For all (international) women in tech – Stockholm

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WIT2017

Probably most EIT students reading the title of this blogpost knew instantaneously that it had to be me writing it – as I either talk about the importance of diversity in tech or am attending events about diversity/women in tech most of my free time! And even though I am always happy to talk about why I personally believe diversity in tech is important in this blogpost I would instead like to share all the amazing resources available to (international) women in tech in Stockholm: events, meetups and groups I engaged with over the past 10 months. I am hoping this list might be useful for those staying here or coming back later during their studies!

CodePub

What is it? A meetup organised by Netlight (an IT consulting firm) that is open for beginners as well as professionals. Every event has a different topic ranging from Machine Learning to UX design and participants always have the chance to do some hands on work while eating, drinking and making new friends.
Link: meetup group

Pink Programming Sundays

What is it? As the name suggests it is a series of events that always take place on Sundays and every time hosted by a different tech office in Stockholm. There is always a short technical talk and an intro to the hosting company but for the rest of the day one can either work on their own coding project or help out with others’ file enjoying the food, drinks, productive office space and great company!
Link: facebook group


SUP46 FemTech

What is it? SUP46 is one of the largest co-working spaces in Stockholm and it is also one of the most active tech-event spaces hosting events almost every single night! They also have a series of events called “FemTech” where a panel of female VCs and entrepreneurs share their experiences. In addition startups that have female founders also get the chance to pitch during the event.
Link: SUP46 facebook page, previous event

Women in Tech Conference

What is it? Every year on International Women’s Day (March 8) there is a huge conference hosted for women in tech in Stockholm – and the tickets are completely free! No wonder this year they sold out in less than 10 minutes… The event was a full day of inspiring as well as technical talks accompanied by a small career fair and followed by a reception.
Link: facebook event

Women in Tech (Stockholm)

What is it? Not a physical meetup but a Facebook group with great resources and event suggestions for all women in tech globally, but mostly focused on happenings in the Stockholm area.
Link: facebook group

Women@EIT

What is it? A little bit of self promotion here but we actually have our own community for female students at EIT. This year we had several events in Stockholm including an Arduino workshop, 3D modelling workshop, pitching workshop and an afternoon where we invited female entrepreneurs to talk about their experiences. Next year we will have events at other EIT locations as we are hoping to strengthen our community through engaging in educational workshops together.
Link: facebook group

Of course this list is not exhaustive and I am not suggesting to attend all of them all the time – and in addition there are also so many inspiring tech events in the city for all genders. However, I think that as women studying and working in technical fields we can benefit from a strong community and to me personally it was incredible to be part of this inspiring female community in Stockholm!

– Dori Palfi

doraepalfi@gmail.com

4 + 1 reasons to be part of a hackathon organising team

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– my experience organising Create Squared

Reading so many of my classmates blogging about Create Squared makes me extremely happy and makes the work of the past 5 months really worth it! Unlike for my classmates Create Squared for me wasn’t a one weekend long entrepreneurship marathon but a project I have been working on organising since November. I could probably go on and on about what I learned from this experience and what challenges I faced but rather I would like to point 4 + 1 main reasons why I believe everyone should aim to organise this type of event at least once, ideally from scratch. Create Squared was something that the team of 9 people organising it put together bits by bits: it wasn’t part of a hackathon series, it was not based on a framework and guidelines created by a successful organisation – it was the result of students envisioning a weekend of challenge and co-creation.

1. Experiencing how to fake it until you make it (and to keep calm when everything seems to fall apart)

I have to admit, hearing and reading that Create Squared was one of the most organised event some of my classmates attended this year in Sweden makes me smile and makes me understand how important it is to keep up the image “everything is under control” even if the project group is putting together things last minute, and things seem to be falling apart. Without giving away too much details I can just say there were many occasions during the 5 months when in order to acquire sponsors, venues, motivate participants we had to promise big and just have faith that we would be able to deliver. This put us under a lot of pressure but it all worked out in the end and made me understand if you play it too safe and give away too much of your internal worries your making your own job a lot harder!

2. Having a great reason to reach out to the entrepreneurship community in Stockholm
Stockholm has many events for people interested in startups and entrepreneurship and while going to these events you can easily network and meet people I noticed that having a purpose: pitching Create Squared to potential sponsors, mentors and speakers made me a lot more pro-active and made me seek a lot more conversations when attending such networking events. After all it can get very intimidating to just try and speak to new people in a semi-formal setting and having something concrete to begin the conversation with can really help overcome the barrier.

3. Have you ever been asked “tell us about a time you worked in a team where …” in a job interview?
Essentially, getting together with a group of students that come from different schools (and different countries) and have nothing else in common but the drive to organise this event will be a real challenge and will give you a lot of food for thought as well as a lot to talk about if anyone asks you about your experiences with team work and managing working together with others from different background. Because let’s face it even if you make international teams for classwork at KTH the diversity in terms of background won’t be that great: as an engineer studying at an engineering school we do not really get exposed to working with ones studying journalism, philosophy, business and marketing!

4. Giving back to the community 
Personally, since I moved to Sweden 8 months ago I have attended 50+ different startup/entrepreneurship or coding events. And as much as students like free food and swag and these can serve as motivators for one to attend such events what I have gained is knowledge, experience and an incredible network of inspiring and talented people in Stockholm. I am extremely grateful for this city being so open and supportive especially when it comes to the tech scene. SUP46, Pink Programming Sundays, Netlight’s CodePub, KTH Innovation and Excitera are just some of the few communities that have helped me become part of this ecosystem. Because of this, being able to be part of organising an event that brought together 70 ambitious students from Sweden and provided them with a platform to create amazing projects made me feel like I could give back at least a little bit to the community

5. my + 1 for international students – make friends outside the university
In a new country it is always easy to get stuck in the bubble of the community you are already part of – in our case the university (KTH/EIT) and it can be hard to meet people and develop friendships outside this circle. Getting involved with projects that help you burst this bubble I think is a great way to get started! At least I can say it for myself – I met people I would have never met otherwise why working on something meaningful and also having fun.
Dora Palfi
doraepalfi@gmail.com