GHCI 2024

I first got to know about GHC when I was working in my first job at LSI in Minneapolis. Few of my old college friends had attended and posted about it on social media. The idea itself had a different pull. A conference for Women in tech where you get to meet women leaders in your industry was exciting. 

The Indian chapter of GHC happens in Bangalore and is called Grace Hopper Celebration India. This was the first year after Covid where the conference happened in person. When the conference was announced I was not sure if I would get a chance to attend. I had joined just one month back and every team had limited slots. I checked with my manager and luckily she agreed. So here I was going to my dream conference after so many years. 😊 It was an amazing experience. Some of the things could have been better like key-notes from tech leaders instead of non-tech but overall I really enjoyed the two days that I spent in the conference.

The conference was divided into three parts. It would start with one or two key-notes and fireside chat and then end again with a panel discussion and entertainment. Start and end were common for all and the middle sessions were divided into multiple tracks.

• Scholarship and Poster (Consisted of short presentations from various industry experts)

• Tech for social good

• Media 

• Executive

• Cloud, IoT & Cyber Security

• AI and ML

I mostly opted for sessions related to personal and professional growth. I especially enjoyed these few sessions. 

Fireside Chat between Sirisha Vorungati and Govindraj Ethiraj

She spoke about her journey from a young missile scientist to a CEO of Lloyds Technology. She told a story about how as a young scientist she was inspired by Dr. Kalam at the time of crisis. She highlighted these 5 C’s to have for a successful career. Competency, Courage, Confidence, Communication and Compass(End Goal).

Masterclass on Networking by Neeraja Hegde

This was an interesting workshop. Since it was a networking class we interacted with other attendees. The key takeaway for me was when talking to someone new try to listen 80% of the time and talk 20% of time. Be genuinely interested in the other person and don’t network just for the sake of it. 

Security in Hardware by Mini TT and Sivakami Velusamy

This was one of the few technical presentations I attended. I had previously worked on the firmware side of Hardware Security. The talk started with what is Hardware Security and why it is needed. Basically when you are sourcing components / ICs from multiple places, how do you make sure that the component received is the genuine one and not duplicate and have not been tampered with. This is done by using public and private keys. A private key is generated on the device and is not shared. You can fetch the public key. The public key along with encryption techniques can verify that hardware is genuine. I also learned about a few industry standards and institutions in this area like SPDM (Security Protocol and Data Management), NIST (National Institute of Secure Technology)etc.

Design Think your Career by Namita Kutty and Janet Rajan

This was about how to progress in your career from Individual Contributor to Managerial role. This one has the most notes in my notebook. Here are a few things that stayed with me.

• Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Build habits by starting small, like if you want to read more just start with a page a day and then go on increasing.

• Take effort to build relationships at work. If you are not particularly good at it then be more intentional about it. Like marking on the calendar to schedule 1:1 time with colleagues.

• Be aware of these three C’s for any challenge you get at work. Aim to always move things from circle of influence to circle of control. Here communication plays a key role.

  • Circle of control: something that is completely dependent on you and you can change the outcome based on your efforts.

  • Circle of Influence: Something that is not completely in your control but you have an influence over the outcome.

  • Circle of concern: Something that is out of your control or influence.

• When aiming for something, like a growth in the team or a promotion, be a self critique. Analyse every 2 weeks on what went well, what could have been better and what are the ways that you can improve.

Other than all these talks and workshops, one beautiful aspect of the conference was meeting so many fellow techies. We met fellow women techies in the conference as well as during our metro commute to home. Every person had a different story, career path and different view on why they were here attending the conference. It was enriching to interact with them.