Behind the scenes: mixing cocktails and making connections at Latinas Who Lead
Across the board, Dropboxers love tech conferences. And just because we’ve gone Virtual First at Dropbox doesn’t mean we’ll stop showing up to these events. In fact, we’ve found new and even stronger ways to build community at virtual conferences, particularly those geared toward specific groups.
Most recently, we (virtually) attended the Latinas in Tech Summit. Latinas in Tech is a non-profit organization that aims to connect, support, and empower their 7000 Latina members who work across the technology sector. The two-day summit was filled with panels, keynotes, and workshops helping attendees to master the skills they need to succeed in tech and to build closer relationships with each other.
We never pass up an opportunity to make connections at conferences; it’s one of the main reasons so many Dropboxers attend them. So for this summit, we hosted a special virtual event we called Latinas Who Lead. Attendees received a gift package containing snacks and drinks from Latina entrepreneurs, which they learned about and sampled on a live Zoom call. The event also featured a live DJ, casual networking, and even a surprise DoorDash gift card giveaway!
While the food and drinks were well-received, the breakout star of Latinas Who Lead was simply the opportunity for connection. Senior Technical Recruiter Veronica Velasco, who helped to organize the event, said, “I loved that the event featured Latina entrepreneurs and their background and journey to creating their successful business. The stories were very inspirational and empowering. The event also had attendees break out into smaller groups and meet each other to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, career and personal growth, and leadership as a Latina in tech.”
And Engineering Manager Fernanda Mora, who gave the intro to Latinas Who Lead, found her time throughout the summit a uniquely inspiring experience. She said, “I truly loved getting to connect to an amazing number of Latina leads. Representation of Latinas in tech is one of the lowest in the industry, so to get to share our challenges, struggles and professional journeys with each other was absolutely amazing. We also got to know two phenomenal Latina entrepreneurs who inspired me, and probably everyone, to continue pushing hard and going after my goals.”
Even though the Latinas in Tech summit is over for now, we support Dropboxers of all backgrounds year round through our ERGs. You can learn more about them here.
