWorks, LinkedIn, Capital One, Lily, Cloudflare, Dell, Yelp, Carbon Five, TIBCO, Oracle, DoorDash, Niantic, 4C, Auth0, FlexPort, Adobe, Google, SalesForce, Hackbright Academy, Accenture, ConsenSys, Ookla, and Indeed.
Sara Haider, Director, Product Management at Twitter, spoke about the importance of this conference, "In my career as an engineer and product leader, having strong women to look up to as mentors and peers has been incredibly important. These networks can be challenging to build, and events like WWCode CONNECT help establish and foster communities for women in engineering roles. The thoughtful discussions and collaboration planned during the event are a great way to inspire and equip more women leaders in our industry."
CONNECT 2018 is the flagship of a series of events that Women Who Code hosts annually to showcase cutting edge trends and topics in the world of technology. Others include WWCode CONNECT Bangalore, and the WWCode ATL We RISE Conference.
WWCode VP of Partnerships, Jennifer Tacheff said, “We are incredibly grateful to the sponsors and partners that have joined with us in support of CONNECT, Women Who Code's flagship developer conference. The speakers, partners, network leaders and members onsite at the event represent the best of the best in our community. These are the most innovative and influential tech leaders and companies in the industry and we couldn't do our incredible impactful work without their continued support."
About Women Who Code
Women Who Code (WWCode) is an international nonprofit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. WWCode is building a world where women are proportionally representative as technical leaders, executives, founders, VCs, board members and software engineers. The organization has executed more than 7,000 free events around the world, garnered a membership exceeding 137,000, and has a presence in 20 countries. Help empower even more women to advance in tech with the training and community they need to succeed by supporting WWCode. Learn more at womenwhocode.com.