IT community from Central Asia: TechnoWomen

Aziza Shuzheeva, city — Astana, CEO and co-founder of TechnoWomen, @aziza.astana 

About the Community

We, TechnoWomen, founded our organization on May 6, 2022. Our goal is to unite progressive women working in technology industries and help other girls and women find their place in this world through the use of new technologies. We registered on the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) platform as a non-profit organization. Our mission is to open up new opportunities for girls and women in this new world and contribute to societal development. Our goal is to increase the number of girls and women working in technology industries.

Community Members

Our target audience is quite broad and is divided into several categories.

The first category consists of women and girls working in the technology sector, ICT industry, FinTech, EdTech, and so on. They turn to us to advance their careers, implement projects, launch startups, and develop further.

The second category includes female graduates and students of colleges and universities who understand the importance of digital technologies in the modern world and strive for employment and the implementation of their projects.

The third category comprises female entrepreneurs from traditional sectors who recognize the need to develop their digital technologies and want to enter this industry but do not know how.

Becoming part of TechnoWomen is simple. According to our charter, we can have associate and non-associate members.

Associate members are those who have officially joined our organization and actively promote their interests by realizing themselves on our platform. To become an associate member, you can visit our website or Instagram page. The algorithm for joining is described in detail there, which includes signing an agreement and submitting an application. We also have two membership fee options: a standard fee of 10,000 tenge and a general fee of 150,000 tenge, which is intended for executives and IT entrepreneurs.

You can be a non-associate member simply by receiving information and attending our events. To do this, it is enough to join our Telegram chat.

Events for Community Members

We conduct a huge number of initiatives for members of our community. A few examples:

First, we launched the Cyber Safe for Women project — a trainer-of-trainers program where we teach women about cybersecurity. Participants can become certified trainers and teach others the basics of cybersecurity and the prevention of digital crimes and fraud.

Second, on June 12, the IT-Aiel 2.0 project started, which includes training in no-code programming, e-commerce, and selling services on freelance platforms. This project is implemented in cooperation with Astana Hub under the auspices of the national commission.

In addition, we organize many different trainings and seminars. Recently, a seminar on gender expertise of regulatory acts took place, organized for female experts under the auspices of the UN. We also conduct trainings on digital transformation and various educational programs.

We have many programs and trainings. The most important thing is to keep an eye on announcements, be part of our community, and actively participate in educational programs.

How the Community Helps with Development

We constantly help our members by organizing regular offline events, such as our annual Techno Women Central Asia forum. We also hold regional events: this year, TechnoWomen events have already taken place in Kyzylorda, Karaganda, Shymkent, and Almaty. On June 26, TechnoWomen will take place in Aktau. All our members and interested parties can come and participate in these events.

In addition, we hold regular online seminars, conferences, and meetings, as well as evening webinars. We also organize business breakfasts on various topics, which are open to both members of our organization and everyone else. It is important to stay informed and actively participate.

Successful Projects

There are many success stories, and I am pleased with the achievements of our women.

In 2022, Aruzhan Mede joined us. At that time, she worked as a project manager at BTS Digital and was already a talented professional. On the TechnoWomen platform, Aruzhan revealed herself as a leader and within a year became the company's Commercial Director. Soon after, she launched her own startup and is currently working on a second project, which is encouraging.

Another wonderful example is the girls who completed the IT-Aiel 1.0 program. One of them, Aliya Urazumbetova, graduated from IT-Aiel in 2023. She spent eight years on maternity leave and is a philologist by education. Today, she works at the Robotech robotics development center and has launched her own startup project, Cyber Bala. Currently, she is undergoing the Startup Garage acceleration program. Having completed the IT-Aiel program, Aliya joined our organization and is today considered its leader.

Plans

We have big plans. First of all, we can confidently say that we are not just a Kazakhstani organization, but an international one. We received accreditation in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and, in partnership with ITU, held our artificial intelligence forum. We are also a partner of UN Women — a UN structure dealing with women's issues. In addition, we have been accredited in the international partner network Equals.

We are actively developing large communities in Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, where we have already conducted trainings. On June 18-19, we are heading to Tashkent to hold a major event. New countries such as Azerbaijan and Turkey are also showing interest in us and proposing cooperation. We may expand our presence in Moldova and Georgia, where we already have partners who want to develop the TechnoWomen movement.

We strive to become a large international community that helps women realize themselves in IT technologies.