#systers

Rose Robinson is a Senior Manager, Community Engagement and Development at the Anita Borg Institute.  She wears many hats and has been to more GHCs than almost any other staff member.  You can chat more with Rose on twitter here.  Rose is pictured below (on the right), with Valerie Bubb-Fenwick.

Tips for Speakers

Speaking •        Speak clearly and be mindful of your pace •        Pause between transitions •        Explain acronyms •        Careful with transitions •        Repeat questions and comments from audience

Presentations •        Say all text on your slides •        Include captions on videos or audios •        Describe your visuals •        Careful with colors for contrast  

[2] Help a Syster out! Well, you know that’s my language, but there are many introverts that attend GHC.  If you see someone lost or not talking to anyone, reach out to them.  Introduce yourself to the people you sit by in a session.

[3] Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts, accomplishments, and challenges because there will be someone that can relate to you. Who knows, you may just help someone in the process. Get into the conversation. We don’t do this work alone. We can’t do this work alone.

You Won’t Want to Miss [1] Community Track. Hear from our Systers (who), what we’re doing to help women in tech and bring change to various global communities, where are Systers are helping from, and why this work is important to us and tech industry.

[2] Systers started open source day at 2010 GHC Atlanta and we’ve grown this program to help both women and men looking to improve their development skills. Women and men both apply to our programs because of our projects, the technology and how we are impacting local communities with our partnership with Peace Corps.

[3] Systers will be celebrating 30th anniversary in 2017. We’re looking for Systers for celebration committee. And looking for others to join Systers in celebrating not only our anniversary but women in the industry.  Send me a tweet if you’re interested in joining the committee.

[4] An interesting track is Her Stories: Inspirations From Past Tech Leaders in Tech. We hear about Grace Hopper, Anita Borg and others, but with this track, BlackWiC, IndianWiC, ChineseWiC, FilipinasIC and TurkishWiC tell stories about their inspiring women from our/their communities.

Learning something new is always daunting. Entering a new field having just learnt a new skill is intimidating. How do you sell yourself when you feel you’re just a prototype, an MVP? I don’t know exactly how I am going to do this, but luckily I have my Systers to help.

A couple of days ago I attended a Systers meetup at Thoughtworks. It was run by the wonderful ladies from the US team. I had heard of Systers, the Anita Borg Institute and the Grace Hopper Celebration from my Twitterers across the pond. I had always assumed it was a US-centric thing. But not for much longer!

It looks like they are breaking out of the US and forming local groups to support systers world-wide. What excites me about this move is the inclusion of not just programmers or women in the tech industry but women in STEM. It’ll be great to get advice from women in many fields and at different stages of their career. It is exactly what I need right now.

A major benefit of being in the systers circle is knowing which companies value women in the workplace by partnering with them. For me, that’s a great place to start when deciding where to begin my career as a fully fledged programmer. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Thoughtworks have signed up to work with the systers network and it looks like they will be hosting events.