What my time at Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference taught me

As I sift through my notes, tweets and voice recordings about my time at Girls in Tech…it’s worth summarising my key takeaways from my 3 days at Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference and what I learned.

We put on events such as Catalyst, to help other women succeed. To help other women (of whatever age) to be inspired, see success, learn from others and ultimately to drive change. 

Over 3 days of the Phoenix conference, 37 speakers and a few glasses of pinot noir, I was privileged and humbled to have heard from such talented and accomplished women and now call many of them friends. Among my highlights was Monique Morrow, CTO of New Frontiers Engineering at Cisco, who was an inspiration. She tells us that collaboration is the currency of the 21st century because you have to think about working in teams and working together in interdisciplinary and inter-generational teams. Morrow talks of millennials and the notion of ageism in today’s landscape – and that millennials can and should lead.

If you don't aim high for your own career, no one else will do it for you

Amy Bunzsel, VP Autodesk Products

There were many common threads weaved throughout the speakers of the Catalyst Conference, and my key takeaways were centred around:

1. Find your 'Sweet Spot'
2. Work/life balance 
3. Don't be afraid to take risks
4. Know your strengths
5. No one really knows what they're doing
6. You're more qualified than you think!

To read more in depth of the above key takeaways, visit my blog post on Miss Collective https://www.misscollective.com/what-my-time-at-girls-in-tech-catalyst-conference-taught-me/