!GHC Talks

A few weeks ago, I organized “!GHC,” a get-together for women in the Bay Area who weren’t attending the Grace Hopper Celebration. I was channeling my FOMO, but I also wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate the women in our community.

To do that, I reached out to a few women I admire: Alicia Liu, Jamesha Fisher, Ash Huang, and Julie Ann Horvath. Here are the talks they gave.

Alicia Liu

!(Imposter Syndrome)

Alicia Liu is a self-described “recovering founder” and prolific writer who is now an engineer at Coach.me. At !GHC, she talked about confidence, doubt, and things that aren’t imposter syndrome.

Jamesha Fisher

Out of the Basement: Demystifying Security and Devops

Jamesha Fisher does security and devops for CloudPassage. At !GHC, she talked about why she loves both of these things, and helped show the diverse face of devops.

Ash Huang

How I Learned to Write Books (And Why It Took Me 14 Years to Get It Out)

Ash Huang is a designer, artist and writer who has worked at Pinterest and Twitter. She recently published her first novel, The Firesteel, and at !GHC she talked about the process of writing it — a process that took her 14 years.

Julie Ann Horvath

Shifting the Narrative of Diversity in Tech

Julie Ann Horvath is the Head of Design at Clef, and the creator of Passion Projects, a talk series designed to highlight women in the tech industry. At !GHC, she talked about being making tech feminism more intersectional and inclusive, including how people can leverage their white or passing privilege to advocate for people of color in tech.

About 150 women signed up for !GHC, but we could only accommodate 50 in our office. If the Twitter response was any indication, the event was a success, and I hope to run another, bigger !GHC-style event soon!

Thanks everyone for coming, and of course, thanks so much to our sponsors, Line Break, Eatsa, and Chain.