Takeaways from Women in Tech Forum 2019
What a power pack event ?! Inspiring 1000s of women working in the tech industry across Finland and the globe. Here are some of my thoughts from the Women in Tech Forum 2019 held at Finlandia Hall on 11th October 2019!
My day at the event was filled with interesting conversations, listening to motivating speakers, watching demos of cutting-edge technology, and participating in hands-on workshops. I would like to compile some of my learnings and questions that were raised during the event in this blog.
I couldn’t agree more with what @Marissa Mayer said — “Do something you aren’t ready to do”. I always believe that the only way to tackle one’s fear is by facing them and breaking them. Now to face our fear, we still need some confidence. Do something that you aren’t ready for! Trying out a new sport activity or public speaking could be a good example to see your actual potential. It was an honor and immense pleasure to listen to her keynote speech.
She shared her journey from University -> Google -> Yahoo and now in LumiLabs. Her journey gave me confidence that it is okay to not plan everything in your life because at times “Life might just happen!”. Be open to change and surround yourself with the smartest people because they will challenge you!
For me, the eye-opening moment was when Marissa shared her technique of making decisions. The key point here was to change the perspective of how we think when it comes to deciding between two or more options. Personally, I just felt dazzled because the technique was pretty simple, clear, and sensible.
Instead of deciding between right and wrong choices, realize that there are a few good choices and you need to pick one. Once you pick, you commit to it and start making great things.
Key takeaways from her story:
It’s not what “zoon” knows, its how “zoon” thinks!
Passion is a gender-neutralizing force.
Design thinking can be applied to everything.
Love all the phases whether it is in your personal or business life cycle.
Do something that you aren’t to do.
Know when to change the plan!
During the event, I also learned that Google from the past 21 years has always been focusing on “SEARCH” and to date regardless of all the ups and downs they still focus on the “SEARCH” feature. Thus, Focus, Focus, Focus!
For decades we have been fighting against inequality and it makes me sad that still in some parts of the world, in some office cubicle, a woman is not treated as equally as their male colleagues. But, during the event, I caught a new ray of hope. What a wonderful form of representing equality between different genders?! It is true that passion is a gender-neutralizing force. When we work with people who have the same passion and interest walls like race-color, nationality, gender breakdown because all of us believe in one goal and look at the same northern star.
On the course of countless conversations during the day, one familiar but a great phrase was expressed — “Never give up! “. Regardless of what people think that you are weird or that you don’t have what it needs to get success, you must never give up! Embrace your weirdness and honestly, my weirdness reminds me that “Imperfection makes me perfect!”.
One of the living examples is “Chocolate Angel”. She truly loves what she does and embraces who she is! Her motto of life is to bring smiles on others’ face and she achieves it by sharing chocolates with everyone in Tech/Non-Tech events. She spreads the positive energy and lively spirit with everyone.
I also realized that when you are certain about something, you can make your way to reach the destination. Nowadays, given the million choices and options we are offered, it becomes very easy to feel indecisive or even to be confused about where to start or which path to choose. But once you realize what you truly believe in and what you are sure about, the rest of the journey feels like walking on a path full of roses.
Overall, as mentioned earlier this event was truly a power pack! The entire Finlandia Hall was excited and was raising the power of women in the technology industry. Motivating each other, supporting each other, and bringing smiles on each others’ faces.
It is easy to reconnect with people in a place like Finland. Moreover, it is always nice to have friends in networking events because you get the opportunity to share and discuss the topics you would have heard via the pep talks or workshops during the day. This enables learning from each other’s perspective and challenging one’s own interpretation. Thus, I would like to thank Raquel Sánchez Nieto and Sabine Maselkowski for being such great company and making it a fun event for me.
Some workshops I participated in this event were super interesting and enlightening for me. I jotted down a couple of insights in another blog at Workshops!
Cheers!
Thank you for reading!
