VanWIT hosts events that connect, inspire and educate. Join us and become a part of our network of smart, tech-savvy women who are committed to helping each other succeed. We provide a friendly and supportive environment for women in all stages of their career, including students, up-and-comers and seasoned professionals. VanWIT welcomes people of all genders who are interested in supporting women in technology.
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Using LinkedIn for Professional Growth:
A Business Mixer & Workshop with Microsoft & VanWIT
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: Microsoft Store, Pacific Centre, 701 W Georgia Street, Vancouver
Ticket Price: $22.00 CAD
*$17.00 student rate available (email events@vanwit.ca to request discount code)
*Ticket purchase includes light refreshments, workshop, and the on-site activities (VR Demos and professional-grade photo sessions).
Agenda:
6:00pm: Doors Open
6:00pm – 7:00pm: Networking, VR Demos, Profile Photo Sessions
7:00pm – 7:45pm: LinkedIn Workshop
7:45pm – 8:00pm: Wrap up
Description:
VanWIT is partnering with The Microsoft Store at Pacific Centre to deliver an interactive and engaging event that’s all about building your professional network and career growth. The event will include a 45-minute workshop on LinkedIn, where you will:
- Learn to create a compelling profile of your capabilities and accomplishments and grow your business’s professional network
- Explore best practices for utilizing LinkedIn for career growth, and professional development opportunities
- Examine your potential and how to raise your professional profile
- Be introduced to Lynda.com as a professional learning resource
Build new connections during our networking portion of the night, as well as enjoy light refreshments. What’s more, you can also receive a complimentary, professional-grade photo for your LinkedIn profile from our on-site photographer, who will be available during the event.
VanWIT Breakfast Series: Top Tips to Land Your Next Tech Gig
Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Time: 8:00am – 9:30am
Location: Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Room 4600, Vancouver
Ticket Price: $22.00 CAD
*$17.00 student rate available (email events@vanwit.ca to request discount code)
*Ticket purchase includes a light continental breakfast with coffee & tea
Agenda:
8:00am – 8:30am: Registration
8:30am – 8:45am: Tips to Help You Nail Your Next Interview.
8:45am – 9:00am: How to Make the Most of Your LinkedIn Profile.
9:00am – 9:30am: Open Discussion
Description:
Join VanWIT, Ignite Technical Resources, and other peers in the Vancouver technology community for an engaging morning session to learn more about the latest job searching tips. Covering topics like effective body language and post-interview follow up etiquette, Marta Malecki will discuss the top 10 mental and practical tips to help you prepare and nail that next job interview. Not sure what to include in your LinkedIn Profile? Not sure about LinkedIn etiquette? Vanessa Strachan will walk you through a sample LinkedIn profile and outline what HR professionals, recruiters and hiring managers alike will have their eyes out for.
About our Speakers:
Ignite Technical Resources believes that accessing the right IT Consultants and Opportunities should be kept simple. They connect clients to the best people available on the market. Ignite Technical Resources was founded to be the trusted advisor and influencer for our client’s strategic talent initiatives. They look to inform, advise and facilitate the hiring and placement of exceptional, on-demand workforces across Canada.
Date: Thurs, January 19, 2017
Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: WildTale Coastal Grill, 1079 Mainland Street, Vancouver
*Event will be held in the private room at the back of the restaurant
Ticket price: $25.00 CAD
*$20.00 student rate available (email events@vanwit.ca to request discount code).
*Ticket purchase includes admission to the event and appetizers. Drinks are not included – cash bar is available.
Agenda:
- 5:00pm-5:30pm: Arrival and Registration
- 5:30pm: Networking Starts
- 6:00pm – 6:20pm: Speakers
- 7:00pm: Event Conclusion (guests are welcome to move into the main bar & restaurant)
Description:
Socialize and network at Vancouver Women in Technology (VanWIT)’s first event of 2017. Meet with industry peers for a casual night of networking and talking tech at WildTale Coastal Grill.
Featured Guest:
VanWIT is pleased to welcome Frenny Bawa, who will be saying a few words during the event. Over a 25+ year career in technology, Frenny Bawa has held senior leadership positions in small, medium and large Canadian companies which include Motorola, Epic Data, TELUS Corporation and BlackBerry (previously Research In Motion).Frenny has spent a significant part of her career taking Canadian Technology to International Markets. She drove a globalization effort which included introducing BlackBerry to over 175 countries and specifically managing growth in the Middle East and India Markets. In 2011, Frenny was recognized as one of the 10 most powerful women in India by Forbes Magazine.Currently, Frenny provides strategic business advice to Corporations and serves on multiple Boards.
Thanks:
Thank you to Nadine McDowell of Level Concepts for helping to organize this event!
VanWIT Breakfast Series: Becoming an Intrapreneur – Career Hacks from the Trenches
Date: Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Time: 8:00am – 9:30am
Location: Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Room 2800, Vancouver
Ticket Price: $22.00 CAD
*$17.00 student rate available (email events@vanwit.ca to request discount code)
*Ticket purchase includes a light continental breakfast with coffee & tea
Agenda:
8:00am – 8:30am: Registration
8:30am – 9:30am: Presentation and Q&A
Description:
Looking for advice to build your career, innovate, and act like an entrepreneur within your company? Join VanWIT’s latest Breakfast Speaker Series with Shari Wallace, CIO for the City of Burnaby. Shari will be focused on discussing intrapreneurial skills and development, covering such topics like:
- Building your internal network of subject matter experts and key influencers
- When to pursue an initiative and when to put it on the back-burner
- How to leverage and learn from your team, as well as others across your organization
- How to look ahead at where your job / industry is going and what that might mean for you – particularly in terms of digital disruption
- How to find a mentor and mentor others
Be an entrepreneur in your organization. Learn useful hacks to add value to your career and your company. Tickets are limited, so be sure to register soon to secure your spot!
About the Speaker:
Shari Wallace is CIO for the City of Burnaby with responsibility for IT strategy, business transformation projects, asset lifecycle management and day-to-day operations. Prior to assuming this role in 2013, she served as Director of Strategic Planning & Program Management for the City of Vancouver. In this role she was responsible for IT and business transformation initiatives from the ideas stage through to benefits realization, as well as strategic planning and IT standards and policies. Shari worked for the City of Vancouver for 10 years in a variety of roles, including acting CIO, applications development and support, service management and director of the corporate IT group.
Prior to joining municipal government, Shari spent 15 years in the private sector in a number of IT positions across a wide-range of industries including telecommunications, banking and oil and gas.
Shari is also involved with a number of boards, committees and volunteer organizations; including Vice-president of the BC Chapter of the CIO Canada Association and board member of the Business Technology Management program at SFU.
Who Should Attend:
This event is great for you if you are seeking to be inspired and informed. You may be:
- A professional in the early to mid stages of your career
- A student looking towards a career in technology
- Work(ed) in technical roles or at technology companies
- In the midst of a career path change
- Both men and women are encouraged to attend
Event Sponsor:
VanWIT Fall Mixer
Featuring opening remarks by the Honourable Amrik Virk, Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Service for British Columbia.
Date: Wednesday, Sept 21, 2016
Time: 5:00pm – 7:30pm
Location: Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Room: Oceanview Suite 3-4, Vancouver
*Please note that the location has been changed to the Pan Pacific to accommodate more attendees, due the overwhelmingly positive response received from Vancouver’s tech community.
*Parking is available underground at Canada Place.
Ticket Price: $25.00 CAD
*Ticket purchase includes admission to the event and appetizers. Drinks are not included, but can be purchased from the bar at an additional charge.
Agenda:
5:00pm – 5:45pm: Registration
5:45pm – 6:00pm: Opening Remarks by the Honourable Amrik Virk, Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Service for British Columbia
6:00pm – 7:30pm: Networking
Description:
On Wednesday, September 21, meet your peers, build new relationships or find familiar faces in an evening of networking and socializing.
We’re excited to welcome Honourable Amrik Virk, Minister of Technology, Innovation, and Citizens’ Services for British Columbia who will kick off the evening, launching this engaged community into an evening of networking and mingling. Make sure to get your ticket to secure your spot for this event!
Connect with women in the industry that can help you build your career. Let’s meet together and help establish Vancouver as a wonderful tech community for women.
The VanWIT team at the Fall Mixer with guest speaker, the Honourable Amrik Virk, Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Service for British Columbia. (L-R Jennifer Carreiro, Kimberley Jang, Sandra Horvath, Maryam Zargar, Amrik Virk, Sheila Eddin, Joanne Hausch, Jennifer Charters, Catherine Aczel-Boivie, Farrah Smith)
VanWIT Breakfast Speaker Series: Being Your Own Leader as a Woman in Tech
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Time: 8:00am – 9:30am
Location: Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Room 2800, Vancouver
Ticket Price: $22.00 CAD, $17.00 student rate available (email events@vanwit.ca)
*Ticket purchase includes a light continental breakfast with coffee & tea
Agenda:
8:00am – 8:30am: Registration
8:30am – 9:30am: Presentation and Q&A
Description:
Join the team at VanWIT for our inaugural Breakfast Speaker Series with Jennifer Gervès-Keen, an award-winning coach with a specialization in learning & development, performance management, and strategy. Jennifer will be speaking and taking questions from the audience in an intimate group presentation format. With a focus on being your own leader and moving your career or business forward as a woman in the technology sector, topics discussed include:
- How to build a high-performance culture (as both a business owner and a leader)
- Women and entrepreneurship (skills, resources, and the changing industry)
- Finding your drive (getting past inner fear and barriers to move forward)
VanWIT invites women in the technology sector (from students to professionals) who are interested in building their own career and/or business to attend this event. Tickets are limited, so please register soon to secure your spot!
About our Speaker:
Jennifer Gervès-Keen is an award-winning coach, with a focus on offering exceptional learning & development experiences within organizations. She also creates successful performance management programs for some clients and assists others with business strategy.
Her client list includes organizations across North America as well as Europe and she has also worked in the Middle East. From smaller and successful organizations such as Mobify and Landyachtz to larger businesses such as Deloitte Canada and the CPA, Jennifer has worked with all levels of government, and most areas of the private sector including engineering, manufacturing, finance, professional services and high tech as well as some non-profit organizations.
Areas of expertise include executive coaching, performance management, organizational development, strategic planning facilitation, learning and development consulting, entrepreneurship, creation of innovative training programs/workshops, generational-based issues, HR trends & challenges, and public speaking.
You can read more about Jennifer Gervès-Keen at http://www.jgkonline.com/about
Jennifer Gerves-Keen speaking at VanWIT’s first Breakfast Speaker Series event.
VanWIT Launch
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Time: 5:30pm – 8:00pm
Location: Milestones Grill & Bar, 1109 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, BC
Ticket Price: $15
Description:
It takes a community: with technology jobs on the rise and the number of women participating in the tech workforce declining to lower levels than 10 years ago, the need for an organization to help women enter and thrive in technology is evident. Vancouver Women in Technology (VanWIT) is excited to bring you the first networking event and celebration of our newly-created non-profit society which will support women in technology (students, up and comers, and professionals) through networking, mentoring, and educational opportunities.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, we hope you will take time out to join our event to connect with women in Vancouver’s technology community to grow your network. Let us know what you can give, and what you would like to get from our group and upcoming events. Your ticket purchase will go towards appetizers in the private room at Milestones in Yaletown.
The VanWIT founding members and board (missing Shelley Gilberg) celebrating our sold out launch networking event at Milestones in Yaletown (L-R Jennifer Charters, Sandra Horvath, Maryam Zargar, Sheila Eddin, Catherine Aczel-Boivie, Joanne Hausch).
