Last week we celebrated the 10th anniversary of our very first event in Boston. At the time, we were called Boston Girl Geek Dinners, the local chapter of an organization started in London, whose goal was to create a space for women in tech through fun events. We ran it as a one-off event. Fun fact, this is how Rachel and Felicia first met– Rachel had started the chapter a few years prior, and Felicia worked for the company sponsor VMware, and was tasked with acting as point person for the night.
80+ women showed up (in the rain!) in June 2013 at VMware’s offices looking for connection and community. We asked three women to speak for 10 minutes on whatever they geek out about, offered geeky raffle prizes, and food and drinks. As we started saying our goodbyes, we were taken aback by the enthusiasm for the next one. When will it be? How can I help? Can our company host the next one? And our response was, as it still typically is today, SURE! Let’s do this!
After that, we hosted more and more events. In 2015, we officially incorporated and changed our names to She Geeks Out. In 2016, Felicia and Rachel made the commitment to each work full-time on She Geeks Out, and began adding in DEI trainings for companies. In 2017, we added a plus to our name and by 2019, we had hired our first employees, were running DEI workshops, hosting three events a month in Boston, regularly hosting events in New York and the SF Bay area, and even held a Summit! Plus, we were consistently booked out for sponsorship an entire year in advance. Whew!
The pandemic obviously put a damper on IRL events, and while we kept things alive virtually in 2020, we noticed that people were tired. Who wants to be in a virtual space more than they have to these days, eh? So we continued to offer virtual (and increasingly, more in-person) DEI training and consulting, and supported our community as best we could while we all figured out what this new world order looked like.
Fast forward to 2023, and we’re back!
We hosted our first IRL event since 2020, sponsored by the lovely team at AURA, and we just hosted our 10th Anniversary celebration! We’re excited for our next Geek Out sponsored by CarGurus next month, and look forward to more lovely in-person (and virtual!) events as we continue to support and grow this wonderful community.
Here’s to ten more years!