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Hi ala,
A few days have passed, and the cancellation of the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) is still swirling around in the ether. (If you are still blissfully unaware, the 2026 event, scheduled for Oct. 27-30, was cancelled earlier this week.)
GHC is widely seen as one of the largest gatherings of women in tech. (I went in 2024 as a guest. One of my pictures from the kick-off is to the right.)
Lots of angst. Lots of disappointment. And now, some folks are scrambling to create replacement events. It's hard to replace a multi-track, multi-day, 30,000-person event in just two weeks. Something of that scale takes years to build.
Meanwhile, I'm thinking about the speakers.
The women who submitted proposals, got accepted, spent hours preparing their presentations, and were looking forward to sharing their expertise on one of the biggest stages in tech.
We've reached out to our Innovation Women members and have already identified three who were scheduled to speak at GHC. I'm sure there are more - talk to us.
We're going to work with them to find other stages for their presentations. Their work shouldn't go to waste.
And I'd like to extend that offer beyond our membership.
If you know someone whose GHC speaking opportunity just disappeared, send them to Speaker Friend Fridays. It's our free weekly gathering for speakers, and you don't have to be an Innovation Women member to join us.
We can't recreate GHC. But we can put our heads together, make connections, share opportunities, and see what we can do to help these speakers get their messages heard.
Bobbie and the Innovation Women Team
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