Women in Cloud Summit, #SheSoars. Did you?

Simply Inspired. Amazed.

From all of us on the founding team, we felt like we really did soar. We hoped that we helped all of you to soar too. For myself, in moderating the event, a few words kept coming to mind. That I was simply inspired by all the great women and our male allies in the room. I was amazed at how this not only came together but by all of you in the room – from our speakers, sponsors, champions, volunteers, and participants. It may have taken all of us a few days to really take it in; it did for me.

What few words would you use to describe your experience?

If you couldn’t make the Summit or want to relive it again, check out some great highlights from Geek Wireand the wonderful summary from Jeff Shuey, a community blogger. Or We also captured as many great photos as we could. Browse through our library but also send us your own photos too and we can share them out.

We Want Your Feedback.

Without it, it’s harder to learn, grow and make changes for the better. If you attended the event, make your voice heard and take just a few minutes to complete our survey to give us some feedback. It’s not anonymous on purpose – make your voice heard. All of us at Women in Cloud take feedback with an open mind and welcoming spirit – just as you experienced during the Summit.

What’s Next?

More than one event, Women in Cloud is the start of an initiative and some call it a movement. We are living true to our core mission of driving Female Tech Entrepreneurship to access customers and investments through enterprise distribution channels to grow their business. Moreover, it is our deep intent to drive broad learning, partnerships and mentoring for women in cloud computing.

We have unique programs for each of you to participate in and contribute to, whether you came to the Summit or not. We want you, and as many women as possible, to take the 100 Cloud Commitment Pledge. Create a tribe to help women in cloud computing.

Here are opportunities that we discussed at the Summit to help get you started and share with your colleagues:

  • The Cloud Accelerator – We are open.  If you are an entrepreneur who needs access to Microsoft and HPE distribution engines to grow your business, please consider applying to the Accelerator. If you want to be a mentor to help women-led business in the Accelerator, express your interest here and we will follow up with you. 
  • Opportunity Circles – We heard you. There is a need for mentorship circles that advance opportunities and learning moments for women personally, for the career, technical, and business advancement. Please consider and in conjunction with some great community partners, we will launch the circles shortly. In the meantime, sign up our to keep up to date on all the news and events. 
  • Investor/Sponsor Opportunities – We need you.  Whether you are an Angel, VC, or individual investor. Consider helping sponsor women-led businesses in cloud computing. We will be soon providing details on the Sybilla Masters Fund and are working with local funding organizations to bring more opportunities. You can also look to directly sponsor, partner or host Women in Cloud programs and upcoming events.

 

Many of you already have your own ideas about great opportunities – share them with us. We want to help you realize them as best as we can. Thank you to you and to everyone who helped make this initiative and the inaugural Summit possible. We will leave you with this, which were among the best phrases we heard that morning:

“Make your voice heard, claim your space and act.”

Every story has a beginning, here’s ours.

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Why should I attend Women in Cloud Summit?

With just a few weeks left until the big day of the Women in Cloud summit, we’re excited to share a great line up of topics intended for women embarking in the cloud.  We expect the summit to generate great discussions while also creating community among the technology leading women attending.

Can you relate to any of these scenarios?

  • You have an idea for a technical solution, but you don’t know where to begin.
  • You’ve been working on a technical solution, but you don’t know how to develop your solution in the cloud.
  • You’re ready to bring your solutions to market, but you don’t know how to mitigate risks, find partners to work with, or how to develop a go-to-market plan.
  • You have tried connecting with traditional technical and business communities, however, you have not found support for the types of challenges women often face.
  • You keep hearing about the technology and business opportunities, but you don’t know how you can take advantage of them.
  • You have a technical background and you wish to refresh your training and orientation for the Cloud.

If any of these scenarios sound familiar to you, Women in Cloud could be a great resource for you.

You can check out the full event line up on the Women in Cloud summit website.

Join us at the Women in Cloud Summit

Our first community summit is January 19, 2018, hosted at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond.  This gathering kicks off the first of a series of community building activities which will include topics on business leadership, technical cloud innovations, and community building topics.  You can view the agenda for the event here.

The Women in Cloud Summit runs 8:30 am-12:00 pm and registration are $99.  Use offer code “WIC2018” and receive 25% discount until Jan 15th, 2018 date.   Capacity is limited and tickets will be honored first come, first served.  You can find the link to register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-cloud-inaugural-summit-tickets-38759155678

We look forward to seeing you!

#NoCeilingsintheCloud , #WomeninCloud, #shesoars

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I know technology, but how do I know I’m ready for the cloud?

Opportunities in the Cloud will exceed $300B by 2020 according to IDC from infrastructure technology spending alone.  Adding other areas of digital innovation including quantum computing, ambient technology, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence extends the technology opportunity into multi-trillions of dollars with vast, ever-changing societal and economic impact.  This shift is also referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  According to Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, “In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society.”

The opportunities in the cloud are impressive and daunting.  To ensure women are at the forefront of this tectonic shift, Women in Cloud wants to ensure women technology leaders and innovators are well prepared and Cloud Ready.   What does it mean to be Cloud Ready?  It means that you and your business have the ability to generate new customers and recurring revenue, you can stay ahead of the curve and offer solutions that meet demand and scale easily, and a framework for strategic technical and business investments to build a repeatable, highly profitable cloud practice.

The Women in Cloud summit is a great starting point offering a community of women to turn to for support, guidance, resources—all with a technical and business-building orientation. In addition to the summit, Women in Cloud is sponsoring an Accelerator Lab for chosen candidates who will participate in an intensive technical and business building program—all designed to take technology ideas from design to market ready.  Imagine what you could do with the support of a community of women leaders who guide your steps in taking your great ideas forward.  For more information visit https://www.womenincloud.com/accelerator and apply.

Join us at the Women in Cloud Summit

Our first community summit is January 19, 2018, hosted at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond.  This gathering kicks off the first of a series of community building activities which will include topics on business leadership, technical cloud innovations, and community building topics.  You can view the agenda for the event here.

The Women in Cloud Summit runs 8:30 am-1:00 pm and registration are $99.  Use offer code “WIC2018” and receive 25% discount until January 15, 2017 .   Capacity is limited and tickets will be honored first come, first served.  You can find the link to register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-cloud-inaugural-summit-tickets-38759155678

We look forward to seeing you!

#NoCeilingsintheCloud , #WomeninCloud, #shesoars

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The numbers tell us all we need to know. It’s time for Women in Cloud

How many times have you used a product and the way you used it wasn’t quite right?

Have you stopped to think that perhaps that design team did not have a woman represented in the use cases or product engineering?

When you consider that 88% of all information technology patents (from 1980–2010) were invented by male-only invention teams while only 2 percent were invented by female-only invention teams, these and other statistics sadly tell us that the technology the world uses was created by a team with mostly male-orientation.

We also see that the “quit rate” where women exit technology roles is at twice the rate of men, 41% women and 17% men respectively with 56% quit rate for women in technology occupations versus science (47%) and engineering (39%) occupations from a study spanning 12 years.

According to IDC Chief Analyst Frank Gens, “We’ll see massive upshifts in commitment to Digital Transformation initiatives, 3rd Platform IT, the cloud, coders, data pipelines, the Internet of Things, cognitive services, industry cloud platforms, and customer numbers and connections.  Now is the time for women to be engaged in technology like no other time before.  The cornerstones of technology that will serve us all in the future are being set now and women need to have a voice and be deeply involved with leading all aspects of technology design, development, standards, and policy.  And it’s why we truly believe that now we have a chance to take our innovations and technical know-how into the cloud where there are truly no ceilings on what we can do.

Even before our inaugural Women in Cloud event on January 19, additional female technology community connections are already underway with the representation of Women in Cloud at the Cloud Now event in Mt View, CA with other markets like New York and Tunisia are in the discussion.

Join us at the Women in Cloud Summit

Our first community summit is January 19, 2018, hosted at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond.  This gathering kicks off the first of a series of community building activities which will include topics on business leadership, technical cloud innovations, and community building topics.  You can view the agenda for the event here.

The Women in Cloud Summit runs 8:30 am-1:00 pm and registration are $99.  Use offer code “WIC2018” and receive 25% discount until Jan 15, 2018 date.   Capacity is limited and tickets will be honored first come, first served.  You can find the link to register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-cloud-inaugural-summit-tickets-38759155678

We look forward to seeing you!

#NoCeilingsintheCloud , #WomeninCloud, #shesoars

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