Posted on

Best of ELEVATE: You Don’t Have To Do It All Alone, Finding Your Place at Work, Tips on Building Your LinkedIn Brand, Technical Interview Prep – and Rewriting the Rules of Career Comebacks!

ELEVATE speakers

On March 6-7, 2025, Girl Geek X founders Angie Chang and Sukrutha Bhadouria hosted over 2k women and allies globally tuning in for 2 full days of career and tech talks! We brought together thousands of mid-to-senior-level women in tech from across the globe.

This annual free online event was an extraordinary blend of inspiring talks, insightful sessions, and invaluable networking opportunities, designed to foster growth, innovation, and community among women in technology in celebration of International Women’s Day!

Here are just a few ELEVATE 2025 highlights:

🚀 Leadership & Growth:

  • Michelle Bozeman, coach at TBW Enterprises, spoke on reinventing yourself for unstoppable career growth. Re-watch Michelle Bozeman’s talk for details on how to redeem a complimentary coaching session with her!

💡 Skills & Strategies:

🌈 Diversity & Inclusion:

💻 Career Fair & Networking:

  • Participants met with recruiters, hiring managers, and engineers from companies like Voxel51 and 18C. Author of The Silent Networker Elhannah Adekeye delivers her keynote on Networking for Introverts.

ELEVATE attendees left feeling energized and empowered to unify their talents to amplify success in their tech journeys.

Thank you to all our speakers, sponsors, and attendees for making this event truly unforgettable. Let’s continue to #LiftAsWeClimb and uplift women in tech everywhere! 💪 #ElevateWomen

⚡ Help a girl geek land her next job in tech!

Here are the top 10 most engaging sessions from ELEVATE 2025 Conference & Career Fair ! You can watch them on our March 2025 ELEVATE YouTube playlist:

#1 – Keynote: You Don’t Have to Do It All Alone: The Power of Letting Go to Accelerate Action – Rachana Kumar, Former CTO at Etsy in conversation with Jenn Clevenger, VP of Engineering at Etsy

#2 – Tips On Building Your LinkedIn Brand – Lynne Williams, Executive Director at Career News Today

#3 – Rewriting the Rules of Career Comebacks – Alyson La, Data and AI Instructor, Tech-Moms

#4 – Navigating Career Growth and Change – Margarita Akterskaia, Senior Software Engineer at Roblox

#5 – Realistic Tips for Breaking Into Cybersecurity – Betta Lyon-Desordo, Ethical Hacker at OnDefend

#6 – Stuck to Unstoppable: Reinventing Yourself for Unstoppable Career Growth – Michelle Bozeman (Coach and Executive Advisor, TBW Enterprises)

#7 – Cybersecurity and AI: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – Rianat Abbas, Security Product Manager, AI-4AI

#8 – Code Assist with AI – Olga Khylkouskaya, Staff Software Engineer at Google

#9 – LeetCode Solve: DFS vs BFS Approaches to Binary Trees – Krys Flores, Staff Software Engineer at Crunchyroll

#10 – Voxel51 Employer Intro – Remy Schor, Recruiter at Voxel51, Josh Leven, VP of Engineering at Voxel51, Lanny Wang, Software Engineer at Voxel51

Industry/Engineering Talks:

#1 – Beyond Senior: Demystifying the Role of a Principal/Staff Engineer – Shweta Venkateswaran, Principal Software Engineer at Splunk

#2 – The Mid Senior Trap – Danielle McLaughlin, CEO at 18C

#3 – Code Assist with AI – Olga Khylkouskaya, Staff Software Engineer at Google

#4 – Get Unblocked Faster: How To Ask Questions Like a Journalist – Rachel Kaufman, Software Engineer at Attentive

#5 – Building Your Brand Through DEI: A Personal Journey to Professional Growth – Dona Maria Jose, Senior Software Engineer at Slack

#6 – Navigating Career Growth and Change – Margarita Akterskaia, Senior Software Engineer at Roblox

#7 – Tips On Building Your LinkedIn Brand – Lynne Williams, Executive Director at Career News Today

#8 – Code, Climb and Conquer: Mastering Menopause in Tech – Annie Gaudreault, Nutritionist and Women’s Health Coach at Veev Wellness

#9 – The Future of Rendering: Server-Driven UI (SDUI) – Surbhi Madan, Senior Software Engineer at Google

#10 – LeetCode Solve: DFS vs BFS Approaches to Binary Trees – Krys Flores, Staff Software Engineer at Crunchyroll

Breaking Into Tech/Cybersecurity/Career Talks:

#1 – Rewriting the Rules of Career Comebacks – Alyson La, Data and AI Instructor, Tech-Moms

#2 – Realistic Tips for Breaking Into Cybersecurity – Betta Lyon-Desordo, Ethical Hacker at OnDefend

#3 – Certifications: Yay or Nay? – Sheila Vida, Principal Security Customer Success Specialist at Cisco

#4 – Navigating Career Growth and Change – Margarita Akterskaia, Senior Software Engineer at Roblox

#5 – Tips On Building Your LinkedIn Brand – Lynne Williams, Executive Director at Career News Today

#6 – Code Assist with AI – Olga Khylkouskaya, Staff Software Engineer at Google

#7 – LeetCode Solve: DFS vs BFS Approaches to Binary Trees – Krys Flores, Staff Software Engineer at Crunchyroll

#8 – Keynote: Networking for Introverts – Elhannah Adekeye, Author of The Silent Networker: An Introvert’s Guide To Networking

#9 – Stuck to Unstoppable: Reinventing Yourself for Unstoppable Career Growth – Michelle Bozeman (Coach and Executive Advisor , TBW Enterprises)

#10 – The Guide to Highlighting Your Wins Externally – Mamta Suri, Engineering Leader

Leadership Talks:

#1 – Leading Against the Grain: The Journey to Leadership Amidst Challenges and Stereotypes – Elena Leonova, CPO at Spryker

#2 – Leading Through Change: Guiding Your Team to Embrace Transformation – Dipti Patel, Data Engineering Manager at Zoro

#3 – Keynote: The Power of Collective Imagination – Kimberly D. Jones, CEO at Kelton Legend and Senior Director of Talent Strategy

#4 – PM as GM: A Position or A Mindset – Ipsita Basu, Product Lead at Shopify

#5 – Turning Glue Work to Your Advantage – Julia Furst Morgado, Global Technologist at Veeam

#6 – Community Building and Lessons in Viral Fame – Saba Moeel, Visual and Product Designer at Pink Cat Daily

#7 – Sur-Thriving Cybersecurity Burnout – Dana Hehl, VP of Services Delivery at Anvil Secure

#8 – The Guide to Highlighting Your Wins Externally – Mamta Suri, Engineering Leader

#9 – Beyond Senior: Demystifying the Role of a Principal/Staff Engineer – Shweta Venkateswaran, Principal Software Engineer at Splunk

#10 – Keynote: You Don’t Have to Do It All Alone: The Power of Letting Go to Accelerate Action – Rachana Kumar, Former CTO at Etsy in conversation with Jenn Clevenger, VP of Engineering at Etsy

Thank You To ELEVATE 2025 Supporters – They Are Hiring!

Special thank you to our supporters at Voxel51 and 18C for recruiting from the Girl Geek X community of mid-to-senior level technical women. We can’t wait to help another girl geek get her next job in tech.

Don’t forget to check out featured jobs from Voxel51 and 18C.

The conference theme is “Lift As You Climb.”

Speakers from Google, Slack, Cisco, Shopify, Splunk, and more companies spoke and answered questions, sharing career advice with attendees during their sessions, often welcoming connections on LinkedIn.

If your company is looking to recruit more women this year, please don’t let them miss out on our next ELEVATE Virtual Conference & Career Fair sponsorship opportunity in March 2025 celebrating International Women’s Day!

In addition to virtual events, we partner with companies monthly on Girl Geek Dinners in the San Francisco Bay Area, booking now for 2025 dates.

Please email sponsors@girlgeek.io and we’ll be in touch.

Thank you in advance!

Angie Chang, Sukrutha Bhadouria, Amy Weicker, Amanda Beaty and the team at Girl Geek X

2025 March ELEVATE Speakers headshots
Posted on

Book A Speaker For Your Organization / Group In 2025!

Angie Chang speaking

Speaker Angie Chang is CEO and Founder at Girl Geek X (formerly Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners), a growing community of 40,000+ mid-to-senior level women in technology. Girl Geek X works with mission-aligned companies to help them engage, hire and retain women and non-binary leaders & technologists via custom recruiting events.

Over the past decade, we have partnered with hundreds of the world’s most innovative tech and consumer brands (PayPal, Etsy, Tesla, Adobe, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix and more) to host more than 400 events in the San Francisco Bay Area, and virtual events for over 20,000 attendees — creating opportunities for more than 2,000 women to take the mic and share their thought leadership and expertise as speakers.

Prior to Girl Geek X, Angie was VP of Strategic Partnerships at Hackbright Academy, a women’s engineering school for female software engineers. Angie led partnerships with employers at Hackbright, where she built valuable hiring partnerships (Uber, Slack, GoDaddy, Redfin, Indiegogo and more), launched the mentorship program (enlisting 700+ industry engineers as volunteers in 4 years) and connected countless women to new jobs in tech.

She co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006, a media company which promotes women in high-tech entrepreneurship. She was named in Fast Company’s 2010 “Most Influential Women in Technology”​ and more recently Business Insider named her one of “30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech.”

Angie has been invited by the U.S. State Department to speak on women’s high-tech, high-growth entrepreneurship in the West Bank, Switzerland and Germany. In her early career, Angie held positions in product management and web/UI production at various Silicon Valley startups. She holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley.

Book a call with us!

Or if you prefer email, contact speakers@girlgeek.io to learn more about Angie Chang speaking to your organization or group in 2024!

Select speaking engagements:

** Disney (Asia-Pacific, Virtual)
** Roblox (San Mateo, California)
** Google – Girl Geek Dinner (w/ U.S. Consulate General in Zurich, Switzerland)
** Microsoft – Build Conference (Seattle, Washington)
** PASS Summit – WIT Lunch Keynote (Seattle, Washington)
** Salesforce – Dreamforce Conference (San Francisco, California)
** TEDxUIUC (Chicago, Illinois)
** KPCC Girl Geek Dinner (w/ Southern California Public Radio, The Crawford Family Forum in Los Angeles)
** European Innovation Academy (Nice, France)
** Jumpp & Techettes (w/ U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany)
** University of Auckland (w/ Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Auckland, New Zealand)
** Palestinian universities & hubs (w/ U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem & occupied Palestinian territories)
** Private, Corporate Exec/Team Meetings (various)

Talks / presentations include:
** Rewire Your Confidence Mindset: APAC Audience
** From Boba Barista (And Web Designer) To Serial Entrepreneur
** Cutting The #8 Wire Mentality: Lessons From Silicon Valley
** How To Ask For What You Want And Need
** Moving Mindsets on Gender Diversity
** It’s Not Rocket Science: Practical Interventions for Increasing Diversity
** Building A Startup Ecosystem

Press:
** Angie Chang Featured in “Voices for Change” for Women’s History Month (📺 KTVU FOX 2 News – March 26, 2023)
** Women in Tech: Take Your Career to the Next Level with Practical Advice and Inspiring Stories (📚 Amazon – March 29, 2016)
** Angie Chang Featured In “Influencers Aren’t Born, They’re Built — Here’s How” (📖 First Round Review – August 20, 2015)

Contact:

Email speakers@girlgeek.io to learn more about having Angie Chang speak to your organization or group in 2024!