I'm coming up for air after all writing my internal post-Ignite posts, and I realized I should probably write something up here as well. I had an UH-MAZING time at Ignite 2019. Even though I was there to work, and I had a lot of work to do, I still managed to get away and enjoy a few sessions, meet some of the best humans I've ever met, and participate in our #WomenITPros Unconference. Here are my thoughts:
- I was super bummed not to attend the diversity pre-day, even though I registered. I had three MVP preday sessions I was coordinating, plus our booth logistics for Microsoft Endpoint Manager, including keeping the new product name literally under wraps until the big announcement at 9 am on Monday, so I never made it over to D&T land on Sunday.
- I was also sad to miss the session by @Jess Dodson "Hidden stories of the tech trenches, and how *YOU* can help", but my Monday was just too nuts to get there. I watched it, and I highly recommend you watch it and share it with allies you know.
- We had a delightful breakfast on Monday morning with several of you. I hope to do that again next year, so if you're going to Ignite, please let me know so I can invite you!
#WomenITPros breakfast
- At the breakfast, I applaud @DenisePyles for telling us she had a session Monday night. We took a group picture at the Expo happy hour and then trooped over to the Theater stage in the Expo hall to watch her do her session about uniqueness being your best super power - highly recommended! She's a dynamic speaker!
- I was able to go around and pass out some swag to other people at Denise's session and made some new friends among the #WomenITPros there. Speaking of swag, some people in our group scored!
Navrioska
- Tuesday was our Unconference session, with @tanialima , @Jess Dodson , @Nivine Zakhari and @Sonia Cuff I've never been to an Unconference before but I figured the format puts a lot of power in the hands of the participants. I proposed that we break into groups and talk about how to increase community among different aspects of #WomenITpros - like women already in career, reaching women who may not know about our career paths, Allies, etc - but no one seemed interested in breaking into small groups. Instead we ended up sharing stories about how we got into the ITPro world, and frustrations we had. We decided to keep the conversation going, both here and in a LinkedIn group called WomenITpros.
Waiting for the Unconference to start
- Wednesday we got a group together to go for Thai food. When we were waiting for the hostess to seat us, another woman was checking in for a table for 1 - so we adopted her and she ate with us.
- Several of the people at dinner had been to Dona Sarkar's Ignite version of the Imposter Syndrome Banishing Spell workshop that she did for our September #WomenITPros call. One of the things she recommended is having an accountability circle, people you can run things by, and several people started those circles up right there in the session! I'd LOVE to see a lot more of that happening, small groups of people you feel comfortable sharing with and who have your back when you need it.
- By Thursday most of my work commitments were winding down, so I was able to catch MVP @Cathrine Wilhelmsen's session on personal branding, which I loved - great transformation story. I also went to the panel with Nike at lunch that @Nivine Zakhari moderated.
- Thursday night we managed to get several of our group together, despite arriving on different busses at different places around the parks. A few of our group, though, got VIP status and was able to get in an hour earlier with just a few other select VIPs. #Jealous!
- Friday my work was done and I had to get home so I didn't attend any sessions, but I was able to follow my new friends as they chatted in our accountability group.
The only lowlight for me at the conference was witnessing an exchange like this, and hearing there were others who experienced it as well:
- Technical Woman Booth Staffer, to someone at the booth: "Hi, do you have a question?"
- Person at booth: "Yes, but it's a technical question."
This particular incident I saw was with a woman customer talking to a technical woman at the booth, and the other incidents I heard about were with men talking to technical women. I don't know what prompted any of the customers to call into question the ability of a female staffer to answer a technical question, though we've talked about several theories like the sad legacy of "booth babes". I didn't hang around our booth much, partly because it was WAY crowded with customers who wanted to know more about Microsoft Endpoint Manager, and partly because at this point in my life I can't call myself a technical expert on our products, so I probably would have been handing customers off to other booth staffers. While the situations are unfortunate, they have sparked some good conversation among our group about how to promote inclusive behaviors among our booth staffers at all of our events.
I was really glad to be there with such a great group of Humans, and to help organize some activities to help our #WomenITpros community (including Allies) connect with each other and build relationships! I truly hope 10 years from now we'll all be going back to Ignite, or whatever Microsoft is doing 10 years from now, and we'll have hundreds of people who have connected with each other through #WomenITPros who get to spend the week hanging out IRL.
The dates and location for next year's conference have not been announced, but you can preregister here to get first dibs on registration in 2020! https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite. It's not too soon to talk to your manager about why you should go and get contingent approval to attend. Microsoft Ignite 2019 sold out much sooner than people expected, and is likely to do so next year, so get your name in as soon as you can! If you need help building your case for why you should go, ask here and we'll help!
