Getting in touch with women technologists from across the world at Grace Hopper

Dropboxers love a lot of things: posting pictures of their pets, bonding over coffee, helping each other protect their mental health, solving complicated tech puzzles, and everything in between. But one of the things they love most is showing up, making connections, and even recruiting new Dropboxers at tech conferences across the U.S. — or more recently, virtually from their homes!

One of the biggest conferences we attend each year is the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC for short) — the world’s largest gathering of women technologists, where women from around the world learn, network, and celebrate their achievements. During the four-day event, attendees have nearly limitless opportunities to connect with one another.

One standout part of the conference is the Career Fair, during which attendees can swing by the virtual booths of various companies to meet employees and explore job opportunities. During the course of the conference, we had over 800 individuals “check in” at our Dropbox booth! We never had less than 10 people present at our virtual booth at a time, getting to know each other through chat messages or video.

And a lot of those women took the conversation even further — we had one-on-one chats with over 350 attendees! Some of those discussions resulted in applying for a job at Dropbox or just learning more about what we do. We’ve already hired one of these women, with four other offers out to potential future Dropboxers.

We also hosted a special private event called Advancing Women Leaders, where women can settle into their favorite spot on their couch for an evening of wine tasting, gourmet snacks, and networking. In between bites, attendees had the opportunity to hear from GHC speakers and Dropbox volunteers about the challenges of being a woman leader. This year’s speakers included Marvina Robinson from Stuyvesant Champagne, a small black-owned champagne business out of New York City, and Ruchi Varshney, one of Dropbox’s longest tenured employees currently on staff.

Engineering Manager Harsha Aravindakshan, who attended both the conference and Advancing Women Leaders, told us, “My favorite part about GHC was building meaningful connections, which has been an essential part of being virtual, and conferences such as GHC have been an excellent place for this to grow. At Advancing Women Leaders, I loved having the ability to connect with other leaders across the industry and share intimate experiences about our journey as women leaders in tech. The session was very influential to me, as a diverse leader, to be able to form connections via similar experiences.”

We can’t wait to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration again next year. But in the meantime, we’re still supporting our women at Dropbox through every method we can think of, including our Women@ ERG. You can learn more about them here.