CONNECT Leadership Summit – Opening Remarks – Alaina Percival – Joey Rosenberg

The WWCode CONNECT Leadership Summit is a gathering of Women Who Code Directors, Leads, and Evangelists from local Networks around the world. It is an event that combines healthy doses of inspiration, information, updates about policies and priorities, collaboration on future goals, and a look to the importance of the global nonprofit.

Things kicked off with a brief introduction by Global Leadership Director Joey Rosenberg, who introduced some of the themes of the day to come, and also noted that, "This is the first time that we've ever had this many Leaders and Directors in the same city at the same time."

Women Who Code CEO and Board Chair Alaina Percival then took the stage to talk about the state of Women Who Code, its past, its present, and some of the plans they have for the future.
 
"This is one of the most special days in Women Who Code history."

She started off by talking about the mission of Women Who Code, and emphasizing the focus of the organization on supporting career aged women in tech.

"The industry thinks we're teaching women but, we're really elevating women."

She then went on to discuss some of the things that are in the works for Women Who Code, including current, ongoing projects, and plans for the future. This included:

– Branding changes: The official WWCode teal color has been changed slightly to make it more accessible to color blind and vision impaired individuals.
– Amplification: WWCode's social following has been growing dramatically, and so we are focusing on engagement more, and have specifically started pushing content on Instagram, a platform which we have used but have not traditionally emphasized.
– Job Board: 1,105 companies have posted 2,042 jobs and the job board has 158,000 views.
– Data and Security: As WWCode grows, so do potential dangers. This year WWCode is focusing more than ever on protecting our members and ensuring the security of their data.
– Curated Content: Moving forward we are working on systems to deliver news and careers opportunities directly to members based on factors like their location and technical interests.

Her talk closed when Alaina and WWCode Global Leadership Director Joey Rosenberg invited the Leaders from each of the Networks in attendance from around the world to stand up, and introduce themselves and their Networks. Overall it was an incredible inspirational start to the day that not only set the parameters for what was to come, but also brought the very diverse group of global leaders together as a collective that recognized one another as part of a single powerful force for good in the world.