“We wanted to host a fun office event, and also give our employees an opportunity to do some public speaking in a really safe, supportive environment. They had so much fun. It was such a great event!” said CTO Heather Rivers, who leads engineering, product, design, and security at Mode. Hiring and recruiting talent is one of her priorities as an engineering leader in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she attributes Girl Geek Dinner as influential to multiple engineering hires!
Company: Mode (Industry: B2B software, Employees: 100-500) Funding Stage: $46.4M total raised – Series C (2019) Event Capacity: 130 (Tickets Sold: 271) Successful Hiring: 2 (1 sourced, 1 influenced within 4 months post-event; expecting more long-term)
Mode CTO Heather Rivers sponsored the Mode Girl Geek Dinner with objectives in mind: “Get our name out there, get brand exposure, do a really fun event, have the community here in our office, etc. It was a great opportunity to showcase our culture! We expect it to pay off longer term. A couple years later, these attendees will remember being in our office for this great event and they’ll come back to work with us, or they’ll go out and tell friends about us.”
How Girl Geek X partnership fit into the bigger recruiting & inclusion strategy
“It was great for engineering — and not just engineering, but employer brand awareness. Hiring in technology is competitive here in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we always have to be doing more — and we’re always trying new stuff to get our name out there and get candidates engaged,” said CTO Heather Rivers about how Girl Geek X contributed to Mode’s successful engineering recruiting plan.
Advice for folks PLANNING a Girl Geek Dinner
“Invest in the talks and the event experience! If we had thrown it together last minute, we may not have gotten nearly as much out of it, and folks may not have been as interested in following up to learn about the roles we’re hiring for. We created a lot of community goodwill with attendees who recognized the effort we put into making it a great experience,” said Mode CTO Heather Rivers.
The Mode Girl Geek Dinner was rewarded with high attendee rating, and earned rave reviews for excellent content.
Advice for women ATTENDING a Girl Geek Dinner
“Get to know the people there. Make a point to talk to speakers and employees. Make connections! We invited attendees in our hiring pipeline (women who were considering joining the team, or even who we were just hoping to influence to apply). One signed after the dinner, and it’s not clear she would have signed if she hadn’t experienced the event. Another candidate who heard about us from the Girl Geek Dinner was hired as well. She is now an engineer at Mode!” said CTO Heather Rivers after the Mode Girl Geek Dinner yielded two successful engineering hires.
Girl Geek X Mode = increased employee morale!
“An important side benefit or happy accident: our Girl Geek Dinner was a fun internal event! It was great for morale-building and reinforces with the team that we’re part of the community here at Mode, not isolated. It was great for retention. People were thrilled with it. Overall, it was a great experience! I’m already recommending it to everyone I know. You should host one!” encouraged Mode CTO Heather Rivers.
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If you’re interested in learning more about partnering with Girl Geek X, keep on reading about the ways you too can become a sponsor of a Girl Geek Dinner or Elevate Conference!
