My Experience at Women Techmakers Leads Mini-summit APAC at Google Singapore

Hello everyone... here I am going to tell you a bit about my experience at Women Techmakers leads mini-summit APAC which was held at Google Singapore, Google APAC HQ on 10th and 11th March 2017.

(From the left to right: Erica, Malypoeur, Winni, Nhi, Hannah, Soma, Rakhshanda, Josan, Naz, Rara, me, Syoko, Ngan)

It was one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. I met these awesome ladies in above picture from different Women Techmakers and Google Developer Group chapters in APAC region. It was wonderful listening to their stories at which I was inspired at the end of the day. 

First day had a good start with the breakfast where our host of the day, Erica Hanson, Program Manager, Developer Relations at Google took us to the breakfast area from guests lobby. I was late to wake up in the morning hence I missed the shuttle service from Hotel to Google office. When I arrived there, initial informal introductions were already done, so while we were having the breakfast I got to know others. 

Erica took us to the training room after the breakfast and I sat next to Rakhshanda Rukham, WTM lead and a GDG manager from Bangladesh. The first item on the agenda was Introductions where Erica welcomed us and started introducing her team to us. Some of her team members who were in other countries joined via Hangouts to welcome us. Then it was time for us to do introductions! I was in the first row of the left side and I was the first to give the introduction; each of us told the name, chapter, education and also about actual work life...etc.

The second item on the agenda was Leadership Training and it was an awesome session where I grabbed a lot of things to my life from it. It was conducted by two senior women Googlers. The session kicked off with an icebreaker activity where we all had to tell a fact about us, where it should be true and honest.We had several individual and pair activities throughout the session. I took 3 important points as notes,

In summary to sketching we should follow these 4 steps:

1. Awareness
2. Intention
3. Action
4. Result

Some barriers for women to go up the ladder:

• Less access to informal networks
• Lack of female senior role models
• Lack of sponsors to provide opportunities

What is confidence:
Confidence is the stuff that turns thoughts into action.

After the Leadership Training, we were taken for the lunch. I had my lunch with Sami from Google, Rakhshanda, and Naz. There we got a chance to talk with each other, to get to know what each of us is doing in respective chapters, about our countries, Sami's ideas on our communities....etc. 

After the lunch, we were divided into two teams for the next item on the agenda. It was an office tour around the Google office. I was in Sami's team and I got to know so many facts about Google offices that I didn't know previously. You can find some pictures below:

The next session was open Discussion with Googlers from Marketing and Public Relations teams and there were 5 Googlers except, Sami and Erica, 3 of them from Singapore office and 2 of them from Mountain View office.

Each of us was given time to talk few minutes about us, our chapters and anything worth sharing with others in the room.

Then it was time for an icebreaker.  Erica has collected one interesting fact about us early and she gave us a paper where all of them are printed, so our task was to talk with each other and find who is the person who gave that fact and gets a sign from her. It was really a fun filled icebreaker for all of us.

The next was brainstorm/ unconference session. We were divided into 3 teams and we discussed in groups about these 3 topics and presented at the end.

1. How to help more women in technology.
2. How to increase women engagement in our communities.
3. How to take more women into the stage.

I was in group 2 with Rakhshanda, Syoko and Ngan.

We identified following challenges and solutions as a team to increase women engagement in our societies. Rakshanda has already made a huge impact in Bangladesh with Women Techmakers and her suggestions were really helpful to us. 

Rakshanda presented our approach to fellow WTM leads and below you can see an image how Josan, presented their findings from brainstorm session on how to help more women in Technology.

This session was one of the most important sessions to me. In my opinion, this brainstorm/ unconference session and Leadership training were equally interesting. 

Then a small meditation session was conducted by Erica before concluding the session and it was a good relaxation for everyone. 

The program was concluded and we went back to the hotel after we enjoyed taking some pictures and videos.

On the second day, myself, Ngan, Nhi and Malypoeur experienced the public transport system of Singapore while going to the Google office.

Day two was the Women Techmakers Summit at Google Singapore for International Women's Day. The agenda consisted of different sessions including panel discussions, story sharing, workshops and networking sessions...etc.

We had 2 breakfasts that day from hotel and Google office! :D At the registration desk, a badge was given to us and in our seats, we found our giveaways as in the following photo:

In the morning half of the day, I sat next to Hannah, a GDG lead from South Korea and I got to know about what they do in their chapter a lot. It was really nice talking with her.

Erica welcomed the audience and the keynote speech was given by Sarita Singh, Head of Retail Operations at Google APAC. There she shared her story with us.

And the next was the time for WTM leads to share their stories. Our own Rakhshanda and Josan shared their stories and what they do in their chapters to make an impact on women's lives.

Next was a panel discussion with four female founders and the panel was moderated by Erica. It was a really inspiring session for all of us who were there.

We had 1 hour and 30 minutes for lunch. We WTM leads sat together in groups and networked more with each other during the lunch time. Jeannie from Singapore Women Techmakers missed the first day of the mini-summit and at lunch, she shared with us her thoughts about how Google community functioning in Singapore.

There was a photo booth to enjoy taking pictures too.

After the lunch, there were two parallel workshops: Tensorflow and Speechless. I went for the Speechless workshop which was on 'Public speaking' and that was really interesting and useful. You can know about Speechless from here.

Then accordingly fireside chat and a story sharing session were conducted. Erica wrapped up the session and there was a reception to network with each other outside with refreshments.

This was presented to Erica by Nhi and we all love Erica and really thankful to her for the opportunity that was given to us to meet each other and learn from each other as WTM/GDG leads in the region.

Following are some snapshots taken outside the summit ;)

(Photos were taken from all my friends' resources)