I recently had the opportunity to speak at the ACT W Conference in Austin! ACT W which stands for Advancing The Careers of Technical Women sponsored by a great organization, ChickTech. The conference works to build skills, grow the community and accelerate career paths of women. This conference does just that!
I’ve had many great opportunities to speak at conferences lately, but have tried to not get too excited and limit some of these engagements, especially after a great convo from my public speaking mentor, Mallory Whitfield who asked me “Would this be a conference you go to if you weren’t asked to speak?” So before I send in a proposal or accept a speaking engagement, I ask myself this. After learning more about ACT-W , the answer was definitely yes! I’m glad I chose this experience!
I was able to meet a great group of phenomenal women, who truly inspired me and I was able to learn from! I will always remember this experience! The atmosphere of this conference oozed confident and comfortable women eager. You felt you were amongst people who wanted hear, share and learn. We worked together to create personal and collective goals for the advancement of women in technology. It also made me realized how important it is to build safe spaces for minorities as well as resources to encourage them further in their goals. ACT-W makes me want to do just that ACT and help to continue to grow the technology industry to be more inclusive and provide resources to ensure everyone can make the best decisions and learn the right tools!
This whole experience has encouraged me to start a podcast to begin sharing more about Women and POC in technology as well as resources to help us all excel. The show is called CTRL F with Shercole. The first episode is up! “Be The Tech Influence You Been Waiting For,” which is a short play on my presentation from the ACT-W conference.
To subscribe to future podcasts: https://soundcloud.com/ctrlfwithshercole Coming to Google Play and Itunes Soon.
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