Each day during Grace Hopper Celebration 2021, I will send out a personal email. Below is the content of Day 1. Subscribe below to get these delivered directly to your inbox.

Or, better yet, sign up for my 5 day Build Your BRAVE intensive to turn the inspiration of #vGHC2021 into real-world impact.

Grace Hopper Celebration 2021 promises to have way more content that any one person can experience. To help elevate our shared experience, I’ll be sending daily emails with what I attended, my biggest A-HA moments, and what I’m looking forward to on the next day. 

What I attended

Your AnitaB.org Premium Membership: From Women Who Code to Women Who Make a Difference, Kirsten Rider

If you aren’t familiar with the AnitaB membership program and how much is offered to members, *run* to this session. You’ll also see a picture of yours truly. I will speak at the sponsor hall, membership booth on Tuesday 10:30 MDT.

Crossing the Chasm: Making the Leap to the C-Suite

Even if the C-Suite is of zero interest to you, please make time to listen to Mrs. Kendall Holbrook’s personal story, the power of mentoring and coaching, and saying yes way before you feel you are ready. She specifically mentions coaching as a success lever and I absolutely agree.

Maker Magic: Design a Blueprint for Community Tech Empowerment

Listen to all three presenters have a wild variety of ways they use technology to improve the world, from women with disabilities to tenant rights in New York City. Then get hyper-inspired for how you can use your skills in your own unique way.

Enabling Cooperative Behaviors in Multiplayer Games Using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Full transparency: I don’t play video games. They stress me the F out. But I am surrounded by people who do and the culture is disgusting in multiplayer games, especially very large multiplayer games. So I was drawn to this session. And the speakers did not disappoint.

Whodunit? Investigating a Cyber Incident in 22 Minutes or Less

The three presenters work in this space, simplify what an incident can actually create, and show how it doesn’t have to be scary or threatening. Cybersecurity is a huge growth field. If you are at all interested, check this one out.

Open Source as a Service to Modernize Health Care

This session is very specific and worth the few truth bombs shared. My favorite is, “People don’t scale, technology does.”

How Women Grow: Develop Your Personal Brand

With love and appreciation to the speakers, I wasn’t a huge fan of the overall approach to identifying and then sharing your personal brand. I make this effort much simpler for my clients. That said, the three speakers brought in their own style which is very beneficial and share specific questions that can help you get deeper into your personal brand.

My Biggest A-Ha

Our stories matter and are the best gift we can give fellow women in tech.

Mrs. Kendall Holbrook’s session, Crossing the Chasm: Making the Leap to the C-Suite, was filled with excellent reminders about building relationships, mentoring, coaching, and saying yes before you are ready. 

And the absolutely most valuable, inspiring, happy-kick-in-the-pants was her story. She was very generous in sharing not just what shows up on her resume but what she experienced in her heart and in her mind. 

I listened to her personal story twice – it was that good. Because our stories matter. They inspire and uplift. Often, what we see becomes what we believe. 

It is the reason I started my podcast Celebrate BRAVE so that I could share stories from women in tech all over the world. 

So go, share your story. Inspire others. There is at least one other person who needs to know that what you have achieved and experienced is an option for them too. 

What I’m Looking Forward To 

I’ll be at the AnitaB membership booth at 9:30 PST & am so excited to experience instant and unplanned exchange. 

I’m also looking forward to: 

• Integrating Ethics and Responsibility in the Product Development Cycle 
• Making a PACT to Slow COVID-19: Technology for a Public Health Emergency
• Creating Accessible and Inclusive Digital Content: Best Practices and Examples