Women4Cyber Romania: From Dream to facts

It is the eve of Easter in Romania, a predominantly Orthodox country. It is the time of resurrection, so it is more alive than ever the memory of how five founders, two key-ambassadors and a few supporters organized head-to-tail the launch of the National Chapter of Women4Cyber Romania, on 21 March 2024.

But let me introduce you the story of this launch event

Women4Cyber Romania is a national Chapter within the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) - W4C Foundation initiative, aiming to support women in the ICT/Cyber field to find the right resources and connections in order to help them grow into a solid professional community.

It was 27 October 2023 and the beginning of a journey, when ECSO – Women4Cyber Foundation approved the informal functioning of the Women4Cyber Romania National Chapter. For this, the founders wrote an application assuming some objectives from the Foundation's roadmap, and few years ago Liliana Musetan and Dan Cimpean, the two key ambassadors, had the intention of it.

Spreading a lot of enthusiasm at that moment, we, the five passionate founders - Fraga Tariuc, Orsolya Bakó, Octavia Lojnita, Daniela Tapi, Maria Ghica - thought of organizing a small launch meeting, with speeches by the key ambassadors and the founders. But immediately we realized that we had no presentation roll-up, and of course we needed a room, we needed a sponsor, and many other things.

In the end, we paid for a meal at a restaurant with tradition, at the intersection of Victoriei (Victory) and Francez? (French) Streets (what a promising European match!), where the instrumentalists Valentin Albe?teanu and Valentin Cucu accompanied with the "Ode to Joy" the staging of an upcoming conference.

We also set the date for that launch event: March 21st, and draw the first script, in draft, on a napkin. And yes, we had the roll-up with the help of Erol Sefchi, a man owning what society calls a physical limitation, but in fact it is the particularity that brought him to where he stands today as an entrepreneur.

Ever since, after launching our LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, we started building a website and organizing a #presentation #online #webinar on 8 February 2024, but mostly a #high-#level #conference on 21 March 2024, to celebrate the #official #launch.?

?The idea takes some action to evolve: How we translated the plan to reality

Among the professional contacts I had on LinkedIn, several young Romanian leaders with beautiful energy, had attracted my attention. I thought of writing them one by one, and depending on the answer to move up to the next.

And I started with Bogdan, since I would have liked to have the launch at the headquarters of a multinational company and because there had been an industrial platform dedicated to the processing of small parts. But especially because in the immediate vicinity is the campus of the largest Polytechnic University in the country. And Women4Cyber means education and entrepreneurship, in a partnership between academic, public and private environments.

I briefly presented my idea, and the answer was 'Yes!' There, on the LinkedIn messenger. In a second.

As 'Yes!' was also Fraga answered by Vlad.

We had all the support from Brussels, and Nina's enthusiasm in saying: 'Yes!' gave us wings.

But not everything was so easy, although from distance it seemed so. Days after the event, I gathered some #lessons #learnt. I am sharing them with you, mentioning that these are my personal views, and with the thought that one might find some inspiration or comfort in front of similar difficulties, while reading this lines.

How to work in an ad-hoc team

It is known that the hardest thing is to resist the impulse not to challenge the opinion of the experts. That's how human nature is built, to criticize even when one has nothing to say. But, most of the time, we don't know that we have nothing to say in relation to the experts. It's called self-sufficiency. Or simply our limited experience causes us to look at only one side of the coin. Or maybe the panic in front of failure.

Inside an ad-hoc team, it's worse, since you don't even know if you really have the experts onboard, or not. Since there are so many different things to be solved, requiring different expertise and expectations, you can only trust one's word claiming specific expertise.

The issue? can be magnified exponentially when the parties come from different regions of the country, with different cultures, and even from a multinational and multicultural environment.

Now I look back and and I find it impressive how well we overcame the difficulties around organizing the Women4Cyber Romania launch event, largely due to the lack of resources and the immense pressure. And yes, we have gathered ourselves to work together quickly and efficiently, although there were some moments when it seemed the opposite.

To summarize it, this event showed us how hard it is when you actually get to the fair, and stop selling online. But we got there on time.

It takes an idea to begin, and teamwork to transform aspirations into reality

1. We started with the idea of two discussion panels, focusing on public institutions, academic and private environments. We ended up with three, because everyone said 'Yes!', from the start. And we couldn't withdraw our invitations, could we? But this is how we ended up organizing a high level international event, benefiting from the experience of high level guests.
2. When one comes up with the idea of creating a short presentation video, is also assuming the coordination of it, since there are so many other tasks to do, right? After exchanging 42 emails, several phone calls and chats with Alexandra, we reached an authentic video, introducing Women4Cyber Romania. Even so, Liliana discovered at the last moment that the image was not of the building being talked about in the video. Even so, an oversight on the day of the event resulted in a draft being projected on the screen, instead of the final video. But I learned that by admitting the error, the audience will love you.
3. I learned that it is also called team, when someone takes on tasks that he/she may not even know he/she can't accomplish. And someone else has to pick them up on short notice, maybe 20 minutes before the deadline.
4. I've found out that one needs to work to exhaustion if the resources are dramatically limited. And there are still critics. Just as there are people who appreciate you.
5. I learned that not everybody understand that the transparent communication doesn't mean personal failure, but the fact that it can save your team and event from failure. Otherwise, you're stuck, risking everything if the remaining time is not enough. Or the resources lack. Please review points 3 and 4.
6. We learned that one from the founders can take over a discussion panel on the fly if the moderator gets sick. That another one can create huge amounts of content, and even be the master of ceremonies. That another can find the right contacts and logistics, if needed. Or that the fourth one can do many diverse things. And that the fifth of us is excellent at organizing.
7. We learned that a professional disciplined and attentive to details like Corina can half ensure the success of the event. And we understood why Bogdan trusted her to be the host on his behalf.
8. We found out how many and how much... people need to be pleased the day before the event. From the press, guests, physical or online participants.
9. We learned that it's mandatory to check all the emails even 5 minutes before the event. And that without discipline, the event agenda might be delayed.
10. We learned that special guests have graced us with their presence and this compels us to go further to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.

Evolving

On 21 March 2024, we celebrated the facts: we put Romania on the Women4Cyber Chapters' page: https://women4cyber.ro .

But we need to keep on growing, within the right community and using the right connections.

We use to say: if the 'connection' happens to be a woman, that's great. And if it happens to be a man, it is excellent, because women and men together polish the future of this world.

The birth of the national Chapter took place with passionate people getting in touch. From face-to-face and online meetings with representatives of the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) , members of the Women4Cyber Foundation , or with the ones who finally turned into our dedicated Key-Ambassadors, or with the wonderful volunteers.

From that moment on, the Women4Cyber Romania needs many more to grow. And the right word is 'together', since only together we build a community.