IT community from Uzbekistan: Women in Tech Uzbekistan

Anna Ambrozevich, Tashkent, Director of Women in Tech Uzbekistan, Personal Brand Consultant, Expert in Marketing Technologies, LinkedIn   

About the Community

The official representative office of the global Women in Tech community in Uzbekistan was opened on March 2, 2024. The global Women in Tech community was founded in 2018 by Ayumi Mur Aoki and has been growing rapidly over the past six years.

Established as a volunteer movement, the community has defined its mission as supporting 5,000,000 women and girls in the STEAM field by 2030. To achieve this goal, we utilize four main tools: education, business, digital inclusion, and advocacy.

Today, Women in Tech has representative offices in 56 countries and over 300,000 members, organizing various international awards and summits annually.

Ayumi Mur Aoki herself attended the opening ceremony of the representative office in Uzbekistan, underscoring the significance of this event. This is because Uzbekistan became the first country in Central Asia to open a Women in Tech representative office.

You can read more about Women in Tech Global via the following link: https://women-in-tech.org/ 

In addition to the community's global objectives on an international scale, we have set local goals for Uzbekistan. Specifically:

— Integration of Uzbek women and girls into the global community

— Development of future skills and careers in this field

— Emergence of new female leaders in companies, universities, and regions.

Community Participants

Our community is open to all women, from schoolgirls interested in the STEAM field to professionals and leaders.

We aim to help girls become competitive specialists on an international level. Therefore, we focus on promising fields such as cybersecurity, analytics, and data science.

Joining the community is easy; all our events are free. You simply need to subscribe to our pages on social media or the WIT-Hub platform.

We are all volunteers. If you wish to participate more actively in the community's life, you can become a volunteer, ambassador, track leader, mentor, or speaker.

You can find our social media links and application forms for volunteering and ambassadorship via this link.

Events for Community Members

Our events are always open to everyone. Not only women and girls, but also men can participate, except in cases where places are limited. Additionally, those interested can be invited not only as attendees but also as speakers.

We organize various events in both online and offline formats. For example:

— Meetings with expert speakers on promising career paths

— Women in Tech Talks conversations with various companies, where we serve as a platform for dialogue

— IAmRemarkable workshops to help combat "imposter syndrome"

— Various events in universities and regions.

Currently, the Women in Tech ambassador program is launching in universities, and in the regions this autumn.

We actively support global initiatives of Women in Tech, including programs from the European Business University and international webinars.

In 2024, our delegation participated for the first time in the annual Women in Tech summit in Paris. Kamola Sobirova, Advisor to the Minister of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan, and young ambassador Gulnoza Abdurashidova spoke at the event.

Another wonderful news is that on October 20, 2024, the Women in Tech CCA Awards, an award for the Caucasus and Central Asia region, was held in Uzbekistan for the first time. Candidates for the award had the opportunity to compete in the following seven categories:

— Aspiring Teen Award

— Most Disruptive Award

— Best Ally Award

— Most Impactful Initiative Award

— Woman in Web3 Award

— Tech Diplomacy Award

— Greentech Start-Up Award

— Global Leadership Award

— Lifetime Achievement Award.

How the Community Supports Development

We have several tools available:

— Numerous local and international events

— The WIT-Hub social network for communication with partners worldwide

— Mentorship and ambassador programs for universities and regions

— Various local and international educational programs from WIT

— Promoting Uzbek girls as IT specialists and integrating them into the global community.

Successful Projects

The participation of our delegation in the summit in Paris, as well as the selection of Tashkent to host the CCA Awards, was a major victory.

We also consider the Women in Tech Talks format, which we conduct in collaboration with companies, to be interesting and beneficial. Within the framework of this event, we share with participants the history, challenges, and opportunities of Women in Tech, and also provide an opportunity for girls working in the company to share their stories. These events are open to everyone through many of our collaborations and initiatives aimed at supporting and developing women in the IT industry.

Additionally, the launch of the Women in Tech Talks program recently took place at IT Park University. Student girls participated as speakers for the first time and shared their stories. This was a significant step for these girls in developing their personal brands and public speaking skills.

Plans

There are many plans. Specifically: specialized events, Women in Tech Talks, development of the ambassador program in regions and universities, launching educational programs, as well as hosting CCA Awards events in Tashkent, and more. We invite you all to these events.

To implement these plans, we actively engage partners, sponsors, and volunteers.

Those who wish to join our community or have partnership proposals can contact me via Telegram or email at uzbekistan@women-in-tech.org.