Women in Tech Festival 2017 – Building the She-conomy

Zootopia, That’s the word that came to my mind when I spent two days at the She Economy event at Microsoft.

There were so many inspiring women out there that I’m afraid I won’t acknowledge all of them, but I’ll try my best to bring you a taste of the excitement that was in the air.

The first day included ten pitches that made me wonder what would happen if women lead the world? So many ideas to make the world a better place:

RideAlong – They developed a software tool that gives patrol officers key information about people with mental illness at the scene.

Court Buddy – To help you find a solo attorney to the court.

Keren Drexler from Sand Stone Diagnostics worked to improve male fertility, and made everybody laugh when she told us to to find more information at dontcookyourballs.com.

The event had three main parts aside from the pitches: 1. Panels 2. Power talk and workshop 3. Networking.

Let’s start with networking. Networking with only women felt so easy to me. One of them told us how she doesn't have photo on her linkedIn because her work day involves talking with customers on the phone, and she didn’t feel comfortable knowing that they would look her up on google, and we all understood. But this event wasn’t just small talk over lunch/coffee.They also gave us a link to Brella, and gave everyone the ability to request a short meeting with anyone that came to this event! How cool is that???

The panel was about all the things that we were worried about What to do with prejudice? And in general what to do about “What other people think about me”?

Nnena Ukaku said, don’t worry what other people think. If you pay attention to them you will hurt your efficiency. You might think that you’ve heard that before but hearing this from this special woman was inspiring.

They spoke about the power of mentoring and Janice Mcdonald said that it’s very hard to turn somebody down if they ask for ten minutes of your life. And asking for help is a strength!

For the women who want to start her own business, dream big and look for your fearless self (Just look at a picture of you when you were 8 yrs old ).

When you try to raise money it might be easier to attain from a woman because you feel like you already know her. But remember, said Holly Liu, that your first investor is the one who gives you the right feeling, someone so perfect that you can’t imagine choosing anyone else.

Shanna Tellerman shared a nice trick – always bring your executive team to the board meeting because they will feel that you are more and they will concentrate on the company's future. Shanna also said that she chooses teams by giving them a project and allowing them to work anonymously. That’s how she choose that best people without bias.

Some recommendation that I took away from this event:
A documentary – Time to choose
Watch Amy Cuddy on Ted talk about power posing
A book – “Feel the Fear and do it Anyway” by Susan Jeffers
And of course Samaira Mehta. If you haven’t heard about her yet please remember her name! This young girl gave an amazing presentation about diversity and gave us such inspiration that the future is female.

One last quote for today: “The most effective way to do it is to do it” Amelia earhart

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