TechWomen 2023 Week 2: “A Tale of Two Cities”

As the excitement of arrivals and the launch of our expanded program began to settle, the Emerging Leaders embraced the second week of their transformative 5-week journey. The week commenced with the much-anticipated Ideation Workshop, where participants collaborated with their country teams for the first time. Here, they delved into the frameworks for designing a solution to a socioeconomic challenge and engaged in brainstorming sessions to define the pressing issues their projects would address. 

Mid-week marked the initiation of the Emerging Leaders’ professional mentorships, a crucial component of our program. These mentorships are made possible through partnerships with esteemed companies such as Chime, Synopsys, LinkedIn, 23andMe, and Thermo Fisher, to name just a few. 

 

       

The week culminated in our second hybrid workshop, led by Caitlin Silverstein and Flora Uwadiegwu from Autodesk. This Principles in Design Thinking workshop guided Emerging Leaders through engaging exercises, featuring stakeholder mapping and abstraction thinking, providing them with valuable tools for their journey ahead.  

Sheryl Walton Senior Manager, Global Technology Operations and TechWomen Mentor provided keynote remarks, “We are here to encourage, empower, and elevate each of you,” she shared.  “Let us use this event as a platform to exchange ideas, share experiences and build networks that will propel us all in our journey to equality and excellence in STEM.”

To close out the workshop, Emerging Leaders had a guided tour of the state-of-the-art Autodesk Gallery in downtown San Francisco where they experimented with its innovate and hands-on interactive displays.

Meanwhile, in Chicago the Emerging Leaders were introduced to the Jane Addams Resource Corporation and the Freedman Seating Company through a tour of Freedman’s facility. 

And on the cultural side, they really started to get to know their new homes for the next four weeks. From  riding ferry’s to exploring the vibrant cityscapes, global cuisines and technology ecosystems of both cities.