Reflections from the United State of Women Summit

I have had a couple of days to reflect after attending the tremendous summit that was the United State of Women which was sponsored by the White House. I did not really understand what the full event was going to be, but was a bit skeptical.  So many times you attend these large events aimed at women and it is a lot of platitudes with no real discussion on how to move forward.  I was not totally prepared to take in all the information that was handed out by President Obama, Vice President Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, First Lady Michelle Obama and the host of women who spoke who are not household names.  

But before I dive into what I learned and what my take aways are, I need to discuss how this event fit into the context of world and personal events.  The two weeks leading up to the summit included news about the shameful sentencing of the Stanford rapist and the outpouring on social media, the continued “musing” of hate speech by the presumptive Republican Presidential candidate (it should be noted I will not be voting for him), the forgone conclusion our country will have its first female Presidential candidate, and the massacre of 50 people at a LGBT club. Couple this with my eldest son’s graduation from college, my niece’s wedding, and confirmation of TechGirlz working with 2500 girls in one year, and I am a swirl of emotions, both happy, sad, angry, and hopeful.

I began the Summit on Monday with a pre-conference on Entrepreneur Empowerment. This was about 150 women, so much smaller then Tuesday’s marquee event/ The sessions were very good, full of information, especially about how the SBA can help with providing funds. I am hoping to have a high level SBA representative come to talk to the Philly tech community. I don’t think this is really thought of as an option for funding. And if it is not a good option, I want to explore why.  I did learn the SBA is supporting women led funding groups with a two to one match.  It is called the SBIC program (Small Business Investment Company).

Tuesday was the big event.  I am not going to review the entire day. I recommend watching the videos the White House has put online or finding reporters versions of the soundbites and quotes. There were tons of statistics to support why we need to support women (like did you know women earn 79 cents on the dollar for what men make in comparable jobs, but African American and Hispanic women make significantly less than that?. I didn’t).  It was a bit of a commercial for the administration, but I did not realize how much this administration had done for the cause of women’s health, economics and family life.  Here is a good link worth exploring. There were talks on violence against women, not just here in the US, but also internationally, talks on closing the pay gap and the growing role of women in the workplace, the changing of culture to break down gender norms, and education for women.

I do recommend watching Biden’s speech as he talks urgently about violence against women. But, I urge you to watch President Obama’s speech which outlines the strides that have been made and the hope for the future of women in America. It is stirring and I will admit to crying at the end of it.

It is hard for me to describe the joy I felt during the day of being surrounded by 5000 women. It felt like a true sisterhood.

But, as I predicted, there were no actionable items you were left with, so what did I take away and what is my advice for other attendees as they come down off the high of such an event?

I came away reenergized to do the work that needs to be done to further women down the path.  I know that even though it was stressed time and time again that this is a great time to be a woman in the United States, there is still so much to be done.  I have my action items. It is to continue to slog it out on a day to day basis and do what I, and my team and my co- conspirators, are doing.  It is to continue to support each others work with words of encouragement, acts of kindness, and purposeful connections.  It is to make sure I am visible to other women to serve as an example and role model.  I do not say this in a narcissistic manner, but in truly understanding  that it is not just famous who are helping us make strides, but the ordinary women who are just as important as role models on a smaller scale.

I  also discovered that I could come further out of my shell than I ever thought I could.  Those who know me are chuckling because they think networking comes easily.  But it does not.  I was feeling so good about the idea of this event (and also happiness from the graduation just a few days before) that I think I unconsciously opened up. I came to the event by myself, I did know a few people, but did not have a safety net of constant companions.  So I made them at every corner, every line, every table, in the hallways. I easily introduced myself to others and made some valuable connections because of being so open.  Where I might be reticent about meeting someone who had a high position, I threw caution to the wind to talk to them.  I really did not know I had that type of spirit in myself and gaining this knowledge will make me less afraid in the future.  I gained so much by taking chances.

 What would I recommend to others? I will start with a story of a young women I meet while in the registration line. We exchanged who we are and what we do. She told me me about her work at a large company. She said she had been given a ticket at the last minute and was not sure what she wanted to get out of the conference. But she told me about how #BlackGirlMagic had inspired her to bring the African American women at her company together to meet once a month so they could support each other. I am not sure she truly understood how that one act was going to impact the group she formed. She did not think it was that big of a deal, I could tell by the way she had underplayed her role. Maybe it was because it was a newly formed group, But I know from experience that her reaching out to support other women and form a community, no matter how small, would be impactful.

The point of the story? Each of us can play a small role in creating change in your company, in your school, in your community.  You can decide what it looks like or what it is, but do something.  The speakers did not need to provide the tools, they provided the information of what needs to be done. Pick a small project, make a commitment to yourself to see it through, no excuses.  

 Change happens in little incremental steps, not in giant leaps.   

The United States of Women Summit - Pledge Your Next Action

Today I am preparing to attend the United States of Women Summit taking place in DC on Monday through Wednesday.  I am honored to be chosen for the work I do to encourage, inspire, mentor, and teach girls and women to consider careers in technology and tech startups.  I hope to spend some time with women in my regional community and meet some new contacts who are interested in the type of work I am doing. i also am excited to spend a day with likeminded women.  And if I get to see and hear Michelle Obama and Oprah speak, well, it will be a very good day, actually a really good day.  I am also speculating that a certain woman presidential candidate might make an appearance. I will have a lot to report back to my mom.

But I am all about what happens after a meeting, no matter what the size. Talk to anyone who has worked with me over the years and they will tell you I do not leave a meeting without action items. Otherwise, what was the point of meeting?  You talked to people, you learned a thing or two and then that is it.  And just as important as the action items is when the items will be completed.

When I look back on how TechGirlz moved from an idea in my head to the 5000 girls who have been through our TechShopz, when I think back on how Chariot Solutions went from a 10 person to 60 person company, when I see how the Women in Tech Summit has moved from our first event to three in one year, I know it was not just about the big idea, but the  many,small actionable steps we took along the way.

The next couple of days I will be making plans after I meet new people or reconnect with those I know. I will be listening, learning and then taking that information to formulate ideas with plans to execute on those ideas. I will have small steps to further the goals of my companies and groups I support.  

No one said change would be easy or fast. The real work begins on Thursday.

What actions will you be taking to make your pledge a reality? Please add your comments below or let me know on twitter (@twelsonrossman).  Make sure to use the #stateofwomen.

Philly Tech Week Schedule 2016 - Will it all fall into place?

Philly Tech Week is certainly a highlight of my spring.  It is a great way for me to see and reconnect with a ton of people I know in the tech scene, as well as, meet new people.  Besides that, I learn a lot. 

Chariot has been a supporter of Philly Tech Week (PTW) since the first year. Philly Startup Leaders Entrepreneurs Expo was born during PTW and TechGirlz has also benefitted from PTW with the start of the Women in Tech Summit.  It is amazing how it has grown over the years. Technically Philly has done a fantastic job!

As I viewed the calendar this year, I knew I was in trouble.  There are a lot of events I want to attend.  I am perhaps over ambitious in my current schedule, but I thought I would share where I will be. I will also share the events I could not get to, but wanted to, due to schedule conflicts.  

I will also be seeing how Septa and Uber or Lyft will help me during the week. And hopefully I will have some time to grab some good food while I am in the city. 

Thursday, 4/28 - Through A Prism: Why Diversity Matters in Tech and Design - Great topic, since Technology is not just about coding. Good design impacts how software and hardware products are used.  

The Startup Crawl looks good if you don't want to trek out to the Navy Yard.

Friday, 4/29  - PTW16 Kickoff at Dilworth Plaza- hoping the weather holds out for this one!

Due to a schedule conflict, I can't go to Creative Mornings in Philadelphia with Todd Carmichael or Techniculture with Sree Sreenviasan, Chief Digital Officer of the Met.  I wish I could do both, sad I can't get to either!

Monday 5/2 - Philadelphia Health and Sciences Future - with Philly a mecca for the health and bio industry, I want to hear what the future holds.  It will help me plan some of Chariot's future direction.

Then off to - Let's Talk Tech run by my friends at Slice.  There is always more to learn about press and media relations

And then I am going to try and be in two places at once, but I don't think it is going to work.

TechGirlz is the beneficiary of the proceeds from the How Can Philly Be the Gender Equity Capital discussion at the Pyramid Club.  Beside the donation, I like a panel that is showcasing the how of change!

Now that starts at 6 and starting at 6:30 is the Mayoral Tech Town Hall.  I am always interested to see how the city government will be helping and participating with the tech community.  We shall see if I can do both. If not, Karen Stellabotte, TechGirlz Program Director, will be at this one and can give me a run down. 

Tuesday 5/3 another busy day has me starting at Transforming Tomorrow Today.  I love that this put on by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission discussing how emerging technologies are changing our region.
Then it is off to Curalate's open house (and maybe a quick stop at Hip City Vedge) before heading back to the Rad Girl Awards where they were nice enough to nominate me as Tech Educator of the Year.
There are several conflicting events that are too numerous to mention, so I suggest checking out May 3 for yourself. It looks like there are a few events that were added after I made my schedule.

Dev Days is on 5/4.  I will be manning the Chariot table at the Dev Days event (and Sujan Kapadia, one of our senior architects will be teaching Intro to Scala in the morning).   The evening will see me at the Women in Tech Soiree and PSL's Entrepreneur Expo. and the Dev Days Happy Hour.

Thursday 5/5 has me starting at my own office with our CTO, Aaron Mulder, teaching a workshop on Ionic for mobile apps.  The workshop is sold out. I would like to go to the Digital Health Evolution Conference or the Intersection of Poverty and Data, but those pesky "other obligations" are in the way. I will be headed to From Philly to DC: Building Inclusive Tech Communities followed by Mindful Startups, where Grant Hartman, a Chariot co-worker and mindfulness proponent, will be speaking.

I won't be at the closing event this year because I have an important family obligation, but you can't be everywhere.

This schedule is subject to change based on many factors including transportation, if my map planning skills actually are in tact, could I fit something else in the schedule and did I need to stop to eat!

Here's to a great Philly Tech Week! Follow my week @twelsonrossman on Twitter and Instagram.

For whom are you designing your website?

The TechGirlz team decided mid-year that we needed to redesign our website. We have been experiencing a good amount of growth as we were executing on our vision and strategy. This growth had us adding more pages to our site and it was becoming unwiedly. We needed a new design.

Becca, TechGirlz co-webmaster and graphics designer (of the many things she does), decided to take on the redesign. (As a note, Becca is also my marketing assistant at Chariot. She had recently taken on a project, under the guidance of my coworker, Ken, and wanted to expand upon her knowledge and experience). 

Before we have even looked at a new design, Becca started with a site map. She worked with the stakeholders on the TechGirlz team, since they are her clients, and clarified their goals and frustrations with our current site. Then she and I sat down to discuss the flow.

As we started reviewing the site map plans, we had a discussion about who would be using the site.  Understanding our audience and what their needs would be, helped us think through the flow of how one of the members of the different audiences would go go through the site.  

After 5 years of TechGirlz, we understand our audience is comprised of parents who want to have their girls involved in tech, people who want to volunteer, people who want to use our materials for their programs/organizations, potential funders, and press/media.  Most people assume because of our name, the girls would be the biggest audience for our website and that is not the case.

If you are a new service or product, you will have hypothesis of who your audience is. Talking to your clients, not only will help your sales and define your product/service, but will also help you understand what information you need to feed them.

After revising the site map, we went and had a review by trusted advisors and potential visitors to make sure we did not miss anything obvious (sometimes another set of eyes is a good thing to catch a really dumb mistake).  This second set of reviews also allows for some new ideas.  Sometimes, you think you know everything, but you really don’t. 

Even if you are hiring an outside firm to design and implement your site, they do not know the people you are trying to reach as well as you do.  Make sure that does not get lost in color and image selection, platform choice, etc.

New Year's Resolutions 2016

Last year, I wrote this post while drinking some very good wine at the bar at Abe Fisher's while waiting for my family to join me for dinner.  It is a little earlier in the day this year, so no drinks to help me get started, but I guess that shows I don't need to drink to help me get started writing. 

I have decided this is going to be a tradition.  After reviewing my post, I realized that writing down my resolutions did help me be more aware of most of them.  I did forget a few.  I can also go back and see if I did a decent job of keeping them or at least making progress.  I will go back to a word I used - accountability.  Resolutions and goals are useless without having someone to be accountable to, even if it is yourself.  I think I would add some new words - a plan of action - to help me do even better.

So, here is what I resolve for 2016:

-Being nicer to those closest to me.  I will admit that I can be flippant, short, not thoughtful, and take them for granted.  This was on my list for this year and I do not think I did a good job of making progress.  I am putting alot of thought into how I can be better.

-I am keeping not eating mediocre food on here again.  This is the third year for this one.  And this is not about going to the most expensive restaurant or the most sought after place to get a coveted reservation, it is about eating good food.  I believe food is to be enjoyed and paying for food that is sub par is just not something I want to choose to do.  At least if you are going to have a meal with me, you will be well feed.

-I will continue to say yes more often.  I read an article about Amy Poehler in June and she lived by this for improv.  Saying yes to suggestions keeps my negativity from talking me out of projects, ideas, events that can be great for me!  That does not mean I don't assess some of the risks, so don't ask me to jump off a building, but I may be more likely to not stay at home if you ask me to go to a concert on a "school" night or take that speaking engagement.  More experiences are better for me to grow as a person. I talk myself out of too many opportunities.

- I need to get back to learning French and now Italian.  I was not consistent in 2015 so back on the wagon!  I am going to try and find someone who wants to learn with me.

This is a pretty good list and I think I can stick to it.

Here is to a good, exciting, healthy, adventurous, prosperous happy New Year.

How Philly Can Be the Capital of Gender Equality in Tech

I was recently asked to write an article for Philly Magazine on Philadelphia and our role in creating a more gender rich tech community.  The original article is here, but if you are too comfortable on this page, below is the article

If you’ve been watching certain aspects of the news over the last 18 months that aren’t focused on the Pope coming to Philadelphia, the race for president, or the opening of Star Wars, you may have heard about the current and constantly increasing shortage of workers in the technology space. The U.S. Department of Labor has been forecasting a shortfall of 1 million technology jobs in less than five years.
Being part of the tech industry has made me acutely aware of the reality that supports the barrage of statistics. My company, Chariot Solutions, is a great example, as we can’t find enough experienced, top-notch software architects to meet demand.

One way to ultimately resolve the shortage of tech professionals would be to get more women into the field. Stats show that only 27 percent of women in science, engineering, math and tech careers are women, while those women who are software engineers clock in at around 13 to 15 percent. If you consider women are currently more than half of the workforce and earn 57 percent of the bachelor’s degrees, there's a major mismatch.

The lack of gender diversity is not just a social-good issue, it's an economic one. Tapping into this pool to expand the region’s technology and innovation workforce will allow our region’s businesses to grow and thrive. And, remember, technology isn’t just “coding.” It’s game design, cyber security, robotics, multimedia, smart fabrics, medical devices and a multitude of things that we haven’t even discovered yet.
The Philadelphia region is already set up to be a leader in gender equality in tech. A recent study showed Philadelphia as the 9th best city for women in tech, with women filling over 30 percent of the computer occupations and having the smallest gender pay gap. Our community has an incredible amount of resources for women who are looking to be involved in tech, including the largest chapter of Girl Develop It in the country, the Women in Tech Summit, LadyHacks, and of course, my favorite, TechGirlz. Contrary to what we hear about other cities, our tech community is extremely generous and welcoming to anyone who wishes to join.
 

 But more needs to be done. There are not enough girls coming up through schools to fill the rapidly growing number of positions created by technology. So, what can Philadelphia do to continue to be a leader in gender diversity in tech?

• Inspire our large tech workforce to share their skills and expertise. TechGirlz is not lacking for girls who want to learn, we are lacking for instructors who have the knowledge to teach our materials.
• Educate our parents and teachers about the variety of career options available and also why being proficient in technology makes you more employable, even if you think technology isn't part of the career path. This group has a profound influence on the career decisions of young people.
• Encourage K-12 schools and universities to take a hard look at how they are educating young women around tech. The education system needs to incorporate a curriculum that teaches technology, not just the use of iPads and computers to deliver courses. The curricula must also be inspiring and resonate with girls and young women. This is an issue we hear time and time again from our attendees and volunteers.
• More collaboration between organizations, for profit and not for profit, whose goals are similar. Sharing resources — space, curricula, volunteers, constituents, marketing — allows us to create stronger solutions. No one person or group owns the problem. No one owns the ultimate answer. One reason for the current success of the girls and women in the Philly tech community is due to our ability to work together.
• Create more internship and learning opportunities. Although it is an investment for businesses, having internships and hiring less experienced employees will create the next generation of experienced workers. Where else are they going to learn the skills?
• Work smarter to retain the women who are coming into these tech careers. Companies should look not only at their culture to see if it supports biases, but also at their benefits, work environments and flexibility to keep women in their employ.
• Women who are in the tech field already need to be much more visible. Philadelphia women in tech should be more proactive and take the initiative to start speaking at more local events, attending events and being mentors.

Philadelphia already has the means to support gender diversity in tech and be a leader in the innovation economy — it just needs the support from a workforce that can execute. We already have all the building blocks in place. Now we just need you. The tech community cannot create this change on their own. We need business leaders, educators, parents, government officials and community organizations to join together and take the actions, those outlined above and others, to spark change. Let’s make the Philadelphia region the envy of other cities by having a large and inclusive tech workforce that drives our economic growth and success.

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/business/2015/12/29/philly-gender-tech/#3VqCFf0E5vmgCq7Z.99

Everyone Sells

The other day as I was leaving my local Target store, I was asked by 3 young men to help them pay for their college education. They were clearly selling something that was contained in the binder they all held, but I had no idea what it was.  I politely declined before finding out what they had, it could have been something I was in need of.  As I was walking towards my car, I thought about turning around and give them some advice on how to better frame their sales pitch. I figured they may not be willing to listen to unsolicited advice, so I drove home.

But, it got me thinking.  If I had given them some advice, what would I tell them. Even though it was a short ride home, I kept thinking that some of my points could be used in many situations since almost all of us is selling something at some point.  Just because you are not making a living in sales, does not mean you are not selling an idea to your colleagues, a raise to your boss, a change in curfew to your parents.

Tell people what you are selling
Seems simple, but sometimes we forget to state the obvious.  What is being sold.  By starting their sales pitch without letting me know what they had to sell, they had lost me from the start.

It is not about you, it is about them
Because the young men in my story started their pitch with “help me pay for college”, they had lost me from the start. They looked like nice young men, but why did I want to help them?  As good as most people are, when we are buying a product, service, etc, the seller needs to understand the benefits to their customer.  Even if you are trying to get a raise, there still needs to be a benefit to the person you are selling the idea of the raise.

Sometimes you need to listen and ask some questions
Now if these young men had completed a few of these steps, the next piece of advice is to listen to the person you are selling to and make sure you ask some questions. Understanding what motivates someone to what or need what you are selling makes it easier for you to sell it to them.

These are just a few basic things to consider when you are looking have someone buy from you.  I forget about them from time and time. When I review why a sales situation did not go as well as it could have, many times it is because I did not follow my own instructions!