My Experience at the Andela Women in Tech Summit.
I walked into the EPIC Towers super excited and ready to learn and network with other Women in Tech at the summit. Gatsby was the first lady I chatted up with, I was pretty amazed to know that she had come all the way from Ibadan, wow!
The summit started off with an introduction by Mercy Orangi. I don’t know how she does it, but in few seconds, she had gotten every one laughing and in the best mood for learning. Next was the opening remarks by Taiwo Judah-Ajayi.
Chika Uwazie talking about her entrepreneurial journey, stressed the importance of having a tribe (inspiring friends). She spoke about three of her friends who have constantly had her back at all times, and who she has sat together with to create a vision board for herself. She also encouraged us to have accountability partners who would keep us on track with our set goals.
The summit had two panel sessions. My take home from the first panel session is that I should never allow Impostor Syndrome come in the way of me feeling good about myself. Instead, I can even allow myself brag about my accomplishments. It was quite comforting to have it repeated that a woman does not need to write codes to be a woman in tech. I guess, I can finally go easy on myself, and learn to code in peace and at my pace.
The second panel session tagged “Failing and Learning at Work” was moderated by Jedidah Alagbe. The panelists were Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, Banke Ajagunna and Neku Atawodi-Edun. I was amazed at the topic for this session, and I think I still am, because failure is something people rarely talk about. I mean, society makes it look like failure is a stigma.
A number of such pseudo-beliefs were debunked during this session. Failure is an event that necessarily doesn’t define anybody, except one allows it to.
“Realize how powerful you are as a woman and use your uniqueness as a stepping stone”-Bilikiss
Next was lunch. OMG!!! The meal was on point. How can I not talk about that jollof rice? No joke, it was delicious. Let me not even talk about the chicken, I’m sure it must have added spice to the breakout sessions that took place after.
There were two breakout sessions: Breakout 1-Design Sprint and Breakout 2 -Building a real time chat app with Firebase and Node Js. I was in the the first breakout session, and in team 2. Lade Tawak and Chimdindu Aneke were excellent at taking us through the methodologies of design thinking. I enjoyed the task we were given, it was practical and fun. Of course, we got to identify the problem, brainstormed to answer the HMWs (“How Might We”questions), we had a prototype and we tested.
Vanessa, the 10th lady I connected with, told me breakout 2 was equally fun. She showed me her real-time chat app, it was really cool.
The summit ended with a Fireside chat with Simi Nwogugu, and Oluwasola as the moderator. Simi shared her experience in creating a balance with work and personal life, as a woman. It was inspiring!
Thank you Andela for choosing to celebrate the International Women’s Day 2018 in a grand style. I am glad I am one of the 100 women.
Thanks to you too for reading. Please make your claps re-sound-ing!!!
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