Day 0 - October 8

Landed in Philadelphia in the afternoon and checked into our hotel, with a beautiful view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into New Jersey. After resting for a bit I met the other girls at the Franklin Centre for a Roblox event. It was so cool, and so generous with tons of food, drinks, and even a perfume making station. Each of us made our own custom perfume, and we got to meet recruiters, Roblox staff, and network with other women.

Day 1 - October 9

Went to the expo in the morning and went to see some talks in the afternoon. I heard from women in industry, in education, and a woman who pivoted to tech from oil and gas. I learned about how accessibility is integrated into the design process within Microsoft, and how that benefits both users and employees. I also heard from Danielle Boyer, an Indigenous woman who creates STEM programs for Indigenous youth that are financially accessible. She spoke about endangered Indigenous languages, and the importance of working with Indigenous communities to preserve these languages. At another talk, I learned some really interesting things about bias and diversity in hiring. Something that stuck with me was the importance of having “balanced shortlists” - basically making sure that there’s not just one person of a race or gender on the shortlist for hiring or promotion. Once there’s more than one woman, or more than one person who’s a racial minority, it is 79x and 194x more likely, respectively, that they will be hired.

Day 2 - October 10

We started the day by attending a great breakfast hosted by Roblox! There was great food and yummy lattes to start the day. I spent most of my day at the expo, getting swag, learning more about each company, and lots of waiting in line! That night we had dinner at Dave & Busters, which was a lot of fun.

Day 3 - October 11

This was the last day of the conference, so we made sure to check out any last expo booths, take photos, and used the rest of the day to explore the historic area of Philadelphia. We went to the US Mint, Independence Hall, saw the First Bank of the United States, and more.