Friday, July 19, 2013

Women in tech


I have to say I loved the Berlin Geekettes panel yesterday at the Apple Store about women in tech that make positive social impact. I choose not to go to all events happening in Berlin because you can get dizzy with everything that is happening in this city, but would love to go more to this type of community events, missed them actually, as I am in part a woman in tech and I am trying to have a positive impact. ;-)

Jess Erickson (@jessjerickson, Founder of Berlin Geekettes) did a seamless moderation and all the panelists answered from the heart, crisp and straight to the point, no long boring answers. They were: Daniela Schiffer (@changerscom, Cofounder of Changers), Keyun Ruan (@ruankeyun, CRO for XENSIX), Ida Tin (@idatin, Cofounder of HelloClue) and Jeannette Gusko (@jeanneraffut, Senior Campaigner, Change.org).

Got to know that according to Deutscher Startup Monitor there is only a 13% of founders that are women still. I have experienced this in Spain where I co-founded HUB Madrid and having coordinated the Women, Enterprise and Technology (mentoring program at IE Business School at that moment -now no longer there- in partnership with Research in Motion), but wasn´t aware of the situation in Germany yet.

I loved the questions posed to the panelists, which made me think about them myself like who is the source of your inspiration, when did you realise you wanted to be in tech, if you got encouragement or not, the financial issues, etc. I loved the comments about Keyun Ruan about how she loves pink and just cries a lot (being myself one of the latter), and being confident and concrete in here contributions to show what she is worth at her job by action, instead of words. Enjoyed also the remark about having a supportive partner, whether you are a lady or a man, something very important! There were some extraordinary women in the room as well, a pitty I could not stay longer, but for sure there will be more opportunities!



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