Last month, we had the pleasure of hosting our second annual Women’s History Month program – an opportunity to celebrate women, learn about their impact and simply connect. Throughout the month of March, we organized a series of programs and activities to fuel collaboration and networking among the female tech and business community.
One of our program highlights was hosting a weekly coffee hour series in partnership with MITX and the new Kendall Square coffeehouse, Voltage Coffee & Art. This was a unique opportunity to celebrate Women’s History Month with some of the women who’ve made history of their own. Each week, we featured local female leaders from the tech, startup and government community including Angie Anderson, Partner Product Unit Manager, Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V); Debi Kleiman, President, MITX; Suzanne Bump, Massachusetts State Auditor and Elisabeth Bentel Carpenter, SVP Global Support & Services, Brightcove.
Each speaker shared their stories and advice to aspiring community women. Here are the top 10 secrets for success they revealed throughout the series:
1. “Speak with confidence. If you can’t speak with confidence, you really struggle to advance.”
– Angie Anderson, Partner Product Unit Manager, Microsoft Application Virtualization
2. “Exhibit resourcefulness – do things differently and surprisingly.”
– Debi Kleiman, President, MITX
3. “Find ways to express values in your work.”
– Suzanne Bump, Massachusetts State Auditor
4. “Choose mentors by your gut instinct – you can pretty much tell within the first five minutes of meeting someone if the chemistry is there.”
– Elisabeth Bentel Carpenter, SVP Global Support & Services, Brightcove
5. “As a leader, keep up with your commitments. If you say you will do something, you better do it.”
– Angie Anderson
6. “Admit your shortcomings and ask for help.”
– Suzanne Bump
7. “Consciously swallow your fears.”
– Debi Kleiman
8. “If you have 10 consecutive business days of unhappiness, rethink what you’re doing.”
– Elisabeth Bentel Carpenter
9. “Make sure you are making progress every day. Ask yourself: ‘Did I make a difference? Did I do something useful? Did I empower my team?’”
– Debi Kleiman
10. “Don’t worry about making mistakes – just move forward.”
– Elisabeth Bentel Carpenter
Kudos to all of our speakers for sharing their stories and best advice! Through their support, we were able to fully match all coffee sales from this series with a donation to Science Club for Girls, a Cambridge-based organization committed to increasing K-12 girls’ confidence and literacy in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Thanks so much for participating in the 2011 NERD Women’s History Month program. Visit this page to learn more about upcoming women in tech events.
