Launching WiC Digital Skilling Program to Empower Volunteers to Become WIC Brand Ambassadors. Apply now!

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Experiences are changing in every aspect of community engagement and event execution with the current landscape. The upcoming Women in Cloud Digital Summit 2021, themed “Collective Power” to be held on an interactive virtual platform, is designed with a core intention to create infinite access to people, programs, and organizations to fuel economic development and diversity. 

The event intends to spark ideas through thought-leadership sessions, workshops, and demos to help attendees increase their personal and professional power, and offers unique opportunities to take part in leadership-based growth experiences and activations. The Summit sets the stage for corporations, organizations, and legislatures to meet with founders and leaders in the tech industry to drive policy changes and unlock economic opportunities.

Throughout the three days, Digital Summit attendees will hear from inspirational speakers, connect and communicate with industry leaders and experts, and network with other community members and entrepreneurs. 

This year our volunteer program has evolved into an immersive learning experience to unlock “Collective Power” for those involved. Our volunteers will be highlighted as #WiCAmbassadors and receive the following benefits:

  • Become part of the inner circle of WiC Community & be recognized as a #WiCAmbassador
  • Learn transferable digital skills for community engagement
  • Access job opportunities, mentors, executives, and influencers
  • Gain real-time digital skilling to increase your market value through the WiC Volunteer Course Completion
  • Gain access to a free course & free goodies
  • Take part in a structured way of contributing your time and talent
  • Receive a certificate of completion and engage closely with planning team, speakers, sponsors and attendees
  • One (1) Complimentary Premium Access Ticket (January 27 – 30, 2021)
  • 15% Discount Code for your network

The intention of the utilizing this structured way of contribution of time and talent is not only to have our #WiCAmbassadors show up well in the virtual event experience, but also to gain transferable digital skills for community and event engagement. 

Approved volunteer applicants will undergo an online course and training session. Outcomes include:

  • Be empowered with the knowledge you need to successfully explain WiC’s mission and the Summit theme 
  • Understand how to use the virtual event platforms that will be featured at the 2021 Digital Summit
  • Know how to confidently provide support and show up well as an ambassador of Women in Cloud

Roles include:

  • Concierge Desk 
  • Digital Network Engagement (January 2021)
  • Virtual Photographer 
  • Chat Moderator 
  • Digital Network Engagement
  • Social Media Support

*All roles above are for Summit days (January 27 – 30, 2021)

Who can apply: 

  • College students
  • Women ready to enter tech industry
  • Women who want to expand their network

Interested in taking part in this unique experience and gain bragging rights as a #WiCAmbassador? 

Our Collective Power begins now.

Click here to apply today! Act Now – Deadline to apply is December 15, 2020. 

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Insight Success Names The Top 10 Most Influential Women in Cloud 2020

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Women are at the forefront of change! The recent US Election results clearly state that it is time for women to take the lead and influence change. With the landscape changing Women in technology are leading the industry to initiate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity conversations.

Women in Cloud is a community of women from technology who are at the forefront of driving change by creating access to opportunities and resources to empower female-technology entrepreneurs to economically impact the world.  This effort is being recognized by Insight Success Magazine.

Insight Success Magazine launched the “Top 10 Most Influential Women in Cloud 2020” edition, commemorating women leaders and executives from the technology industry in the US. We are very excited to announce the “Top 10 Most Influential Women in Cloud 2020” from the Women in Cloud community.

Gretchen is working towards Microsoft’s US acceleration of its Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, and Sustainability initiative to become carbon negative by 2030. Gretchen is a 25+ year tech industry veteran with vast experience in commercial, public sector, industry, and partner sales and marketing. 

Senator Patty was first appointed to the House of Representatives in September of 2015 and won her first election to retain the seat the following year. In January 2017, Patty was again unanimously appointed by the King County Council to fill the vacant Senate seat in the 48th Legislative District and was selected by her colleagues to chair the new Senate Housing Stability and Affordability Committee.

Gavriella is currently revolutionizing the Partnership Channel at Microsoft. As corporate vice president for the One Commercial Partner business, Gavriella Schuster leads the Microsoft partner business strategy, across all commercial partners. She has extensive experience in sales, marketing, product management, and partner development, with a strong track record of managing customers, partners, and teams.

  • Christine Puccio | Vice President | Global Cloud Alliance & GTM Program | F5 Network

Christine is a seasoned leader in the technology industry and a champion for diversity and inclusion. Over the past 25 years, Christine has led high-performing sales teams and has built strategic partnerships for Fortune 500 companies such as F5, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, AT&T, and Lockheed Martin.

Karen Fassio leads the strategy for digital marketing engagement that serves the global Microsoft Partner Ecosystem.  She has held multiple marketing roles over her 21 years at Microsoft including her work in global technical readiness, licensing, sales excellence, audience, and channel marketing. 

Chaitra Vedullapalli is recognized as an Influential Business Leader with a passion to enable digital equity and access to achieve economic prosperity in our communities. Using the power of AI, Cloud, and IoT, Vedullapalli Is fiercely committed to empowering business owners to access the digital economy.

Renee oversees AppSmart’s strategy, sales, marketing, service delivery, and business development. A thought-leader in the technology industry for more than 25 years, and a channel veteran, Renée is a driving force behind propelling AppSmart and its partners’ next phase of growth through digital services.

Lani brings over 20 years’ experience in the technology industry as a technology executive. Lani currently serves as Vice President of Channel Sales at Microsoft Corporation. Her team supports our customers’ digital transformation efforts by accelerating co-selling partnerships with the Microsoft partner ecosystem representing a $40B business.

  • Kimberly Smith | Global Vice President | Cloud Innovation Services | IBM

Throughout her career, Kimberly has launched products and services for a multitude of technology platforms, industries, and sectors leading at organizations such as The Bank of New York, Microsoft, Adobe, Capgemini, and IBM as well advised thousands of startups toward profitable businesses. With over 30 years of global experience as a Fortune 500 executive, Kimberly Smith has pioneered cloud and digital innovation.

Gina is a Managing Director with Accenture, the world’s largest consulting firm. In her current role, she manages a team designing complex solutions to solve business challenges for her Fortune 1000 clients. Over her 25 year career, she has global powerhouses like IBM, where she ran sales for their North America Customer Care Practice, Genpact – where she ran their Hi-tech sector globally, EDS, and Leo Burnett.

We congratulate our leaders for their continued effort to build a sustainable and inclusive technology industry.

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A Woman with a Goal: Gavriella Schuster Receives the ATHENA Global Leadership Award!

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It is a special day to celebrate female leaders and entrepreneurs in technology! Today, Gavriella Schuster was awarded the ATHENA Global Leadership Award, previously bestowed upon icons like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Condoleezza Rice, and Christina Koch, just to name a few. One among us broke the “glass ceiling” and is carving a path for women in the technology industry and we could not be more excited about this. 

Gavriella Schuster is the Corporate Vice President of One Commercial Partner at Microsoft. Over the last 24 years, she has held 14 roles across six disciplines – Operations, Marketing, Sales, Training, Enterprise Services, Licensing, Product Management to now leading Partnerships at Microsoft. While her professional accolades are remarkable, she is constantly trying to bring her personal mission to make the technology industry an accessible space for women to explore. Gavriella guides communities like Women in Cloud, and The WIT Network to ensure women are given a seat at the highest table in the industry.

“My inspiration to incorporate and advocate inclusivity, equality and equity in technology was my daughter. It was a simple dream, to be her role model. However, as time went by, my journey was not just about her, but thousands of women who I realized were held at bay despite their capabilities. Today, I am honored that what started as a personal mission is my ingrained passion which impacts women around the world” said Gavriella, while receiving her award at a virtual ceremony. 

We at Women in Cloud are honored to have Gavriella Schuster as our executive and founding sponsor, a mentor and a team member. On this day, we celebrate Gavriella and all her achievements and are proud that she represents our community and millions of women from the technology industry across the globe.

“The times are crucial and it calls upon all of us to #BeTheChange. I request everybody to step up, take on challenges, drive inclusive conversations and be the change in our society,” Schuster added in her closing statement. 

On the powerful note, we urge you to join us to congratulate Gavriella and join our movement to be the change today!

Read more about, Gavriella Schuster’s incredible contribution to the tech industry here.

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Ready. Set. Accelerate!: Announcing the 4.0 Cohort of the WiC Microsoft Cloud Accelerator

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Women in Cloud’s Microsoft Cloud Accelerator is back! The Women in Cloud team is immensely happy to announce Cohort 4.0 after three successful cohorts which have expanded knowledge, access and inclusivity of entrepreneurs, while adding dollars to the economic system in the technology sector. 

Since inception, Women in Cloud’s mission has been to create Access for Acceleration to promote Action. Women In Cloud’s Microsoft Cloud Accelerator is designed as 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 expertly designed to help women entrepreneurs win enterprise opportunities, get access to Azure credits, an advisor community, and a global stage to showcase your business.

The 4.0 Cohort Immersive Kickoff session held on on Friday, August 28, 2020. The first session featured curated speakers, Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder and President of WiC; Karen Fassio, Marketing Director of Microsoft OCP and Co-Founder of WiC; Rahul Thakkar, Director – Advanced Services Development, Digital Enterprise, IT & Digital of Boeing; Allie Knull, Founder & CEO of Resume Free Inc.; and Patti Dobrowolski, CEO & Creative Activator of Up Your Creative Genius. The speakers consisted of founders, industry leaders and previous cohort entrepreneurs who set the tone for the new class about the current industry landscape, how to vision their cloud businesses, along with deliverables and takeaways by the end of 6 months. 

The cohort 4.0 is different from the previous editions for a number of reasons. The 4.0 cohort in the time of global pandemic requires us to depart from in-person programming for the immersive kickoff session. This cohort program, as usual, empowers entrepreneurs to more effectively connect as a community and access necessary resources to ultimately grow their business. COVID-19 has had a direct impact on our accelerator program and the way we conduct the program itself, but the pandemic has not stopped us. We have creatively found our way around it using effective digital tools to achieve more efficiency. The connection that we have found by conducting the Accelerator in a completely digital platform has built a family of women tech entrepreneurs to work together to achieve success in the enterprise space. Our weekly office hours, monthly live chats with industry leaders, and continued access to industry stages, has elevated our programming to an unmatched scale.

Our previously conducted in-person kick-off session will be conducted digitally. Going digital has let us expand our horizon and open this program to people from around the world rather than just a region. Cohort 4.0 boasts a diverse participation of companies from the United States, Canada, and Germany. The Digital Cloud Accelerator online course launch is on the agenda next. There is a positive shift in the attitude of entrepreneurs to continue learning, working towards growing their companies and bettering themselves in this time of uncertainty. 

This year’s WiC Microsoft Cloud Accelerator is more than just an effort to make economic contributions to the system by empowering entrepreneurs. It is about embracing the new normal and moving forward with a sense of community. It is about adopting self-empowerment and finding comfort in knowing where to turn for support with a community at your side. Most importantly, it is about collective growth and learning.

The cohort 4.0 will continue with various digital lessons, live speaker interviews, weekly digital office hours, and monthly team working sessions with everybody involved. The syllabus is shaped in a way to make it easier for entrepreneurs to seek answers and find success individually. Until we are safe to meet our leaders and entrepreneurs in person to celebrate the progress we will have made, we are all committed to taking part in this journey together. 

The flexibility and commitment to launch the program by our entrepreneurs during this turbulent time is greatly appreciated. We will become the force for change by building solutions not crippled by this chaos. We continue to look forward to this journey with this great group.

Presenting the Women in Cloud Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Cohort 4.0:

  • Priyansha Bagaria, Inviz AI
  • Tiasia OBrien, Seam Social Labs
  • Susan Sanders, Velaku
  • Emily Craven, Story City
  • Isabelle Lopez, MySmartJourney
  • Emmanuelle Tavernier, Oxia initiative inc.
  • Janice Omadeke, The Mentor Method
  • Joycelyn David, AV Communications
  • Kiyeon Nam, Smart B’zT LLC
  • Maret Thatcher, Argyle Inc.
  • Lisa Brown, PUG Interactive
  • Carmen Nazario, ELYON International
  • Linda Holliday, Citia
  • Katina Kenyon, Applaudo Studios
  • Humaira Ahmed, Locelle Digital Inc.
  • Heidi Watson, Canadian Electronic Health Information System Inc
  • Nataliya Tetruyeva, eKidz.eu
  • Garnette Weber, itracks
  • Yuan Karppanen, UNpkl

This year, Global Affairs Canada underwrote 50% of the accelerator fees for 8 Canadian companies that were approved to participate. Their generous support has allowed 8 of our 4.0 entrepreneurs to have the opportunity to scale their businesses to become co-sell and co-market ready with enterprise partners.

Economic Access is the tide that lifts all boats. Together we rise.

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Innovation for Transformation: Announcing the 10 Semi-Finalists for the #AISolutions2030 Solution Design Contest

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Women in Cloud (WiC) has partnered with IdeaGen to further the 2030 United Nations’ global goals through the identification of AI-based solutions by launching #AISolutions2030 Solution Design Contest. In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development proposing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UN’s mission is to employ technology and build a global blueprint for dignity, peace and prosperity of the planet.

Leveraging the UN Knowledge Repository, WIC and Ideagen are bringing some of the sharpest technologists and greatest business minds together to produce AI Solutions idea to contribute to UN SDGs.

After receiving 65+ applications by women-led innovators to showcase their solution, the following 10 semi-finalists have been shortlisted for the interview round;

Semi-finalists include:

  • The Scientific Data Engine (SDE) (led by Donna Conroy, Founder/CEO) will end and prevent global pandemics/epidemics by expediting the delivery of safe and effective scientific innovations (drugs, vaccines and diagnostics) and optimizing patient care using disease-specific, real-time clinical data powered by AI. (Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being)
  • VideoWiki (led by Nataliia Rzhevska, CIO, PhD in Pedagogy) is a simple tool for teachers to create teaching content without any advance knowledge of a tool or code – “Video Wikipedia for Learners and Creators” (Goal 4: Quality Education)
  • Share Cart (led by Madhuri Vegaraju, Software Architect) has the end goal to ensure every home has enough food to feed their family every day with dignity; because, sharing is caring.(Goal 2: Zero Hunger)
  • Seguro Project (led by Melissa Bush, Product Designer) is utilizing AI technologies to support domestic violence organizations in broadening their reach and depth in aiding as many women as possible to transition from domestic violence victim to survivor. (Goal 5: Gender Equality)
  • An Intelligent Drone-port (led by Daamini Visaalaakshi, BIE- Insouring2) is an infrastructure with Swarm of autonomous Drones and UAVs for community services with rapid response to any situation safeguarding communities. (Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure)
  • Anonymous Interviewer (led by Erica Jackson, BI/Analytics) offers gender neutral interviews – “meet” your candidates anonymously and ask spontaneous questions in real time. (Goal 5: Gender Equality)
  • E-commerce which provides a marketing and raw material assistance for small scale industries world wide (led by Reshma Shetty, Manager) will provide a marketing and raw material assistance for small scale industries world wide and increase the access of small-scale industrial. (Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure)
  • Kids Household Chores (led by Kruthika M Kanavi, Programmer Analyst) is a gaming app which aims at children learning as well as imbibing a new norm in the daily routine which is free of any gender stereotypes. (Goal 5: Gender Equality)
  • Smart Detection of Road Hazards using AI for Sustainable Cities (led by Gunjan Vaishnav, EO&T – BICIPL IT ENG SYSTEMS) provides automatic detection of road hazards to save precious lives (Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities)
  • Mobile app to reduce food waste and carbon emissions (led by Leah Kim, AUTOMATION & FABRICATION) plans to transform our cities to be sustainable using cloud/AI computing to reduce residential food waste and consequently the greenhouse gas emissions. (Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities)

At the closed interview session, teams will have the opportunity to present and pitch their solution ideas to a team of esteemed interviewers from Women in Cloud, Ideagen, Microsoft, and Qumulo. Solution ideas will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • The solution uniquely solves a UN Sustainable Development Goal
  • The solution is original and innovative in approach to solve the selected UN Sustainable Development Goal
  • There is a market opportunity and revenue stream potential

Top 3 finalists will be selected on August 31 and will receive special honors such as an interview on IdeagenTV, a feature at IdeaGen’s 17 Days of Sustainability (September 17 – October 9), and a special award. 

#AISolutions2030 Solution Design Contest is presented in partnership with Microsoft, Ideagen, Boeing, and Meylah.

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