African Women In Technology Conference kicks offs to a great start

University students pursuing sciences and business related courses were also in attendance during the African Women in Technology conference (AWITKenya), an annual event organized to support women in tech by bringing them all under one roof to network, learn the tricks of the trade and empower each other.

Anie akpe, the founder of Africa women in tech who is based in the United States said she was excited to host another crop of Kenyan women entrepreneurs’ and techies.

“Today we are going to talk about funding, we have quite a few people who will talk about businesses and entrepreneurship, we are also going to talk about careers, education and machine learning which our new product right now for those who don’t know but has been in the industry for a while so we are looking forward to it and I am excited.”

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Among the long list of distinguished speakers lined up to speak was Janet Kemboi, head of communications Uber East Africa who gave an insightful presentation on how Uber is positively impacting the lives of Kenyan women drivers.

“It was very interesting to be able to be a part of this conversation as we encourage women to go out there and do what they wanna do with their lives” she said.

Apart from getting advice from industry leaders, the women will also get a chance to pitch their products and startups to a panel of judges who are willing to fund them.

“This year we have partnered up with investors who are willing to look at our entrepreneurs and see if their businesses are viable products and if they are, they are willing to invest from $50,000 to $250,000” Anie said.

This is the second time the event has been held in Kenya, the first one was held at Kenyatta University last year where over 200 women attended.

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Since last year’s event which was a resounding success, the founders have been collecting feedback from the participants to make the 2017 experience even better.

“For this year going forward what we have decided since we have so many women who have questions ranging from investment, entrepreneurship, general information about technology to college students seeking career advice is to then focus more on creating solutions for that.” Anie added.

Founder of Kandid communications and a motivational speaker herself, Kandia Johnson who is among speakers lined up to speak about increasing your visibility and income with social media titled the power of your story tomorrow morning, was excited to be back to Kenya after gracing last year’s event as well.

“What is really important for Women in tech right now since the numbers are so low is to surround themselves with a positive network like coming to the African women in tech conference which is a great opportunity for them to find mentors or sponsors, encourage one another as well as help one another get to that next level because when you are not seeing women or young girls who look like you it is really hard to stay motivated” Kandia said

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Rheena Catherine, a student from USIU pursuing IT and Math was among this year’s participants.

“I have attended this event today so that I can interact with other women in the tech industry and get inspirations from the ones who have already made it, I am also interested to start a mentorship programme for kids out there in rural areas in order for them to know that Tech is for everyone”

AWITKenya, 2017 will run from 29 – 30 June with Friday being the climax of the event where the winner will be announced.