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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Women In Cloud was named one of the Best Accelerators in Seattle by Benzinga

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Women in Cloud is proud to announce that we have been recognized as the Best Women-Led Businesses Accelerator in Seattle by Benzinga Magazine. The “10 Best Accelerators in Seattle, Ranked” article highlights 10 local accelerators with different niches which  provide access to training, funding, mentorship, and scaling for startups in a variety of industries. These accelerators were named the best because of their involvement in the local community, transparency, and implementation of practical standards. Women in Cloud was named top 7 overall and the best for female entrepreneurs because of its emphasis on using cloud hyperscalers, distribution channels, and partner resources to help women co-build, co-market, and co-sell to businesses. Checkout the “10 Best Accelerators in Seattle, Ranked” in Benzinga Magazine. 

Women in Cloud Cohort 6.0 will kickoff in August 2021. If you are interested, please signup today.

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Top 10 Most Successful Women in Cloud Entrepreneurs 2021 is featured and celebrated by Insight Magazine

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Drum Roll! What a fantastic recognition of contributions made by Women In Cloud Entrepreneur’s.

‘1$ Billion in Economic Access by 2030’; that is the audacious goal Women in Cloud is in pursuit of. With the Women in Cloud Accelerator, $80 Million has already been generated towards that goal which aims to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Women in Cloud Microsoft Cloud Accelerator has had an immense impact in the technology industry. Over the last three years, we have had five cohorts, with over 55 entrepreneurs who have contributed to building an inclusive economy.  Women In Cloud’s Microsoft Cloud Accelerator is an immersive 6-month program to assist women-led tech companies to co-build, co-market, and co-sell with Microsoft and their distribution channels. This program is designed to help you win enterprise opportunities, get access to Azure credits, an advisor community, and a global stage to showcase your business.

The Insight Success Magazine has recognized the Women in Cloud Accelerator and the entrepreneurs who graduated from the Accelerator and went ahead to make an impact in society. The “Top 10 Most Successful Women in Cloud Entrepreneurs” Edition honors 10 women entrepreneurs from the technology industry who are shaping the future of the industry with their unique solutions.

Checkout the Top 10 Most Successful Women in Cloud Entrepreneurs 2021 featured on Insight Success magazine.


Women In Cloud Entrepreneurs in Cloud Computing Market.

We at Women in Cloud are excited to share this news and are proud to announce the following Top 10 Most Successful Women in Cloud Entrepreneurs; 

A seasoned entrepreneur who has founded four successful companies in the Home Improvement and Retail industry, and is a pioneer of leveraging technology to optimize business processes and strategies to accelerate growth. Kristen is a leader within the women in the technology community, as a board member for The Beyond Project, and advisor to Women In Cloud.

Cathy Light is a serial entrepreneur and organizational consultant who has helped countless global corporate clients achieve business results by transforming workplace culture and building teams that thrive. Her most recent venture, Liderança Group, introduced a unique, metrics-driven roadmap for driving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, helping leaders identify opportunities for improvement, elevate conversations around diversity and inspire change.

With over 28+ years of worldwide IT, telecommunications, food and agricultural, and supply chain experience. From setting up production lines across the world for telecommunications to sourcing ingredients from the Americas to Asian countries. Traveling while delivering projects beneficial for the supplier and customers in over 4 continents, Martha dealt with both small and industrial size stakeholders or suppliers, government entities, and sophisticated buyers.

Allie’s passion for talent management has spanned her twenty-year career. Although her career started with nationwide companies, Allie’s recent focus is helping small business owners master their talent management. She has experience in all things human resources related for companies from one employee to 80,000 employees. Allie is a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) with CPHR Alberta and a Registered Professional Recruiter (RPR) with the Institute of Professional Management.

Gail Mercer-MacKay is the proud founder and Chief Storyteller at Mercer-MacKay Digital Storytelling, an organization focused on creating amazing content and closed-loop marketing campaigns for technology firms. With double-digit growth year-over-year, the Mercer-MacKay client list includes many of the world’s leading technology organizations.

A renowned expert in her field, Geneviève Desautels, MBA, CRHA, MCC worked for 16 years in human resources in SMEs and large private and public companies. In 2010, she left Hydro-Québec to start her own professional practice which would focus mainly on the development of authentic and conscious leadership skills and abilities.

Kiyeon Nam is an award-winning inventor, fashion designer, and the Chief Executive Officer of B’ZT® (Beacon Zone Technology) and S’HUG (Sweater Hug).  B’ZT is the world’s first Smart Clothing pre-embedded with a machine washable smart chipset, which is created to prevent vulnerable individuals from going missing.

Nehal Mehta is an artist, mathematician, statistician, tech engineer, and cyber solutions inventor helping the world realize digital transformation dream through her efforts in cybersecurity, social and cultural involvement, and giving back to the community through her leadership efforts. She works with SMBs and Enterprises, helps them upgrade their cyber readiness, and provides usable security solutions through her user-centric cybersecurity research and innovations.

Donna Conroy, MS is an accomplished founder and CEO with extensive scientific experience including clinical microbiology and pharmaceutical sales and marketing. While in the corporate environment, she launched three drugs into the marketplace with great success. Throughout her career, Donna has focused on two passions: translating complicated science to understandable and usable insights and building work environments that support women - especially working mothers, a mission close to her heart.

Sarah Haggard is a proven business leader who has led multiple start-up initiatives within her decade-long career in product marketing at Microsoft, raising $40M to scale her last business. Expert in P&L management, enterprise software, and GTM strategy, Sarah’s tenacity and drive for results led to her being widely recognized as a turnaround expert and new business incubator.

We congratulate the entrepreneurs for their continued effort to build an inclusive technology industry and paving a path for the future generation of women to make their mark in technology. 

Check out their solutions in the Women In Cloud Marketplace.

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