So, it seems like forever since I got home from Las Vegas and Collaborate 16. The event was incredible. The last time I was a IOUG it was in Florida at the Swan and Dolphin at Disney’s Epcot. That in itself was awesome. I have been a die hard Disney fan for decades and no amount of snarky comments will change that.
Collaborate, soon after my IOUG experience, launched into existence. Then it was IOUG and OAUG that were “collaborating”. Eventually, Quest joined the fray. Now, there are 3000 people who attend (give or take… according to the hotel) the five day event.
It was very good to be there and to partake of the sessions, to get to ‘do’ yoga every morning, and to log between 5 and 7 miles every day without ever having to leave the confines of Mandalay Bay construct.
I learned much through the sessions. I learned even more from just listening to the on-goings around the venue. I reconnected with people that I hadn’t seen in forever, and realized that, through my adventures in IT, I had somehow lost a part of myself along the way.
I had lost my focus on being myself, at least as it pertains to work. Heli Helskyaho (HeliFromFinland) presented a Women in Technology luncheon meeting that I attended and it reminded me where my passion started, way back when, when I started in technology. Back in the day… back in 1995 when I started at Pitt in Information Science… I wanted desperately to do my Master’s Thesis on the glass ceiling that (don’t let anyone kid you) still exists. I was so young (at 30) and full of passion and feminism. Since then I have gotten so caught up in just getting by the day to day grind, I’ve lost a lot of the passion.
I’ve tried to find times and places when I could network with women… where I could accidentally find young women to mentor. But I managed to lose the passion and I have not actively sought out places to make a difference, to make it easier for other females to make their way through the still predominantly testosterone pathway.
I think it is time to resurrect my passion.
So here we go…
April Wells
4/27/2016
Women In Technology... in it together 