Women in Cloud (WIC): Out and About, Driving Impact: September Roundup

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Image may contain: 5 people, including Chaitra Vedullapalli, people dancing, people on stage and text

September has been busy and amazing times for Women in Cloud community. As a board, we are driving forward on several fronts to continue outreach to develop on-going partnerships and driving access for Women leaders, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs.

On the heels of UN IdeaGen, Women in Cloud communicated participated as the delegation in some amazing Industry Events to help share learnings, drive awareness and action on developing business in the Cloud.

WIC at NewTech Northwest https://www.newtechnorthwest.com/

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Jacqueline Touma, a co-founder of Women in Cloud and CEO of her own start-up Curious Enterprises, spoke at the NewTech Eastside, Women in Tech Night at eBay in Bellevue Washington. She spoke about the WIC mission, the success of the initial WIC Accelerator companies and upcoming ways for women and male allies to get involved to support entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in businesses of all sizes.

A call for sponsors, speakers, and volunteers is going out for the upcoming Summit on January 26th in Redmond Washington. She spent time on the need for organizations like Women in Cloud, citing the disappointing statistics and trends lines that continue to persist and a call to action.

A key message she focused on was that “Working together, women with male allies are taking deliberate micro and macro steps to drive momentum and lasting change towards diversity, inclusion and economic growth, not only for Women themselves as individuals but for their communities locally and globally. We can enact real change and have seen it in less than a year when Women in Cloud was formed, with $50M in opportunities on the horizon coming from our WIC accelerator.”

WIC at Amazon-AWS, Women@Compute https://aws.amazon.com/

Image may contain: 7 people, including Yardley Ip Pohl, Sandy Carter and Chaitra Vedullapalli, people smiling, people standing

Sandy Carter, Corporate VP at Amazon hosted their quarterly Women @Compute, an internal event to help Amazonians to learn and explore new ways to engage in the community focused on digital transformation. Product management, Entreprenuership, Girls In Tech, Intrapreneurship and Customer Obsession was part of the conversation.

Chaitra Vedullapalli and Jacqueline Touma were invited to participate in Women@Compute at Amazon HQ in Seattle to help inform on what Women in Cloud were all about. Chaitra presented on the WIC mission of helping more female #entrepreneurs and women leaders’ access and gain more from Cloud business and technology opportunities.  She emphasized created right access to women entrepreneurs to build their business will have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.

In addition, Yardley Ip Pohl, the founder of Women in Product and Chief Product Officer at Thrive Global, presented a talk on Product Management Excellence and hosted a roundtable with AWS product managers.

We are committed to an industry-wide initiative to drive awareness and adoption leading Cloud-based technologies, programs, and resources for Women. AWS is a leader and critical influencer in the Cloud, dedicated to enabling Women entrepreneurs, technologists and leaders to drive business success.

WIC at 451 Research, Hosting & Cloud Transformation Summit https://451research-hcts.com/

451 Research each September hosts the premier forum for executives in the hosting, cloud, data center and managed services sector in Las Vegas, Nevada. The agenda is carefully crafted by 451 Research analysts and industry experts to provide timely, actionable insight into the competitive dynamics of innovation. The three-day schedule provides a plethora of networking opportunities and fosters industry-changing relationships.

Women in Cloud were invited to take part in the overall conference and a specific panel on Opening the Closed Loop: Increasing Diversity in Cloud.

Panelists included: Kelly Morgan Research Vice President – Infrastructure, 451 Research; Melanie Posey Research Vice President – Voice of the Enterprise, 451 Research; Chaitra Vedullapalli Chief Marketing Officer, Meylah & Co-Founder, Women in Cloud; Karen Fassio, Director of Marketing, Microsoft & Co-Founder Women in Cloud and Meg Ramsey Vice President – Cloud Services Product Management, SunGard AS.

The conversation focused on the immense opportunities of Cloud-based technologies and how unlocking access was critical for Women in technology to fully succeed. As Chaitra discussed ‘There is no opportunity with access to financing, business resources and mentorships to make it real. Citing 451 Research Insights on the status of VC funding, Women in the Corporate Boardrooms and Women Entrepreneurs, she surmised that only by ensuring this equitable access will create the right solutions in the market”

Karen Fassio added that “By connecting women, entrepreneurs with women mentors, with programs like Cloud Accelerators with access to corporations for co-sell and co-build opportunities is the right supportive environment where women in business can flourish’

Our sincere thanks… with more to come

The Women in Cloud community and the team are thankful to these organizations for the opportunity to speak and participate in these events and gatherings to further support Women in technology.

We will keep you in the know about more outreach events and partnership on the horizon. We invite you to learn more about Women in the Cloud and opportunities available to you, by visiting www.womenincloud.com and to connect with any of our board members.

Don’t forget to register for our Annual Summit on Jan. 26th, 2019 in Redmond Washington. More information coming soon!

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IdeaGen/United Nations Summit: Enabling Women To Access $1 Billion In Cloud Opportunities

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Women in Cloud, Microsoft, and UN through IdeaGen partner to drive economic empowerment for Women and Girls through Cloud-based technologies.
We live in a rapidly changing world. Technology is disrupting almost every aspect of our lives at breathtaking speeds. We are at the onset of a profound period of transformation all centered on the Cloud. Women in Cloud has partnered with IDEAGEN, Microsoft and the UN to advance gender equality and empowerment for Women & Girls by supporting economic empowerment through entrepreneurship and innovation.

UN General Assembly

The Cloud opportunity topples $1B and yet while 40% of all new businesses are started by Women only 5% of Technology Start-Ups are global.

We all the know the statistics far too well – 20% of C-Suite leaders are Women buy fewer than 3% are Women of Color, 2% of Women Tech Entrepreneurs access the Cloud Opportunity and only 1% or less are awarded corporate contracts.

Many studies findings highlight the benefits of diverse organizations in both growth and impact to overall growth and Country GDP. The path to these opportunities is not without challenges, but by working together we can better and more rapidly overcome.

Women in Cloud is wholly aligned to the UN and Microsoft Goals for closing the Gender Gap.

Gretchen O’Hara (Vice President, Go-To-Market Strategy, One Commercial Partner at Microsoft), Karen Fassio (Director of Marketing, World Wide Partner Group at Microsoft) and Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder & CMO, Meylah are part of a larger co-founding team for Women in Cloud (Carrie Francey, Wendy White, Linda Lowry and Jacqueline Touma).

This delegation at UN Idea Gen shared their stories, lessons and the focus of Women in Cloud in supporting diversity to drive innovation and disruption.

Women in Cloud Mission:
1. Provide and supporting access to customers, funding, and resources
2. Accelerate business through policies resources and readiness
3. Drive action to create innovative solutions, partnerships, and communities

Gretchen explains that for her this is about making a lasting impact and having the GRIT to see it through, “We cannot be competitive without Women, and we need diverse perspectives in business which drive innovation and disruption”.

As Chaitra adds, “Without access, you cannot create opportunities. With the help of Microsoft and the UN, we are thrilled to be able to support empowering Women and Girls to reach their goals and dreams for the benefit of themselves, their families, their communities and their countries”

That’s why we are here at United Nations Idea Gen, states Karen Fassio “to inspire Women & Girls to pursue careers in technology and to support them in their careers whether as entrepreneurs or as corporate leaders. This work, for me, is rooted in Microsoft’s broader mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Jill Angelo, a tech exec turned women’s health care advocate and CEO of Genneve recently graduated from the Women in Cloud Co-Sell/Co-Market Accelerator, sponsored by Microsoft. Jill represented the Women in Cloud delegation at UN IdeaGen. She is developing the first Women’s health solutions that use the power of AI and telehealth to empower women to take control of their health and well-being in the latter half of their lives. Plus Jacqueline O’Hara represented the need to bring more girls into the STEM.

Beyond UN Idea Gen, the Women in Cloud team host an Annual Summit (Jan. 26th,2019 Redmond WA) brings together women leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, community groups and public organizations, to provide access and the right environment for opportunities to thrive. A new Accelerator for 2019 will be announced shortly, along with a new event series and speaker participation in several communities leading events.

To learn more about Women in the Cloud and opportunities available to you, visit www.womenincloud.com and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Annual Summit Jan26th, 2019, learn more! Early Bird Discount ($30 off the retail). Use code “WICEarly”

 

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