Program

PROGRAM

THURSDAY (Sept 29th)

5:00 PM Foyer	Registration Opens
5:00-6:30 PM Foyer	Reception with Students Presenting Posters
6:30 PM Settlers Park/The Mall	Dinner Begins
7:00 PM Settlers Park/The Mall	Panel: Tech Culture after the Pandemic. How Industry and Academia Have Weathered the Storm
8:00 PM	Birds of a Feather Sessions (see multiple options below)

FRIDAY (Sept 30th)

8:00-9:00 AM Foyer	Breakfast
9:00-10:00 AM Settlers Park/The Mall	The Story of Founding Piazza	Keynote Speaker: Pooja Sankar	Pooja Sankar's life story begins in a village in India. She became a computer scientist and started Piazza to solve the problems she had as one of only three women in her classes. She holds an undergraduate Computer Science degree from IIT, India, a Masters Computer Science degree from University of Maryland, College Park, and an MBA from Stanford Business School.
10:00-10:30 AM Settlers Park/The Mall	Let's talk about tech career options. What do you enjoy?	Scott Green, Former Site Director for Google Boulder (now retired)	There is a big world of opportunities for computing professionals. We'll discuss the breath of opportunities that exist in this session, with a focus on what you enjoy doing. We'll save time for your questions at the end. Optional pre-reading: “Why Software is Eating the World” by Marc Andressen.
10:30-10:40 AM Settlers Park/The Mall	Break
10:40-11:30 AM Settlers Park/The Mall	Panel: Recent Graduates Share Their Experiences	Moderator: Dr. Cory Scott, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Colorado College	What can you do/learn in college to help better prepare for a career in tech? Recent graduates talk about what helped them find and succeed in their first job post-college.
11:30-12:00 PM Settlers Park/The Mall	Networking (as in Professional Interactions)	Speakers: Kerri Stone and Lisa Fukuda, Ideas, Commitment, Results (ICR)	Relationships are an important part of life. Every day you are building relationships and making connections. These connections are the lifeline of your professional network. Networking is essential in the workforce. From receiving advice to discovering new positions, networking can be your key! Come learn more on how to build your network in a professional environment.
12:00-1:00 PM Foyer	Lunch with a Mentoring Session	Organizer: Susanne Sherba, University of Denver (now retired)
1:00-2:00 PM Settlers Park/The Mall	Panel: Are You The Glue? Being Strategic in Your Technical Career	Moderator: Kadra Eissmann, Program Manager, Salesforce	What is "glue work"? It is job duties that hold companies and teams together, promotes wellness, and overall keeps a company or team connected and successful. These job duties ARE important and are often the hallmark of good leaders. But what happens if you aren't the leader, but end up doing more and more glue work in a technical job? Women are disproportionately "glue workers" and many companies do not attribute value to "glue work" on performance reviews or consider this work promotable in a technical role. This panel will discuss how to be strategic in your technical career.
2:00-2:30 PM Settlers Park/The Mall	Lightning Talks by Faculty and Industry Professionals
2:30-3:00 PM Settlers Park/The Mall	Open Source Projects: Why Should you Get Involved?	Speaker: Deb Goodkin, Executive Director of the FreeBSD Foundation	Have you considered contributing to an open source project, but have no idea how to start? Are you aware of the benefits of contributing to an open source project? Join Deb in this quick overview of the benefits of being part of an open source community, how to pick the right open source project, and how to get started.
3:00-4:30 PM Foyer	Career Fair

BIRDS OF A FEATHER SESSIONS

Leader(s)	Title	Location	Abstract
Antoinette “Toi” Massey, M.E. (The JEKL Group, LLC, ANM Innovative Solutions, LLC)	I Promise, What You See, Is Truly The Amazing Me!	Foothills	Imposter Syndrome aka Imposter Phenomenon, that all too familiar term that describes highly accomplished women who persist in a belief that in spite all of what they’ve achieved, they are only where they are because they’ve got folks fooled. We call poppycock! Not only are we supposed to be in these largely male dominated spaces, not only do we bring measurable value when we take seats at these tables from which we are too often missing, the communities served by the decisions being made in these spaces feel the impact of our absence as the solutions deployed are, at best, incomplete! Let’s address it all and have you leave this talk feeling empowered, equipped, worthy and free of self-doubt!
Anastasia Shpurik, Senior Member of Technical Staff at Saleforce	Going Beyond Code: Must-have skills to launch your tech career	East End	A technical skill set is key to performing in a technical role but standing out and above the crowd requires skills beyond coding. Technical work is highly collaborative! Your coding skills will get you the interview, but this panel will dive into what critical skills will land you the job and set you apart.
Lucia Williams (Montana State University)	How to Thrive in Graduate School	West End	Graduate school is a time of great possibility, where you can build an exciting career for yourself in the field of your choice. It can also be a difficult time, where you may feel that you are stuck, unproductive, overworked, or that what you had imagined for yourself just isn't panning out. Come for a guided, open discussion on how to thrive in graduate school, and learn how you can get the most out of your graduate school experience and even enjoy yourself while doing it!
Wendy Fisher, Kathleen Kelly (Colorado School of Mines), and Julie Krause (CACI)	Work-Life Balance, Free-Form Networking	Royal Arch in the Hilton Garden Inn	The definition of a successful person is "someone who sets and achieves goals". This success does not need to be at the cost of living an unbalanced life! Come to this BoF for some free-form networking with like-minded people and leave with tips to manage and prioritize aspects of school/work and other activities. The benefits of achieving a greater work–life balance include better overall wellness and happiness, job satisfaction, and reducing the chances of burnout.