Accepting Compliments and Other Acts of Bravery & Building an Inclusive Culture

PLEASE NOTE NEW NEW LOCATION - Flatiron School at WeWork - 44 Montgomery St Gina Abrams, People Operations Partner at Blockstack, presents "Building an Inclusive Culture". Katy Farmer, Developer Advocate at InfluxDB, presents "Accepting Compliments and Other Acts of Bravery".

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Gina Abrams (https://twitter.com/Gina_Abrams_), People Operations Partner at Blockstack, presents:

"Building an Inclusive Culture"

Gina will talk about building an inclusive culture and creating pathways for growth and success at Blockstack. She organized Blockstack's Level Up: Women in Emerging Tech - A mini-series that provides an outlet for professionals in the USV network and beyond to learn from those who are "two steps ahead," hearing their stories and gaining tangible skills to enhance their careers along the way. It delves into the art of creating space and making one's voice heard in emerging industries. By learning from those who have seen success, we hope to empower women in tech and inspire new leaders for the future.

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Katy Farmer (https://twitter.com/TheKaterTot), Developer Advocate at InfluxDB, presents:

"Accepting Compliments and Other Acts of Bravery"

The fastest way to get me to change the topic in a conversation is to compliment me. I will twist, turn, and segue into weather, sports I don’t understand, or Marvel Comics conspiracy theories before I will acknowledge a compliment. I will suddenly become a fount of wildlife trivia, take up jogging, or pretend I’m getting a phone call. I’ve always been like this, but when I transitioned into engineering, I started to notice the people around me doing it, too--especially people who fell into underrepresented groups--and I started to get mad. Why is it so hard for us to value our own work like we value the work of others?

In this talk, we’ll explore what it means to value our personal and professional achievements, and how higher self-worth makes us better teammates and empathetic leaders. We’ll talk about the many ways in which I have failed and the lessons I’ve learned as I began to care about and for myself. This talk will feature jokes (humor is my preferred coping mechanism) and hand-drawn slides (to keep anyone from looking too closely at me). More importantly, the audience will learn how valuing ourselves leads us to value each other.

This talk doesn’t end with an epiphany. It doesn’t end with revelatory tech or a link to a download. It ends with two simple words that are a seed for something bigger: be brave.

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Schedule:

6:30-7:00 Registration and Dinner

7:00-7:30 Gina Abrams (remote presentation)

7:30-8:00 Katy Farmer

8:00-8:30 Networking

Dinner (not pizza!) and Drinks provided by Flatiron School (https://flatironschool.com/). Gluten-free and vegetarian options will be available.