Fortune 100 Lunch and Learn Series 2021 Recap: Trifecta Approach to Building Strategic Relationships with Google

, , , , , ,

On June 18th, 2021, Google partnered with Women in Cloud to host the “Fortune 100 Lunch and Learn Series”. This event connected female founders and entrepreneurs of cloud-based companies with key leaders from the industry—while placing an emphasis on inclusivity and empowerment. Through a power panel, cloud solution showcase, and roundtable experience with Google advisors, attendees learned how to conduct business with Fortune 100 companies.

Google has a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In March, they announced partnerships with several organizations—including Women In Cloud—to support the rise of women in the technology industry. Google’s role in these partnerships is to host educational events, supply technical content for training programs, mentor, provide financial support, and provide Google Cloud developers who will speak at conferences. They made strides towards these goals when they sponsored the #CloudJobs Recruitment Lounge at the Women in Cloud International Women’s Day Summit and co-hosted the #ChooseToChallenge Power Panel. The Lunch and Learn series aimed to build on these foundations by assisting entrepreneurs in their journey to create economic impact.  

In addition to their external efforts, Google employees demonstrate the company’s internal commitment to supporting women entrepreneurs. Jeana Jorgensen—senior director and product marketer at Google Cloud—is a pioneer for the empowerment of women in tech. As the power talk panelist at the “Fortune 100 Lunch and Learn Series”, Jorgenson facilitated access by sharing the “Trifecta Approach to Building Strategic Relationships with Google”.

According to the World Economic Forum, addressing gender inequality post-pandemic will be substantially more difficult than it is today. Intervention in the present is more pressing than ever—which is why companies must ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are key pillars in their plans for recovering from COVID-19. Google’s pledge to this movement comes at a crucial time and serves as a role model for other corporation’s role in the empowerment of women in technology.

Learn More:

#WICxFortune100 Lunch & Learn Series is an intimate and curated networking experience designed to open the doors for leading fortune companies and brands to connect with technology business builders. This intimate learning series offers a space to learn about how to do business with Fortune companies, understand their company culture, and get access to decision-makers and procurement officers.

/by

Women in Cloud, in partnership with M12 and IBM, honors eight role models at the inaugural #empowHERaccess Awards Ceremony

, , , , , ,

The #empowHERaccess Inaugural Awards celebrates the achievements of 8 winners who facilitated economic access and recovery for women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and recognizes the contributions to the cloud ecosystems made by both individuals and organizations. The awards are supported by corporate and private brands such as M12, IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Boeing, Insight and others.Seattle, Washington– According to McKinsey, centering women around economic recovery efforts would grow the global GDP by an estimated $13 trillion, or 16 percent, by 2030 — because when women thrive, so do their families and communities. A report from Kaspersky published in January found that roughly half of the 6,500 women surveyed believed that the pandemic had hurt them professionally.

The #empowHERaccess digital advocacy campaign seeks to raise awareness about the magnified impact of COVID-19 on women, promote stories of women’s professional resilience, especially in technology entrepreneurship, and accelerate economic recovery.

The #empowHERaccess Inaugural Awards celebrates the achievements of 8 winners who facilitated economic access and recovery for women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and recognizes the contributions to the cloud ecosystems made by both individuals and organizations. The awards are supported by corporate and private brands such as M12, IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Boeing, Insight, Consulate of Canada and Meylah. Over 100 applications were submitted and 26 were chosen as finalists for 8 awards.

Winners were announced in a virtual awards ceremony on July 16, 2021 at the #WICxInspire 2021 event, hosted by TEDx speaker and entrepreneur Patti Dobrowolski, along with board advisor and M12 executive Catherine Mulachy.

Commendations for transformative industry achievements to increase access for women included the IBM Supplier of the Year Award, Accenture: Innovative Partnership of the Year Award, Microsoft Digital Transformation of the Year Award, M12: Outstanding Leadership Award and Insight Cloud Solution of the Year Award and Meylah Cloud Deal of the Year Award. Women in Cloud also honored two impactful community partners with the Advisor of the Year Award and Investor of the Year Award. The #empowHERaccess Award Ceremony, which took place on July 16th at the #WICxInspire event, awarded eight leaders who facilitated economic access and stable recovery to women in tech.

#empowHERaccess Inaugural Award Winners 2021: 

Accenture: Innovative Partnership of The Year AwardMicrosoft: Digital Transformation of the Year AwardM12: Outstanding Leadership AwardInsight: Cloud Solution Of the Year Award
Sonya Shorey, Invest Ottawa | Vice President, Strategy, Marketing and CommunicationsKathy Durfee, TechHouse | CEO & FounderSara Menker, Gro Intelligence | CEO & FounderSheffie Robinson, Shamrck Education | CEO & Founder
WiC: Advisor of the Year AwardMeylah: Cloud Deal of The Year AwardIBM: Supplier of the Year AwardWiC: Investor of the Year Award
Lisa Opoku, Goldman Sachs | Partner, Chief Operating Officer of EngineeringKaren Fassio, Microsoft | Director, WW Partner MarketingChristine Puccio, F5 | VP, Global Cloud AlliancesSharon Vosmek, Astia | CEO

“The winners of the #empowHERaccess Awards understand that the roadmap to generating infinite economic access is driven by sustainable collective action. Our winners are thought leaders, innovators, and champions of change, and we are proud to be able to celebrate their achievements and work through these awards,” said Chaitra Vedullapalli, CEO and Co-Founder of Women in Cloud.

The #empowerHERaccess Awards will return in 2022, with nominations set to open in January 2022. To learn more about the award winners, please visit the winner page at https://www.womenincloud.com/empowheraccess-inaugural-award-categories/

About the #empowHERaccess Digital Campaign:

#empowHERaccess is an annual digital advocacy campaign by Women in Cloud to generate greater economic access for women in technology. Launched in 2020, the campaign has reached over 600,000 women all around the world. The 2021 #empowHERaccess campaign is bringing together a number of facets to better understand the global crisis this pandemic has created for women entrepreneurs, and celebrate the many stories of pivots and perseverance.

The #empowHERaccess Inaugural Awards recognize the contributions to the cloud ecosystems made by both individuals and organizations, supported by corporate brands such as M12, IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Insight and Meylah.

For more information, visit: https://www.womenincloud.com/empowheraccess-campaign/

/by

WICxInspire 2021: Announcing the Finalists for the #CloudInnovateHERxDigital Pitch Challenge

, , , , , ,

Women in Cloud and TIE Seattle are excited to announce the #CloudInnovateHER Pitch Challenge finalists. Special congratulations to our 6 finalists that will be pitching their solutions on Thursday, July 15th as they compete for the chance to win $5,000 in cash and credits and become eligible to win $100K at the TIE Global Pitch Challenge. The experience is sponsored by iCertis and Ally.

WICxInspire 2021: Announcing the finalists for the #cloudinnovateherxdigital pitch challenge

Advocat AI – Advocat AI is a platform for enterprise business users and in-house attorneys. It provides conversational intake, legal research and AI-enhanced drafting, because Advocat believes that Legal should help business get done..

Oneva – Onēva Concierge Care is a technology platform, offered as an Employer Provided Benefit. It connects employees at global employers to FBI background-checked caregivers offering in-home: Infant, Child and Elder care, Housekeeping, Pet Care, and Massage. Designed to meet enterprise grade security and GDPR standards, it’s available for deployment domestically and in the EU so no employee is forced to choose between work and family

Smart Foods Caribbean Limited – Crop Mate is a smart farming device which offers timely, accurate and easily accessible information directly from plants and the soil to help farmers plan for rain, conserve water, and reduce crop loss.

Locelle Digital Inc – helps companies attract, develop and retain top female talent through tailored mentorship using technology.

rThreat is a breach and attack emulation platform that challenges your cyber defenses using real world and custom threats in a secure environment.

SaaSMAX Corp builds robust intelligent solutions that enable sales teams and marketers in the B2B tech sector to optimize their indirect sales channels.

The #CloudInnovateHER Pitch Challenge which was designed to help women tech entrepreneurs across global markets develop, showcase and win enterprise customers. This competition was designed to provide economic access and industry visibility to women tech entrepreneurs while also giving them an opportunity to present technologies that create a sustainable impact in today’s world.

Secure your spot with a complimentary ticket to watch the pitch challenge.

To learn more about the pitch challenge, visit the landing page.

/by

#WICxInspire 2021 : 4 Reasons Why You Don’t Want to Miss Out

, , , , , , ,

Women in Cloud is excited to share that for the third year in a row, we will be hosting our signature event, #WICxInspire, in tandem with Microsoft Inspire. This signature event is designed as a multi-day networking experience to create INFINITE ACCESS for our community. Experiences include thought-leadership power talks, diverse recruiting, and curated business development for female technology founders and leaders.

4 Reasons Why You Don’t Want to Miss Out: 

  • Grow your business via strategic development and relationship building 
  • Meet and greet with industry executives
  • Feel connected, experience the reunion
  • Join the movement & contribute to the UN Sustainable Goals

If you sign up today, you will be entered to win one of three special experiences in the next couple of months:

  1. Virtual Meet and Greet with Gavriella Schuster (only 20 spots available)
  2. VIP dinner in Seattle with Microsoft Executives (only 15 spots available)
  3. VIP Dinner in SFO, Seattle and NY with WiC Board of Advisors and Leaders (only 15 spots available)

Secure your spot

About #WICxInspire 2021: 

#WICxInspire is a multi-day networking experience with thought-leadership power talks, diverse recruiting, and curated business development to connect female tech founders and showcase their technology solutions with enterprise buyers, investors, and influencers. 

Our intention for this event is to increase access for our community members. By creating opportunities for diverse recruitment, professional development, and business scaling, we can engage diverse talent, activitate the community, and empower each other to be innovators and leaders within the technology space. 

Agenda:

Women In Cloud Inspire 2021 Event Agenda
Reasons to Attend WIC Microsoft Inspire 2021

Logistics:

  • Dates: July 15-16, 2021 
  • Times: (subject to change/varies by day)
    •  July 15: 1:00pm- 6:00pm PST 
    • July 16: 11:00am- 4:00pm PST

The conference will be held via the Remo platform. Special thanks to our partners at Remo for helping us put this event together. 

Layout: 

Remo Layout For WIC Inspire2021

For more details about the event and to see the speaker line up, visit: https://www.womenincloud.com/wicxinspire/



/by

Women In Cloud was named one of the Best Accelerators in Seattle by Benzinga

, , , , ,

Women in Cloud is proud to announce that we have been recognized as the Best Women-Led Businesses Accelerator in Seattle by Benzinga Magazine. The “10 Best Accelerators in Seattle, Ranked” article highlights 10 local accelerators with different niches which  provide access to training, funding, mentorship, and scaling for startups in a variety of industries. These accelerators were named the best because of their involvement in the local community, transparency, and implementation of practical standards. Women in Cloud was named top 7 overall and the best for female entrepreneurs because of its emphasis on using cloud hyperscalers, distribution channels, and partner resources to help women co-build, co-market, and co-sell to businesses. Checkout the “10 Best Accelerators in Seattle, Ranked” in Benzinga Magazine. 

Women in Cloud Cohort 6.0 will kickoff in August 2021. If you are interested, please signup today.

/by