Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) is an annual conference celebrating women in tech. The author attended their first GHC in Houston, finding it to be an inspiring experience. Over four days, they attended powerful workshops and lectures, learning from keynote speaker Jessica Matthews about her renewable energy company. The author also enjoyed meeting women from different countries and backgrounds, and interacting with senior professionals who shared career advice and insights. Overall, GHC provided an enriching environment for connecting with others in the field of technology.

1. GHC 2018: An Enriching Experience by AkritiTripathi
Last week I was in Houston attending my first Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). I’d never
visited Houston and GHC-2018 gave me the opportunity to spend four fantastic days in
America’s fourth largest city. A few hours after landing, while I was still processing the
conspicuous grandeur of the Space City’s edifices, I noticed an inexplicable dearth of
Houstonians on the streets. Wednesday came before I could say “Houston, we have a
problem", and it was the start of the most inspiring conference that I’ve ever attended.
Hopping onto a quick detour in history, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was a pioneer in the field
of computing and worked as one of the first programmers on the Harvard Mark I computer
during World War II. Innumerable other achievements and an illustrious personage have
endeared Admiral Hopper as a shining beacon of inspiration to thousands of young women.
Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC), is an annual celebration of women in tech and over the last
two decades has grown to become the largest gathering in the world of women in computing.
Each day at GHC offered a plethora of powerful sessions and I felt like a sponge trying to
absorb water while attending different workshops and lectures. Jessica Matthews was one
of the keynote speakers and I was awestruck by her achievements and commitment to give
back to the society. Jessica is the CEO of Uncharted Power, a renewable power company
specializing in harnessing energy from motion. Products such as Soccket (a soccer ball) and
Pulse (a jumping rope), charge up as users play with them and can store energy for later use
as portable power units in resource-poor areas. Her mantra, “Be authentic” really struck a
chord with me. I highly recommend reading up more about her!
Augmenting the erudite environment of GHC were the encounters with amazing women from
various countries. I made friends with Gisi, a GHC scholar from Germany and we had a
stirring conversation about the tech scene in Deutschland. Milana, whom I met in a workshop
on professional development and leadership educated me about the work culture in Serbia
and we chatted about ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ of being a woman in tech. Jo Miller’s
motivating career advice of the 4 As – “Amplify the Actions that Align with your Aspirations”
gave me ample food for thought. My favorite part of the day was attending the evening
events which provided a wonderful platform to meet experienced campers having dozens of
years of experience. I interacted with many senior Microsofties like Suneetha and Erin who
shared their wonderful journeys in tech and imparted some excellent professional insights.
Unexpectedly running into Pooja, an undergrad classmate with whom I started my journey
as a young engineering student 9 years ago 7000 miles away from Redmond, really
emphasized for me how powerful a platform GHC is! I thoroughly enjoyed attending GHC18!

3. one with all the Microsofties in the house, Go Team Microsoft!