My experience attending vGHC’21
AnitaB.Org ’21 International Conference
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A PART OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE?
This year I got a chance to attend the prestigious virtual Grace Hopper Conference(#vGHC). If you don’t know what it is, it’s an international conference for women in technology (but not specific to women). It offers various sessions, technical talks, networking events, career fairs, and much more.
Despite the conference being virtual, it was maintained with utmost detail, taking care of all our queries. I got a chance to meet working professionals from different tech giants as well as startups, women in leadership positions, and fellow attendees to discuss our areas of interest. There were keynote speakers sharing their experiences and tech journey that inspired me to grow more. I enjoyed the track meetup of Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering, where I got an insight about the same.
The career fairs were arranged on career fair plus on a one-to-one basis. There were individual and group meetings of software engineers and tech leaders from all of sponsoring companies including Google, Disney, Facebook, Apple, etc. It was a great chance to meet the recruiters and get to know more about the opportunities and work culture in the company. I got connected to many of them after our meeting for further queries and assistance.
Although I was not able to apply for the student scholarship for attending vGHC this year, I was motivated to contribute to the parent organization. So, I signed up to be a mentor for Open Source Day(OSD), for summer and GHC. Eventually, I got a ticket to vGHC and am very thankful to the committee for the same. It was a nice experience being a part of OSD as a mentor for the Open SUSE and Greenpeace project. That not only inspired me to contribute more to open source but to also motivate others for the same.
During OSD, mentors and project admins came together to help the beginner participants in the project to start contributing. We started on a zoom call and encouraged everyone to make their first PRs to the project and kick start their open source journey as most of them were beginners. We got to know each other and came across like-minded people with similar ideas.
Overall, vGHC is not just any conference, it’s a pack of surprises where we can meet great people, network with professionals, share our idea, learn something new, listen to keynote speakers. It explains the definition of true women empowerment especially in the field of technology. I would like to join next year also, and hopefully, it’s going to be in-person and would also suggest you join. If you are a student, you can apply for the respective scholarship for the same.
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