What I wish I knew about GHCI in college?

GHCI or Grace Hopper Celebration India, is India’s largest technical conference for women in computing and technology. The conference is co-presented by the AnitaB.org India(Cleverly named after the celebrated Anita Borg) and Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) India. AnitaB.org India has been successfully organizing this annual conference since 2010. GHCI focuses on the career, research and entrepreneur interests of women in computing and technology. Check their official website here.

The GHCI is a kind of the south-asian branch of the GHC that is held annually in the USA.The conference is organized annually in the last quarter of the year in Bengaluru, India. It aims at giving a chance to all women in technology, from students to top-level executives(we need more of those!), a chance to get together to network, inspire, get inspired and walk away with some cool swag :D.

The whole event comprises of 5 sections:-

1. The Career Fair
2. Talks and Short Workshops
3. Poster Presentations
4. The Women Entrepreneur Quest(WEQ)
5. Awards

Let’s get into a few details :-

1. The Career Fair — This is one of the largest career fairs I have ever seen. Crazy number(read 100+) of companies(Google, Facebook, IBM, Cisco etc to name a few) set up stalls to accept resumes and even take first round of interviews. This is aimed at female students looking for internships, women looking to change jobs or move into tech and women looking for jobs after taking a break from their career for various reasons.
   The entry to the career fair is free of cost. The only requirement for entry to the career fair to registering yourself for the same on the official website and submit your resume to their database. Even if you will not be attending in person, be sure to submit your resume online to feature on the radar of great companies looking out for profiles similar to yours. If you do attend the fair, be sure to carry updated copies of your resume to submit at the various company booths. (Oh did I mention, they dole out a ton of swag! :D)
2. Talks and Short Workshops — This segment is further divided into various tracks which are subject to change every year. They generally revolve around 3–4 upcoming technical tracks(AI/ML; Cloud, Mobile Computing etc); 1–2 Management tracks for experienced leaders and for people getting started in their tech careers. Speakers range from well established corporate employees to budding entrepreneurs and the eclectic mix ensures you have variety and diversity in the knowledge being disseminated.
   The entry to these events comes with the official paid registration for the events that is put up towards the end of July-mid August on their site. It generally costs somewhere between 10–20k.(Students don’t fret! There is another way in. I’ll cover that in the HOW)

3. Poster Presentations — This a technical poster presentation, the entries to which have to be sent in around April. The decisions for the same are sent out by August, and the presenters have a separate access pass(not sure if that allows entry to Talks and Workshops). Every presenter gets a certificate of participation and student presenters can choose to individually enter the ACM Student Research Competition with the same research topic.
This acts as a great platform to discuss and share your ideas with people and present your project.

4. The Women Entrepreneur Quest — The WEQ is a flagship contest of AnitaB.org India for women entrepreneurs, who are founders of startups in the technology sector. WEQ is a comprehensive platform that provides networking, mentoring and learning opportunities to grow one’s business. Top 10 winners of WEQ 2017 received an all-expenses-paid experiential learning visit to Silicon Valley, US. To know more and apply for this years contest, follow GHCI and AnitaB.org on social media and look out for when the registrations opens.

5. Awards — ABIE awards and Pass it On Awards take place at the GHC in the USA. Women technologists are recognized for their work and contribution to various fields. Check this link to know more.

Useful links to stay updated:-

• Official Website
• Tweet Away
• Facebook

So that was the WHAT. I’ll cover the HOW to attend the GHCI in the next story :)

I have been meaning to spread the word about GHCI for quite sometime now, especially to college students. When Sarup Banskota (Thank You!)pushed me and gave me the required motivation, I finally came up with this :).

Thank you for reading! I welcome any suggestions for points I may have missed to make this more helpful for everyone :)