Latest news with #GraceHopperCelebration
Forbes
10-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Become More Like A Technology Company, But Eject The ‘Bro' Culture
Diversity: It's a good thing Technology companies are often held up as open, forward-looking enterprises capable of quickly adapting and moving on innovations. Indeed, many do function as autonomous sets of creative teams, with little formal management to hinder their progress. Still, there's a crisis that has been bubbling within tech culture that often derails such innovative spirit. That is, they tend toward 'bro cultures,' closing off more diverse points of view and possibilities for innovation. In her latest book, Rebooting Tech Culture, Telle Whitney provides a cautionary tale of how technology companies often derail themselves with such closed cultures or even hubris. It's important that mainstream businesses – of whom many are becoming or seek to become technology businesses in their own right – understand the 'gotchas' of pursuing a tech culture that closely mirrors Silicon Valley. Whitney, a Silicon Valley startup veteran herself, and co-founder of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, says tech has long had a culture problem – it is still dominated by white males, which tends to shape the data and insights delivered through machines and software. "As tech firms grow, their processes and hierarchies become hardened, limiting the freedom to experiment or bring new ideas to the table.' Whitney observes. They are also subject to the 'lone genius archetype.' 'Most business leaders do not doubt the value of an inclusive culture.' However, 'the hard truth is that most leaders don't want to fundamentally change their workplaces.' To overcome this, Whitney urges leaders to take positive steps to promote respect, manage conflict, and develop employee skills early and often, to promote greater diversity of thought and innovation. Importantly, this is not an HR challenge – every executive, a manager, and team leader can take relatively simple steps to open up their organizations:
Business Insider
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
I landed software engineering jobs at AWS and Walmart after moving to the US from India. Here are 4 things I did to build my network from scratch.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sushma Kukkadapu, a 28-year-old software engineer in Bentonville, Arkansas. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I grew up in Hyderabad, India, where I got a bachelor's degree in computer science. In 2018, I came to the US to pursue my master's in software engineering at UT Arlington. I started working for the AI labs at Sam's Club, which is owned by Walmart, in November 2023. I work on innovative automation, developing advanced forecasting computational solutions that transform financial forecasting, real-time system monitoring, and security compliance. Before Sam's Club, I worked at Amazon Web Services. As an immigrant, I faced complexities in immigration and cultural adaptation, and I also had to build a professional network from scratch. I found four techniques that helped me design my career path to gain internships and then my full-time career. 1. Be proactive and start building your career as soon as possible I volunteered at my university to set up a booth at the Grace Hopper Celebration, a major convention for women in computing where people come to find internship opportunities and network. I received a partial scholarship to attend the career fair, and my university paid for the trip expenses. I secured my summer internship at McAfee by talking to a recruiter there who was also a graduate of UT Arlington. We connected, and I shared my journey with her. She loved my story and gave me an opportunity. You need to start early during your first year of college or grad school. Talk to your university's career counselors and ask them what kind of scholarships and career fairs the universities represent. Can I volunteer there? Can you give me a scholarship to attend a certain program? That way you can kick-start your career and seize an opportunity. 2. Find networking organizations relevant to you Groups such as the National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers hold careers fairs. Attending these can bring networking opportunities and, in turn, help secure internships and job offers. That's how I secured my summer internship in the Bay Area and how I first got industry exposure in the software domain in Silicon Valley. The following year, I received a scholarship through the Grace Hopper Celebration, which offers student scholarships for women worldwide. It's a highly competitive process that involves writing an essay, and pitching why you deserve the scholarship. I was selected for my second year to attend GHC free of cost, including accommodation and flights. That's when I realized the true potential of networking, which could lead to important job offers. 3. Try cold emailing, and don't wait for opportunities to come to you Prior to attending GHC and other conferences, I cold-emailed the LinkedIn professionals who I knew were attending the conference. This helped me make connections and get into the interview pipeline faster. I also talked to recruiters before attending GHC. This got me two rounds of interviews with Google Summer of Code, and they did my last round there in person before I landed the internship. You must not wait for opportunities to come to you. Instead, a short message through LinkedIn, X, or GitHub can help you take a huge step forward. 4. Make the most of open-source technologies Open source is a real buzzword in tech, but there are a lot of programs being developed on open source, where everybody can contribute to the code. That means the code is fully open to the public and people can plug their own solutions into it, tweak it, develop it, and build it to make it more useful. I worked on several open-source contributions because they helped me write code at a more sophisticated level, which helped me have strong work experience on my résumé, which helped me land the Google internship. Companies such as Lyft, Google, Apple, Microsoft, BNY Mellon, and others invited me to conference afterparties because I showcased my work as part of an open-source contribution on my LinkedIn. Recruiters looked for this and reached out to me. Open source-contribution helps you develop your skills, expand your knowledge, demonstrate results, and build your industry contacts.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
RainFocus Celebrates Event Innovators at INSIGHT 2025
Organizations were recognized as part of the annual Innovation Awards ceremony for forward-thinking and excellence in their use of the RainFocus platform LEHI, Utah, Feb. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- RainFocus™, provider of the next-generation event marketing platform, today announced the winners of the annual Innovation Awards. Award recipients were recognized during day one of RainFocus INSIGHT, the company's flagship event, hosted in Salt Lake City. The event brings together events, marketing, and technology professionals to discover valuable trends, data, and solutions that enhance event impact and provides an opportunity to build meaningful relationships with peers and thought leaders. The prestigious Innovation Awards recognize industry leaders and their unmatched efforts to drive impactful results for their customers. To be considered an award winner, nominees must have a solid understanding of attendees to create better experiences, innovate and have a forward-thinking use of the RainFocus platform, make good use of data and insights to understand, pivot, and improve events, merge offline and online efforts to grow the company and events, or demonstrate efficiency improvements such as saving time or resources. "Our Innovation Awards are an opportunity to honor and celebrate some of the most distinguished brands," said JR Sherman, CEO of RainFocus. "So many of our clients and partners continue to exceed their goals and achieve new milestones in their event marketing programs with the RainFocus platform. They deserve to be recognized for their success, and 2024 was no exception. We're proud to announce this year's winners and highlight their impact on our industry." The 2025 Innovation Award winners are: Most Innovative Attendee Experience: Keurig Dr Pepper Most Innovative Use of Exhibitor and Partner Activation: Most Innovative Use of On-Site Technology: Salesforce Best Conference: Salesforce Dreamforce Most Innovative Use of Content Management: Workday Best Event Program for Scale: Autodesk Best Roadshow Series: Databricks Sales Accelerator of the Year: Esri Agency Partner of the Year: Nteractive Technology Partner of the Year: Adobe Best Meetings Program: Deltek "Our team is dedicated to finding bold, unexpected ways to elevate the event experience by pushing the boundaries of both its look and its ability to create a lasting impact for our guests. To be recognized by our partner RainFocus is a testament to a shared, collaborative vision that fuels our commitment to delivering unforgettable experiences." – Josh Trutor, Manager, Corporate Events, Keurig Dr Pepper. "RainFocus understood that this partnership was bigger than or even Grace Hopper Celebration. This was really about the underrepresented and marginalized communities we serve and providing a digital experience that was second to none!" – Jerome Edwards, Chief Technology Officer, "We are truly honored to have won the RainFocus 2025 Innovation Award for Best Conference. This achievement is a testament to the strength of our ongoing partnership with RainFocus. Their platform's versatility and seamless integrations have empowered us to drive innovation and efficiencies across our strategic events portfolio. We look forward to continuing this journey of growth and success together." – Julia Cornish, Senior Director, Strategic Events - Event Operations and Digital Experience, Salesforce. "We are honored that our partner, RainFocus, recognized our company as an Innovation Award winner. Utilizing the RainFocus platform to support and manage our events has enabled us to grow and expand while increasing efficiencies and providing a better more integrated end-user experience." – Michele Cole, Director of Global Event Marketing, Esri. "We are honoured to be named RainFocus' Innovation Awards 2025 Agency Partner of the Year. Our partnership with RainFocus is built on a foundation of pushing the boundaries of event technology and delivering seamless, high-impact enterprise experiences. By combining Nteractive's deep expertise with RainFocus' cutting-edge platform, we have tackled some of the most complex event challenges—driving innovation, enhancing engagement, and setting new industry standards. This Partner of the Year award is a testament to the exceptional talent of Nteractive's Digital Practice and the strength of our collaboration with RainFocus. At Nteractive, we look forward to continuing to redefine what's possible in event experiences with RainFocus." – Luke Hartstonge, Head of Digital, Nteractive "Adobe is honored to be named RainFocus' Technology Partner of the Year. This recognition reflects our shared commitment to delivering a seamless, unified customer experience that connects data, insights, and engagement across every event touchpoint, including the powerful events channel. Together, Adobe and RainFocus are empowering marketers to create deeper connections with attendees and greater impact for their business. personalized, data-driven experiences." – Stephen Ratpojanakul, Senior Director, Digital Strategy Group, Adobe. "We are delighted to be recognized as a 2025 Innovation Award winner by RainFocus. The RainFocus platform has become an asset in driving innovation within our event management strategy. We were able to custom design a meetings program to best use our on-site meetings space to further drive customer engagement opportunities. We are proud of how we expanded and evolved our meetings strategy and our work with the RainFocus team helped ensure a smooth execution for our team to deliver a cohesive, customized, and impactful event experience." – Nicole Allen, Senior Director, Global Events, Deltek. To learn more about the RainFocus Innovation Awards and submit a nomination for 2026, click here. About RainFocusRainFocus is the next-generation event marketing platform built to capture and analyze unprecedented amounts of first-party data for exceptional events and optimized engagement throughout the customer journey. RainFocus powers flawless experiences with secure, scalable solutions to support the entire event lifecycle. The platform integrates with sales and marketing technologies, simplifying event registration, content management, and exhibitor activation across in-person, virtual, and hybrid experiences, all from a single dashboard. Leveraging real-time data, RainFocus provides actionable insights to drive personalization, accelerate qualification and lead conversion, and close deals. For more information, visit Additional Resources Join the conversation with RainFocus on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Visit to learn more about our event marketing and management platform. If you're ready to get started, request a demo. Discover RainFocus On Demand, the go-to learning destination for event industry leaders to discover the latest trends, thought leadership, and best practices, delivered on demand – any time, anywhere. Learn more. Are you interested in joining the RainFocus Partner Program? Apply today. Grow your career and help reshape the events industry at RainFocus. Apply here. Media Contact: Sheena Lakhani, View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE RainFocus Sign in to access your portfolio
