Bootcamp Highlights: Women in Tech Panel - Auckland

Written by Justin Espinas

The tech industry is filled with amazing and hardworking people.On Wednesday night, Elizabeth Jenkins (Digital Delivery Manager at Trust Power) was joined by four other accomplished women on a panel that focused on their careers and what it's like being in the minority in the tech industry.This panel included Jo Mills (Development Manager at Orion Health), Grace Benedek Rooney (Developer Evangelist at Xero), Emily Strang (Risk Advisory Consultant at Deloitte), and Loren Racic (Software Developer at Nintex Promapp). This bootcamp was not an exclusive "women only" event, men were also warmly welcome to come along.Women are highly represented in the Health, Education and Business Administration and Law fields but it’s the opposite in Engineering and Technology/ Communications. The experiences the panel mentioned included how almost every team they worked with saw a greater representation of men than women. With this being so, it can be hard sometimes for women to fully relate to other team members. The experiences shared varied between getting no chance to properly contribute and getting extra attention and opportunity because of the gender difference.The panel focused on how you can't let being the minority stop you from doing what you do best. Whether if you're male or female, young or old, or categorised in any other sort of way, it shouldn't stop you from reaching your goals and becoming successful. These women on the panel have been very successful in their careers and are a great, strong role models for the next generation of women to enter the tech industry. Thank you so much for speaking to us and I hope you all continue to make your mark in technology! Also, special thanks to Pagen Plaizier and everyone at Xero for providing their space for the event and being fantastic hosts for the night!