Written by Brea Starmer

When I founded Lions & Tigers, I knew we would be a community fully dedicated to creating economic access for others. So, when I met the founders of Women in Cloud, our shared values alignment was obvious.

Women In Cloud (WIC) is on a mission to create one billion dollars in economic access for woman-founded businesses in tech.  Although there are many organizations dedicated to balancing gender equity in technology, this organization is quite special in how they approach it: through connected community.

One great example of that was the WICxICONS event a few weeks ago, creating a moment for the community to meet in real life after years of virtual-only engagements. I had the honor of being asked to be the Master of Ceremonies. It was my job to hold this community up and help them see all they had done and all they have yet to do together.

It was a night full of excitement and inspiration. We celebrated so much under the 2022 theme Collective Influence:

• Gina Fratarcangeli shared remarks on her TedX talk called “Stop Climbing and Start Lifting”
• Chaitra Vedullapalli and Michelle Pruitt had a fireside chat highlighting the incredible impact of the collective WIC ecosystem in the past year
• Our client, Gena Goh, was recognized for her work opening channels for female-founded organizations at Microsoft as the Supplier of the Year

One of my favorite moments was during an exercise where I asked audience members to stand in support of statements. I said, “Stand up if you are dedicating to creating economic access for women in technology” and the entire room was on their feet cheering!

If you’d like to engage with Women in Cloud, I encourage you to consider these options:

• Sponsor the organization to create access for others
• Speak at an event and teach community members
• Enroll female tech leaders in community membership
• Participate in their events, especially the annual summit in January

A big thank you to the entire WIC Community. It was truly a magical night!

Economic access: an individual’s ability to acquire economic, political, or cultural resources