More than 100 people gathered in the Wojcik Conference Center to celebrate International Women’s Day by listening to successful women from the technology field.
According to AI instructor and event co-organizer Annabel Hasty, the Women In Tech conference was intended to break gender stereotypes and encourage women to pursue a future in tech. Hasty is an AI instructor at Harper College and helped in organizing the event.
“When I was growing up, nobody even suggested, ‘Maybe you should try computers?’” Hasty said. “It was always the men’s field. Now, I feel like there is a big shift happening, but there is still a lot that needs to happen to keep women in the field.”
Registration began at 8:30 a.m., and all attendees could help themselves to breakfast and a cup of tea or coffee.
Most attendees were women of various ages.
“I just want to be more aware of what events are happening and what people are talking about,” Harper sophomore Safa Shujath said. Safa attended the event with her sister Sara Shujath, who is in her freshman year. Both sisters are planning on pursuing a career in technology.
“I want to make connections and get used to conferences in general,” Sara Shujath said.
After the treats, the audience was ushered into room W120, the Wojcik Center’s amphitheater, to listen to Women In Tech organizer Martha Karavitis, who greeted everyone with an opening speech and well wishes for Women’s Day.
Dr. Maria Coons conducted another welcoming speech and proceeded to thank everyone involved in the organization of the event.
Then it was time for the keynote speaker – Corsaire CEO and former NASA information security operations manager V. Susan Peediyakkal. She spoke about her career journey and what inspired her to get into the technology field. Peediyakkal finished her speech by talking about burnout and the importance of soft skills, which are the skills generally associated with the more interpersonal aspects of work life.
After the keynote speaker, next was the IT Women Panel. Six women from the field took their time to talk about their experiences with careers in technology. The women also touched on topics like inequality, money and starting a family with such a career, and fielded questions from the audience as well.
After the conference, there was time for round table activities, in which participants could introduce themselves to panelists and organizers, talk to them more naturally and ask further questions.
“I liked the atmosphere, and that they had a variety of speakers from different backgrounds,” said Leilani Cervantes, a Schaumburg High School student who is not yet sure of her plans for the future.
The last part of the event was “Lunch & Learn,” where the attendees were treated to lunch and could listen to summary presentations on technology topics.
Judging from what she gleaned from the audience’s response to the conference, Karavitis has high hopes — not only for the futures of women going into tech, but also the future of Women In Tech as an event at Harper College.
“People seemed to enjoy it. I’m big on feedback, and we were lucky to have a survey. I will measure the success by looking at the data,” Karavitis said.
