Five years in, what’s next for CWIT?
Charlottesville Women in Tech (CWIT) was founded in 2015 to provide human connections and resources to women and girls interested in or associated with technology. We’ve hosted around 1,000 people at our more than 75 events, lunches, meet-ups, book clubs, etc. That doesn’t even include the programs for girls that our Tech-Girls program took to local elementary, middle, and high schools. We had to pivot to online events during the pandemic, so some of our popular in-person activities are on hold, but we’ve had some great events online, including the Summit conference last fall. It’s been an awesome five years!
Now CWIT’s Board of Directors is looking ahead to the next five years. There are so many questions! How can we provide human connections while we’re still social-distancing? Are our events and programs meeting the needs of our community? Is there more we could be doing to bridge the gender gap and to encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion in tech? Is there more we should be doing to encourage and nurture girls’ interest in tech?
The Board is working with CWIT member Elizabeth Turrisi to clarify the vision and update the CWIT strategic plan and work plan. A senior consultant with ResilienceMaker Strategies LLC, Elizabeth uses ethnographic and quantitative research combined with techniques from design thinking, scenario planning, and systems change-making to help organizations understand opportunities and set a course for the future. Elizabeth is talking with members of the CWIT community and compiling data to help inform the process.
We’d love to hear your thoughts, too! Feel free to share in this brief survey.
