We hosted our #LatinaGeeks Summer Social at The Vault in San Francisco in celebration of our official launch. It was a wonderful evening that brought so many groups out in support of our mission to make technology accessible to all Latinas.
The Vault hosted our group and offered their beautiful lobby and bar to the #LatinaGeeks to toast the occasion. One of The Vault’s core values is collaboration, a core value that runs deep within the organization and is extended to its members.
Starting with our wonderful bartenders from Brazil and Vault members Oaktech and Product School, who supported #LatinaGeeks and had us feeling the love with their tasty caipirinhas which flowed all night.
We also felt the love from Equality Vines, a brand committed to giving back to equality causes. Most notable is the brand’s Empowerment Series that focuses on supporting organizations that support women’s rights. Two of their partners in the fight for women’s equality are the League of Women Voters and YWCA.
Equality Vines was pouring their 19th Amendment Chardonnay, a wine that honors women’s right to vote and their Stonewall Zinfandel paying homage to fight for LGBTQ rights. We love Equality Wine’s mission as the world’s first cause wine portfolio dedicated to equality for all people. A percentage of all proceeds from the of their wines are donated or directed to partners in the ongoing fight for Equality for all.
The main goal of the event was to bring awareness to our organization’s mission and to grow our SF membership. New #LatinaGeeks Chapter members benefit from VIP access to members-only networking events and programs, access to hands-on professional development workshops in SF, and be part of a geeky community of accomplished women who want to learn and collaborate with each other to bring our best selves into the world, and much more! If you’re interested in joining the SF Chapter sign up here!
One of the highlights that evening was when Antonia Wong, Director of PMO and Diversity & Inclusion Strategies at TrueAccord, shared her story of bringing your true authentic self to work, which resonated with many of us. She advised us to embrace who we are, to embrace our “Latina’, which is so important. She shared a personal story of “changing” herself to “fit in” to work better, how the words of a coworker led her to straightening her hair and ditching her hoops. I’m sure many of us have unwittingly changed ourselves at certain moments to fit in. Yet, it’s our uniqueness and the rich cultural backgrounds we have that make us so valuable. As a demographic, Latinos have an enormous amount of power, now over 58 million of us, we have been the principal driver of U.S. demographic growth, since 2000. Companies like TrueAccord recognize this power and understand that in diversity there is strength. Teams that are well represented across diverse backgrounds perform better and create better products.
TrueAccord is on a journey to transform the debt collection industry while helping consumers reach financial health. TrueAccord’s machine learning platform, is an innovative, data driven approach to debt collection, that gives businesses the best debt collection results while ensuring they maintain their brand by reducing contact frequency and adapting to consumers’ behavior.
We are thankful to have such a wonderful sponsor such as TrueAccord that helped bring us all together.
We also want to thank our friends and tech prize sponsors, Tom Kosnick and Annabella Peng of GELI and FoundersX Ventures. GELI is a wonderful organization meant to inspire young entrepreneurs by connecting rising GenZ and Millennials leaders with mentors from Silicon Valley. GELI works to place these young leaders in early-stage startups to learn entrepreneurship by working with entrepreneurs.
FoundersX is an early-stage venture fund newly established, focusing on emerging tech including AI, VR/AR, big data, smart robotics, as well as education tech and mobile lifestyles. FoundersX are strategic investors with strong partnerships with major venture funds and a high-value network in enterprise ventures.
It was thanks to the Greater Sacramento Economic Council that we were able to serve light appetizers at the event. They offer complimentary, data-driven consultancy services for businesses considering moving to the Greater Sacramento market.
The evening would not have been complete without the amazing sounds of Colin O’Leary and Rado Radriamamonjy, of the Pangea Futbol Club, who serenaded us with their beautiful Spanish guitar. And the wonderful media team of BeFast.TV for capturing the event with these lovely pictures and soon coming video!
So many people came together in support of our mission, it was a wonderful evening of learning, networking and connecting that would not have been possible without the spirit of collaboration.
Lastly, wanted to leave this inspiring reminder and moving quote by Marianne Williamson about bringing our fullest potential to light.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. ~Marianne Williamson
