Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Hackathon Winners Announced: Women In Cloud Portfolio Companies Join The Winner’s Circle

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As a Co-Founder and President of Women In Cloud, I’m passionate about engaging Fortune Brands to unlock infinite economic access for women to build a successful business and their leadership brands to lead digital transformations. To achieve that vision, we want to thank our foundation partner Microsoft and their entire partner ecosystem to work closely with us to represent women-led tech companies, helping them transform their businesses model and drive inclusive economic opportunity.

One of the strategic initiatives we partnered was Microsoft #BuildFor2030 initiative, with a goal to explore, showcase and innovate transformational solutions & services that advance the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 initiatives focused on creating a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable world by 2030.

Last year, we participated in a game-changing #buildfor2030 hackathon where all the WIC portfolio companies participated to unlock new industry solutions around five themes — gender equality, climate action and sustainability, digital inclusion and accessibility, enabling the nonprofit sector, and empowering communities.

Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Hackathon

Congratulations to the Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Hackathon winners

We are so excited to reveal the #Buildfor2030 Winners from the Women In Cloud Ecosystem.

I’m so proud of our portfolio companies to lead innovative thinking and commitment to creating an inclusive economy.

Together, we are all committed to driving collective action with Fortune Brands like Microsoft, Accenture, Avanade, Boeing, Insight, Teradata, and others to drive change and make a difference.

I personally want to recognize Rodney Clark for sponsoring the #BuildFor2030 initiative that truly changes lives, creates new jobs, and brings net new innovation on the cloud platform. The team led by Gena Goh and Karen Fassio for making this vision truly possible in the current economic climate for women tech founders.

Learn more about the #Buildfor2030 Hackathon Winners

Learn more about Women In Cloud Solution Marketplace

Get access to all this and more at the Women In Cloud Annual Summit where we will recognize our Portfolio Companies and their contributions.

There’s a 15% OFF on your ticket’s purchase going on. The only thing you have to do is use the code 15-OFF.

Remember to join WIC’s digital network for more information about upcoming events, products, and promotions!

 

 

 

 

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Chaitra Vedullapalli Named As FORBES 1000 Next Entrepreneur

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Monumental events have undertaken in the last two years at Women in Cloud; our purpose to generate $1B in economic access received tremendous support and we are now on the path to realizing that dream with greater support from Fortune brands like Microsoft, Insight, Accenture, Hitachi Solutions, Teradata, Avanade, Boeing and Global Affairs Canada along with other partner organizations like UN Women, EQUALS and Ideagen.

With programs like Women in Cloud Azure Skilling Scholarship, Fortune 100 Initiative, EmpowHERAcess Campaign and Women in Cloud Accelerator running around the globe with massive impact being created, our leadership has had their hands full to create a world-wide economic impact.

Thus, it is with great enthusiasm that we announce, our President and Co-founder, Chaitra Vedullapalli’s recognition in the Forbes Next 1000 2021 List.

Chaitra Vedullapalli, Forbes 1000 Next Entrepreneur

The Forbes Next 1000 list shines light on the ambitious sole proprietors, self-funded shops and pre-revenue startups in every region of the country—all with under $10 million in revenue or funding and infinite drive and hustle. Forbes and their partners at Square are thrilled to welcome Chaitra Vedullapalli to the Forbes Next 1000 class of 2021. This first-of-its-kind initiative celebrates bold and inspiring entrepreneurs—like her—who are redefining what it means to run a business today. They received thousands of nominations and her achievements have been recognized by their editors plus a panel of top business minds and entrepreneurial superstars.

She is a purpose driven leader who bridges business and technology to globally scale companies and drive economic development, Chaitra Vedullapalli’s impact in the technology industry and community has been extensive in her 20-plus years tech career.

We at Women in Cloud celebrate Chaitra’s contribution and a well-deserved recognition by Forbes.

Congratulations Chaitra!

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WICxUNGA 2021: Join the conversations around AI Ethics & Innovation, Digital Skilling and Leadership Acceleration

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Revolutions cannot thrive without our industry being reshaped by those that are at the core of its future. At Women in Cloud, we have learned the power of collective access and action to ignite stronger leadership and economic opportunities for women in technology, through the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Welcome to #WICxUNGA 2021, where like-minded industry leaders, executives, investors, entrepreneurs and community members come together to share the new narrative that is accelerating digital transformation, economic opportunity, global inclusivity and proven leadership development for our community and beyond.
The #WICxUNGA event will capture powerful dialogue through unique activations focused on UN SD goals, including gender equality, sustainability, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and strategic partnerships to achieve our collective mission and vision. We’ll cover social responsibility and collaboration to eliminate inequalities and injustices, including TED-like workshops, plenary sessions, roundtable discussions and a pitch challenge. 

Experience a community event unlike any other that dives deep into addressing the challenges we face today with next generation solutions harnessing AI for good, sustainability, building trusted partnerships and networks, becoming effective strategic advisors and developing career growth opportunities focused on leadership acceleration.

How are thought leaders today changing the narratives for tomorrow? This is #WICxUNGA 2021.

We are so delighted to bring you three unique and creative experiences by our partners.

Presented by IBM : AI Innovation and Ethics Track

Thought Leadership Session: Using AI Innovation To Achieve The UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

AI and climate change has been an area that has been gaining a lot of traction in recent years.Today’s cloud age of digital technology drives remarkable advancements at phenomenal speed. This plenary session will examine how AI Innovations can help us achieve the UN 2030 SDG’s and their potential ethical issues that are likely to bring forward, their impacts on economic equity and access for women.

AI Innovation & Ethics Unplugged Roundtables

If AI is our future, what is it really telling us? This is a session hosted by experienced leaders utilizing a group discussion format to allow attendees to share their own valuable inputs on specific AI-related topics and their potential ethical issues that is likely to bring forward their impacts on economic equity and access for women to design the strategies for Women In Cloud – AI Ethics Coalition 2022 charter. Your input, your voice and your ideas will help us shape the future of the AI Ethics Coalition. Get engaged, connect with other thought leaders and join our collective action.

Presented by Microsoft: Cloud Hands On Lab & #Buildfor2030 Hackathon

Hands on Cloud Day: Provide attendees with access to a free Hands-On Lab experience to get their hands “Cloudy” and deepen their Azure foundational knowledge.

#Buildfor2030 Hackathon and Ask Me Anything Session: An innovative hackathon that seeks to drive transformative solutions and services into development to further the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Through this learning and community-building journey, together we are accelerating innovation to power a more inclusive economy.

#CloudJobs Diverse Recruiting: A digital job fair offering a meet and greet experience with hiring managers and recruiters, where women can meet with companies actively seeking and recruiting talent, benefitting both the company and the job seeker by aligning talent with employment opportunities.

Power Talk: What’s Next After Cloud Certification? How to Pursue Your Dream Job: Sometimes when we reach one destination it’s actually just the beginning of a new journey.  Cloud Certification is just the first step of many in your new career path.  Learn how to develop the right strategy, skill sets and approaches to landing that dream job you have been searching for.  Discover the best practices of how to market yourself in a highly competitive marketplace and understand what companies are looking for in today’s ideal candidate.

Power Talk: How to Secure a Job in the Trillion Dollar Cloud Industry : The Cloud Technology industry continues to grow at incredible rates, and so do the opportunities to become part of this trillion dollar marketplace.  But where do you begin?  Learn how to search, apply and prepare for securing a cloud technology job today that matches your skill sets and vision for success, even when there is a growing number of talented candidates out there.  Here’s your chance to find that competitive advantage you’ve been hoping for.

Presented by JP Morgan Chase : Leadership Acceleration Track

Workshop: How to Become a Strategic & Effective Advisor (Panel & Demos): What if we all tapped into the natural born leaders that we already are? Strategic and effective advisors are not taught, rather learned from experience.  Learn how to tap into the innate personal power and leadership skills you possess to become advisors to others, enabling you to grow in your career, support others in their own growth and have access to achieve more advancement opportunities in the future. This is the power of purpose-driven leadership in action.

How to Build a High Trusted Relationship (Workshop): What if our greatest relationships start with one powerful story? Often we find ourselves in a position where we have to prove and demonstrate our knowledge to others in order to get noticed or validated. Learn techniques on how to create a strategic business narrative that is built on trust, authenticity and human connection so you can develop the strongest personal and professional relationships possible. This is where your voice cultivates real business growth.

Get access to all this and more at the 2-Day Signature Event. 

SAVE YOUR SPOT TODAY

Visit https://www.womenincloud.com/wicxunga/ for full event details.

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Women in Cloud, in partnership with M12 and IBM, honors eight role models at the inaugural #empowHERaccess Awards Ceremony

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The #empowHERaccess Inaugural Awards celebrates the achievements of 8 winners who facilitated economic access and recovery for women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and recognizes the contributions to the cloud ecosystems made by both individuals and organizations. The awards are supported by corporate and private brands such as M12, IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Boeing, Insight and others.Seattle, Washington– According to McKinsey, centering women around economic recovery efforts would grow the global GDP by an estimated $13 trillion, or 16 percent, by 2030 — because when women thrive, so do their families and communities. A report from Kaspersky published in January found that roughly half of the 6,500 women surveyed believed that the pandemic had hurt them professionally.

The #empowHERaccess digital advocacy campaign seeks to raise awareness about the magnified impact of COVID-19 on women, promote stories of women’s professional resilience, especially in technology entrepreneurship, and accelerate economic recovery.

The #empowHERaccess Inaugural Awards celebrates the achievements of 8 winners who facilitated economic access and recovery for women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and recognizes the contributions to the cloud ecosystems made by both individuals and organizations. The awards are supported by corporate and private brands such as M12, IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Boeing, Insight, Consulate of Canada and Meylah. Over 100 applications were submitted and 26 were chosen as finalists for 8 awards.

Winners were announced in a virtual awards ceremony on July 16, 2021 at the #WICxInspire 2021 event, hosted by TEDx speaker and entrepreneur Patti Dobrowolski, along with board advisor and M12 executive Catherine Mulachy.

Commendations for transformative industry achievements to increase access for women included the IBM Supplier of the Year Award, Accenture: Innovative Partnership of the Year Award, Microsoft Digital Transformation of the Year Award, M12: Outstanding Leadership Award and Insight Cloud Solution of the Year Award and Meylah Cloud Deal of the Year Award. Women in Cloud also honored two impactful community partners with the Advisor of the Year Award and Investor of the Year Award. The #empowHERaccess Award Ceremony, which took place on July 16th at the #WICxInspire event, awarded eight leaders who facilitated economic access and stable recovery to women in tech.

#empowHERaccess Inaugural Award Winners 2021: 

Accenture: Innovative Partnership of The Year AwardMicrosoft: Digital Transformation of the Year AwardM12: Outstanding Leadership AwardInsight: Cloud Solution Of the Year Award
Sonya Shorey, Invest Ottawa | Vice President, Strategy, Marketing and CommunicationsKathy Durfee, TechHouse | CEO & FounderSara Menker, Gro Intelligence | CEO & FounderSheffie Robinson, Shamrck Education | CEO & Founder
WiC: Advisor of the Year AwardMeylah: Cloud Deal of The Year AwardIBM: Supplier of the Year AwardWiC: Investor of the Year Award
Lisa Opoku, Goldman Sachs | Partner, Chief Operating Officer of EngineeringKaren Fassio, Microsoft | Director, WW Partner MarketingChristine Puccio, F5 | VP, Global Cloud AlliancesSharon Vosmek, Astia | CEO

“The winners of the #empowHERaccess Awards understand that the roadmap to generating infinite economic access is driven by sustainable collective action. Our winners are thought leaders, innovators, and champions of change, and we are proud to be able to celebrate their achievements and work through these awards,” said Chaitra Vedullapalli, CEO and Co-Founder of Women in Cloud.

The #empowerHERaccess Awards will return in 2022, with nominations set to open in January 2022. To learn more about the award winners, please visit the winner page at https://www.womenincloud.com/empowheraccess-inaugural-award-categories/

About the #empowHERaccess Digital Campaign:

#empowHERaccess is an annual digital advocacy campaign by Women in Cloud to generate greater economic access for women in technology. Launched in 2020, the campaign has reached over 600,000 women all around the world. The 2021 #empowHERaccess campaign is bringing together a number of facets to better understand the global crisis this pandemic has created for women entrepreneurs, and celebrate the many stories of pivots and perseverance.

The #empowHERaccess Inaugural Awards recognize the contributions to the cloud ecosystems made by both individuals and organizations, supported by corporate brands such as M12, IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Insight and Meylah.

For more information, visit: https://www.womenincloud.com/empowheraccess-campaign/

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#WICxInspire 2021 : 4 Reasons Why You Don’t Want to Miss Out

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Women in Cloud is excited to share that for the third year in a row, we will be hosting our signature event, #WICxInspire, in tandem with Microsoft Inspire. This signature event is designed as a multi-day networking experience to create INFINITE ACCESS for our community. Experiences include thought-leadership power talks, diverse recruiting, and curated business development for female technology founders and leaders.

4 Reasons Why You Don’t Want to Miss Out: 

  • Grow your business via strategic development and relationship building
  • Meet and greet with industry executives
  • Feel connected, experience the reunion
  • Join the movement & contribute to the UN Sustainable Goals

If you sign up today, you will be entered to win one of three special experiences in the next couple of months:

  1. Virtual Meet and Greet with Gavriella Schuster (only 20 spots available)
  2. VIP dinner in Seattle with Microsoft Executives (only 15 spots available)
  3. VIP Dinner in SFO, Seattle and NY with WiC Board of Advisors and Leaders (only 15 spots available)

Secure your spot

About #WICxInspire 2021: 

#WICxInspire is a multi-day networking experience with thought-leadership power talks, diverse recruiting, and curated business development to connect female tech founders and showcase their technology solutions with enterprise buyers, investors, and influencers. 

Our intention for this event is to increase access for our community members. By creating opportunities for diverse recruitment, professional development, and business scaling, we can engage diverse talent, activitate the community, and empower each other to be innovators and leaders within the technology space. 

Agenda:

Women In Cloud Inspire 2021 Event Agenda
Reasons to Attend WIC Microsoft Inspire 2021

Logistics:

  • Dates: July 15-16, 2021 
  • Times: (subject to change/varies by day)
    •  July 15: 1:00pm- 6:00pm PST 
    • July 16: 11:00am- 4:00pm PST

The conference will be held via the Remo platform. Special thanks to our partners at Remo for helping us put this event together. 

Layout: 

Remo Layout For WIC Inspire2021

For more details about the event and to see the speaker line up, visit: https://www.womenincloud.com/wicxinspire/



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