International Women Day celebration by Google Women TechMakers

by Paavini Nanda

It was a event held on 24 March 2018 at the Google Bangalore office. I got to know that I had been selected to be a part of the event on 1 March. I was thrilled to attend this event since then. The best part was that they took care of all my travel and stay too.

As soon as we reached the venue, we were provided with the swag bags. 😎

It felt so good to see that the venue was full of women in technology belonging to diverse backgrounds. Ranging from undergrad students to working women with 10+ years of experience in the tech industry, we had them all.

We were served with breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and tea 😋. Every time we had a break, we would run to eat something tasty, get ourselves clicked with the new connections that we made (on the Google selfie booth) and have a chit chat with everyone around.

We had excellent speakers lined up. Sunita Mohanty ,the Director of Trust and Safety team at Google started the summit with the keynote speech. Listening to her own story, the ups and downs that she faced, and the 6 rules that she felt everyone should follow were noteworthy. She encouraged everyone to seek out for mentorships and suggestions whenever needed. Focusing on one’s own health is equally important, she mentioned.

Then there was a panel discussion headed by Sujatha Mukherjee which included four women. Each one of them had a different story and experience to share. They did have a common message — women need to collaborate, build their networks, support and empower each other.

Next was a android things Codelab session, which was awesome. We implemented the tesseract image detection using the hardware provided to us. It could detect whatever picture was being clicked using the camera. I was very excited as I was doing any hardware related thing for the first time in my life. Seeing the thing work got me on cloud nine.

Then there were lightening talks by Dimple Batra, Vandana Jaiswal and Sri Vidya who explained about the work that they were doing at Google.

In the end was a fireside chat with Viji Vennelakanti, a deep learning specialist. Active and passive learning is a important thing to look upon, she mentioned. She also gave us tips on how to build interest in whatever we do. Giving ourselves small rewards on accomplishments, even as small as a 25 minutes of active learning is always a good idea.

And the day finally ended. It was a wonderful experience meeting several other like minded women in technology. This summit made me more positive towards having a flourishing career in the tech industry.

A picture with the Google logo is a must 😛. P.S. I have henna on my left hand. Not posing, Google gets you henna too.

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