What the Lesbians Who Tech Summit meant to me
Disclaimer at the top: I am writing about MY experience being a part of the first ever Student + Next Generation Leader Cohort at the Lesbians Who Tech & Allies New York Leadership Summit. Could some things have been improved? Sure. Is a program ever going to be perfect the first time it is created? Nope. Should that stop any of us from trying? I sure hope not.
I do not even know where to start, so let’s start at the beginning: Day 1.
I arrived and was handed my badge. Which read “Claire Filipek Software Engineer”, which yes is what I told them to write, but upon seeing it in writing I immediately texted my family:
As a part of the Next Gen/Student Cohort we were each given volunteer roles.
I was assigned to be a social media volunteer, which I was thrilled about. I really enjoy posting to social media, for the most part, you know until it becomes too overwhelming and I have to take a 2 month hiatus.
But enough about that, I mean, the elephant in the room is that I was at a conference for Lesbians in Tech. Can we all take a moment to marvel at that sentence. To bask in its glow.
As a relatively young person, and definitely a baby queer, oh and also a tech newbie, this summit was mind blowing. Like I don’t even know what to say. Other than I left the conference (and this is jumping ahead) feeling seen, valued, and empowered.
But back to day 1. For some reason, and it was definitely not due to my twitter follower count, I was given the ability to tweet to THE official summit twitter account during certain shifts. Give them a follow if you want @Lesbians Who Tech. And this proposition intimidated the shit out of me at first.
So what was my first tweet you may ask? A pun about donuts. Duh.
And then while doing some tweetering, I was given the opportunity to do something equally if not more intimidating… networking. Oh the horror. So what did I do the first day? I grabbed a free Google mug and called it a day. Okay maybe I made a little more of an effort than that, but barely.
I did take advantage of “Speed Mentoring”. And talked with some very nice folks from Amazon. And I learned that LinkedIn has a built in QR code feature, who knew? But I digress… On to day 2…
Day 2 was an amazing blur. Which can partially be summed up with this gif:
I am really tempted to fill this whole article up with boomerang gifs I collected throughout that day, but I think that would be excessive… So I’ll end out day 2 by saying that I left the after party early exhausted but with a full heart.
Day 3: Career Fair, Gloria Steinem, and the last day…
I want to be able to end this article in a neat tight bow, but I don’t know how to contain the feelings of gratitude, joy, and hope that I experienced over these past 3 days into such a package.
So in lieu of getting more sentimental than I am prone to do… I will repost my last instagram and sign off.
“Well lesbians who tech summit it’s been real. Made so many new frenz, got soooo much free company swag, and had way too much fun writing corny tweets. Here’s to next year!”
