So what happened 2 years ago?

Almost 2 years ago, on March 23, 2019, I organized Women Techmakers Salt Lake City's International Women's Day conference. It was a bittersweet moment for me. I was happy knowing that I was making history with this event. Sad because I knew this would be my last event in Salt Lake City. I was moving to San Francisco in the coming month, and I had to break it to the rest of the organizers that day, who became my family!

Did things go wrong?

Of course, yes! The swag got delivered to the billing address instead of the shipping address. We also had a speaker cancellation before the event. Biggest of all, once I used non-inclusive promo materials for the event. #neverever

Where did it all go right:

Speakers!!!

I got to hear from excellent speakers like Sara Jones (CEO of Inclusion Pro, Co-founder and COO of Women Tech Council), Alicia Garcia (Executive VP People & Places at MasterControl), Amanda Fisher (Product Manager at Beta Bionics), Eshaani Esha (Senior Salesforce Administrator - DevOps at Western Governors University), Jenny Heiner (UX/UI Designer @ Divvy Inc), Karen Sun (CTO at Dwello), Karen Vazques (Learning Experience Designer at WGU), Michelle Kuo (Managing Partner at JumpSearch Recruiting), Miriah Peterson (Data Engineer at Weave), Oindrilla Sen (Software Engineer II at Western Governors University), Sarah Baughman (Full Stack Software Engineer at Openforce), Tanei Atagi Henry (Founder, Provo Girls Summit) and Tejaswini Vaidya (Sr Director - Financial Services at InComm)!

Their talks influenced me. We gave opportunity to many first time speakers and there was no way you could tell if they were first timers or a seasoned speaker. :)

Note: Since the time they spoke at IWD conference, some were promoted or changed jobs. Their job association mentioned here is the most recent, as per LinkedIn.

Supportive Sponsors!!!

Without 💰 this event would not have been possible. Big shoutout to the Women Techmakers program @ Google, Divvy, MasterControl, Weave, Jane.com for supporting the event financially. We were able to provide childcare facility, mothers room, many swags and giveaways.

#IAmRemarkable Workshop and You!!!

I was contemplating for a while regarding what to do in the workshop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the session to prepare myself to become a facilitator, so whatever I knew about running this workshop was via google search. Two days before the event, something very unpredictable happened, which made me realize I need to convert my weaknesses into strengths. And what better way than to scream out loud - hell yeah! I AM REMARKABLE! While I’ll cover more about that in a TED talk, whenever that happens, I took the first step towards sharing my story. I had the courage! Courage to take control of my life in my own hands. Talking about my personal life in public was something I have never done before. And truth be told, I never imagined myself doing that ever. However, the willingness to move on from things that no longer serve any purpose in life was strong. In plain simple words, I FOUND ME in that workshop while facilitating. Someone confident. Someone happy in her life. It will be blatant a lie if I don’t admit things have not been the same since then.

I took the opportunity to share my own story and hear from many attendees and their stories, which inspired me and motivated me. That comforted me. I found that I’m not alone. Considering the reviews and the feedback I received after the event, it looks like it changed their lives too. I also found many new friends whom I still cherish! 😇

You can find photos of the event here.

While I took a break in 2020 from the community and was not a part of IWD celebrations, I’m super super excited to welcome 2021 with 2 events! How to be a part of the celebration, you ask?

• There’s an International Women’s Day North America Summit on March 12-13, 2021. Register here. You’ll get the opportunity to hear from a fantastic lineup of speakers and have the chance to win some awesome raffle prizes: Google Cloud Credits ($200 USD per voucher), Leadership Skills Workshop, Mentorship Sessions. PS: You might see me in a cameo appearance.🤓
• I’m also helping organize and speaking at Coast 2 Coast IWD Celebration on March 26, 2021. The workshop title is “Reframing Your Narrative” - where I’ll help write a great LinkedIn bio! More details TBD.

(…and yes, they are both free to attend!)

I am super pumped to see you at both the events! Just like the event in 2019 changed my life, I hope this year’s IWD event changes yours too! ❤️

#CouragetoCreate #IWDNASummit #IWD #WomenTechmakers #GoogleDevelopers