One year in WiT!
Women in Tech York is one year old in June and I feel like we’ve come on quite far from our first event, upstairs in that tiny, sweaty room at the Royal Oak. I wanted to write a little blog to look back at our first year, to celebrate how far we’ve come.
We pride ourselves on being inclusive, and welcome all interested in Tech and passionate about addressing the gender imbalance within tech.
Why did we start?
The idea came from a love of tech and a love of York. Women in Tech meetups exist all over the country and the world. We found ourselves traipsing to Leeds, Nottingham, London to attend these amazing meetups, and continuously wished we had one in York. We knew there already was a well-established tech community in York, but no Women in Tech event. We now proudly sit alongside the other tech meetups, making York a great place for people in Tech.
Our inaugural event
For our first event, we hired the room in the top of the Royal Oak. A lovely pub, with an event space that would have looked busy even with 5 people. I knew there was interest in a Women in Tech group in York, but when we reached the full capacity of the room within 48 hours of putting the event live I was absolutely blown away. I genuinely didn’t expect it to be that well received!
The year that followed
Over the past year we’ve had the pleasure of listening to a diverse range of talks and workshops, ranging from AI and Quantum Computing to Imposter Syndrome. With every event I am blown away by how interesting our speakers are, and how passionate they are about their subjects.
Our most popular events to date were Inspirational Tech and out ‘vs Imposter Syndrome’ events, both seeing our capacity reached before the evening itself! Since those two, events have continued to be highly attended and enjoyed.
Our networking events have been equally enjoyable, with our most attended networking event focusing all about careers, including when to move jobs and negotiating that all important payrise! Our most popular workshop was the amazing #IAmRemarkable workshop in which we celebrated our achievements and those of our peers.
With each event we learn and continue to build our growing community from strength to strength.
Our community
In the last year, I have learnt so much the importance of community and a result of our events I have met so many interesting people, from all parts of tech and beyond.
Every event is filled with new and familiar faces speaking to one another, listening and learning and building our amazing community. For me, this is the biggest benefit to being part of Women in Tech York.
I am so proud of the warm and welcoming environment our community provides, and how friendly everyone always is.
Thank you
It goes without saying but thank you to our speakers over the last year! The talks have been so interesting and engaging. Thanks to our attendees for turning up month on month, and our ambassadors for helping us during events.
Of course, no blog about our success wouldn’t be complete without a huge thank you to our sponsors Isotoma, Mitrefinch, Netsells and Piksel. Thanks to your continued support, our events continue to be varied and full of food for everyone.
Organising is a team effort, and I would be lost without our amazing committee! Ashley, Spencer, Sophie and I work together to plan events, make sure they run smoothly and scope out new speakers. It’s been a pleasure to work together over the last year, and I look forward to the next one!
A final word
Throughout the last year, I’ve met some really awesome people, listened to some really interesting talks and watched this amazing community grow. Again, I feel so proud of the environment we have created, and I hope that people love coming along to our meetups.
I can’t wait to see what we achieve next year.
Get involved
Our events run on the second Thursday of each month, everyone is welcome to our events.
Hope to see you at an event soon, Rebecca