An Evening with Vrbo's Leaders
If you are an Austin-based woman in tech and would like to receive an invite to this event, please email us at hi@powertofly.com.
Meet Vrbo's women tech leaders, like Chief Product Officer Tina Weyand, at this invite-only in-person event.
Agenda (Subject to Change):
- 6:00pm - Check-In & Networking over Cocktails & Light Food
- 6:20pm - Kick-Off with PowerToFly
- 6:25pm - Welcome & Keynote Address by Judy Kay, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Brand and Communications at Vbro
- 6:35pm - Information Presentation
- 6:45pm - Panel Discussion with Vrbo Female Tech Leaders including
- Tina Weyand, Chief Product Officer
- Anita Dodia, Senior Director, Software Engineering
- Hannah Lindsley, Data Science Manager
- Francesca Hernandez, Manager, Digital Platform
- Judy Kay, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Brand and Communications
- 7:20pm - Networking Continues over Cocktails & Light Food
The event will take place on Thursday, February 28th from 6pm to 9pm at 11501 Domain Dr., Suite 100, Austin, TX.
Vbro's (formerly HomeAway) mission is to make every vacation rental in the world available to every traveler in the world through their online marketplace. With over 2 million unique places to stay in 190 countries, they are committed to helping families and friends find the perfect vacation rental to create unforgettable travel experiences together.
Also, Vrbo is hiring! Their amazing benefits include plenty of paid vacation, up to 20 weeks of parental leave, two paid volunteer days per year, and their one of a kind Table Talks aimed at encouraging creativity and innovation. To learn more about Vrbo and their open positions, visit their page on PowerToFly. .
About our Events: All RSVP'd attendees are welcome, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, or age. If you require assistance to fully participate in this event, please email hi@powertofly.com, and we will contact you to discuss your specific needs.
Unfortunately, PowerToFly and Vrbo cannot admit outside recruiters to this particular event. Please email hi@powertofly.com if you have any questions about this policy.
We Met MINDBODY's Women Tech Leaders in San Francisco
On July 11th, PowerToFly partnered with MINDBODY on our third event together. This particular gathering for women in tech took place in in the San Francisco HQ of Frederick for MINDBODY and featured a product demo, tech talk and, of course, plenty of opportunities for our guests to network with MINDBODY leaders and each other.
The night kicked off with a spirited keynote address by Regina Wallace-Jones, Vice President, Product Operations. Regina also spoke at our event with MINDBODY in New York and she is a truly a thoughtful, inspiring presence. If you see that she's speaking at a conference near you...go!
After Regina warmed up the room, we moved into the evening's tech talk hosted by Mariane Bekker, Director of Engineering. It was a pleasure to have Mariane in the room and to hear directly from one of the skilled professionals behind MINDBODY's product.
Mariane and Regina stuck around for a panel discussion and audience Q&A where they were joined by Pallavi Pershey, Software Engineer and Emma Flock, Software Engineer. Our panel shared their own career journeys while also diving deeper into their lives at MINDBODY. After our panel wrapped up, attendees had plenty of more time to mingle with each other before closing out the night.
MINDBODY is hiring! Follow MINDBODY on PowerToFly for updates about more events and open roles or visit MINDBODY's career page to learn more about their amazing benefits.
Getting ready for the big night!
A great night to network!
Hosting Our First Awesome Women in Engineering Summit in SF
Below is an article originally written by Dorothy Jung, Software Engineer at PowerToFly Partner Yelp, and published on October 4, 2019. Go to Yelp's page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
Last month, we held our first Awesome Women in Engineering (AWE) Summit at our headquarters in San Francisco. AWE's mission is to build a strong community for women and allies in our engineering and product departments by facilitating professional career-building activities, leadership, and mentorship opportunities. As a resource group, we provide support and organize activities targeted towards professional growth for women, helping them to maximize their potential at Yelp and beyond.
The summit was an internal, half-day event for women and allies in engineering and product at Yelp. We had previously hosted a summit for our EU offices, but this was our first time organizing the event stateside. During the event, we shared our experiences with one another and learned about the amazing work done at Yelp by women through a packed agenda of technical and career-based talks, workshops, and a round table discussion.
Overview of the Day and Session Highlights
We kicked off the summit with lunch and an introduction from Rachel Z., a group engineering manager and leading member of AWE at Yelp.
We followed with a series of sessions in parallel tracks, which ran the gamut from lightning talks to hour-long workshops. Some sessions were highly technical, including a lightning talk on PaaSTA, our open-source, distributed platform-as-a-service, by Qui N., and a workshop on machine learning and data mining using the Yelp dataset by Xun T.
Other sessions were focused on career growth, diversity, and inclusion. For example, Maria C., one of Yelp's group technical leads, detailed her career path as an individual contributor, and Jenni S. led a workshop targeted toward allies that focused on real-world scenarios in which an ally could take action to promote a more inclusive workplace environment.
The round table discussion, facilitated by Annie W., presented opportunities for women to have open, honest discussions about their experiences and any challenges they were facing.
We closed out the day with refreshments and a few parting words from our SVP of Engineering, Sam E.
In Our Own Words
"I was proud to see my coworkers–women and men–coming together to discuss and learn about these important topics. Only with everyone on board can we make a change towards a more equal industry."
"My favorite part was the round table discussion! I felt at ease to share the difficulties I'd faced. It was very enriching to share career and personal development tips with others."
"I feel inspired to use the takeaways from the [technical leadership talk] as a springboard for leading my own projects. It was clear how the takeaways emerged from practical situations."
"As an ally, I'm glad to be able to participate in the event, it was great! My favorite part was the Ally Skills Workshop discussions and hearing different viewpoints."
Conclusion
Holding this event allowed women across different technical departments at Yelp to come together, feel a stronger sense of belonging, and walk away feeling empowered and inspired. We plan to hold this event again in the future, and are proud of the progress that has grown AWE from a small social group when it was founded in 2013, to a thriving organization with hundreds of members today. Organizing this event with the brilliant, motivated women in engineering and product has been a highlight of my time here at Yelp.
This event further demonstrated Yelp's ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, as well as the importance for women to have opportunities to connect with others in the workplace to learn and grow. For more information about how Yelp supports women in tech, check out our website!
Interested in joining the awesome women in engineering and product at Yelp?
We're hiring! Check out our PowerToFly page for more open positions.
Meet Women Tech Leaders from Three Amazing Companies on 9/25
If you are a New York-based tech professional and you are interested in attending this event, please email events@powertofly.com to be considered for an invite.
Join PowerToFly and women leaders from three innovative companies for an evening of presentations, audience Q&A and networking at a special invite-only event in New York City.
This special gathering will take place on Wednesday, September 25th from 6pm to 8:30pm at 155 West 23rd Street, 7th Floor and will feature product demos, an audience Q&A, and plenty of time to network with your peers over food and drinks. Although this programming is geared toward women's experiences, we welcome all genders at our events. Be sure to RSVP today - space is limited!
Featured companies will include:
EDO Inc. is an innovative leader in applying world-class data science and unique behavioral metrics to help its clients – marketers, TV networks and movie studios – generate greater value from their creative efforts and media investments. EDO was co-founded by actor Edward Norton and Daniel Nadler, the founder and former CEO of Kensho Technologies.
EY was founded as Ernst & Young and it's their mission to build a better working world. They provide insights and quality services to help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. Featuring 270,000 employees in over 700 offices around 150 countries in the world, in 2018, Fortune named EY as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For".
OUTFRONT Media Inc. is one of the largest out-of-home media companies in North America. From Sunset Boulevard to Times Square, their diverse portfolio includes more than 400,000 digital and static displays, which are primarily located in the most iconic and high-traffic locations throughout the 25 largest markets in the U.S. OUTFRONT Media may be a billion dollar company but they have the feel of a small business.
Agenda (Subject to Change):
- 6:00pm - Check-In & Networking over Light Bites & Refreshments
- 6:30pm - Event Kickoff from PowerToFly
- 6:35pm - Presentations + Audience Q&A featuring leaders from EDO, EY and OUTFRONT Media.
- 7:30pm - Networking continues over Light Bites & Refreshments
- 8:30pm - Event concludes
The night will include complimentary wine, non-alcoholic beverages, hors d'oeuvres, and fun swag. While all three of our featured companies are hiring you don't need to be looking for new opportunities in order to attend.
About PowerToFly events: All attendees who RSVP are welcome, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, or age. If you require assistance to fully participate in this event, please email hi@powertofly.com, and we will contact you to discuss your specific needs.
Unfortunately, PowerToFly and its Partners cannot admit outside recruiters to this particular event. Please email hi@powertofly.com if you have any questions about this policy.