Hey you gorgeous bunch, I’m sorry I’ve been a bit quiet this week!!! It’s been non stop!!! Now I’m home, I’ve finally had my first proper sleep in days I’m ready to tell you all everything!!! 🤣 I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet what an incredible few days we had at the RAISE Summit. As you all know, there were a few of us over there supporting our incredible @Sian Kelly Guy… and wow… what an experience!!!!! I did end up spending a good chunk of the second day back in my hotel room because my stomach decided to remind me who’s really in charge 😩, but let’s forget about that for a minute and talk about what really made the trip so special. RAISE was incredible. So many fascinating people, so many amazing products and the venue itself was absolutely stunning. But you all know me by now… for me it’s ALWAYS about our gorgeous network. I was lucky enough to travel over with some of my new colleagues, while also having some of our beautiful WiTPN family there too!!!! Watching my two worlds collide was one of the most special moments I’ve ever had. Seeing you all welcome my colleagues with open arms, everyone chatting away, swapping stories, making connections, laughing together… it just made me so proud to be part of this community and at one point I even had a little cry as I was completely overwhelmed sat around a table with everyone I care so much about, the women that built me up so much over the past 10 months & all my new colleagues who have also been so wonderful with me since day 1!!! They haven’t stopped talking about you all since….. One of the highlights for me was hearing that my manager rang our CEO back home to tell him just how incredibly talented this network is. After me constantly banging on about the lack of women in tech, and after hearing our incredible @Sue Black talk about the amazing TechUP programme, they’re now buzzing with ideas. They’re talking about putting together a BIG fundraiser for our network and, once our CEO is back from holiday, having more conversations about how we might be able to help get more TechUP women into tech roles.….. I can’t put into words what that means to me.…. From where I was when I joined this network, to now be in a position where I can make connections that could give something back to the people that completely changed my life… the network that believed in me, encouraged me, poured into me every single day and helped me become the person I am now… that’s everything to me….. I’m getting all warm just thinking about it!!!! If we can help create opportunities for other women who are where I was not that long ago… that’s what it’s all about!!!!

Heading back to the UK on Sunday after a few unforgettable weeks away celebrating finishing my Masters.. No caves this time. But snorkelling with sea turtles and island hopping around Hawaii to now cheering on England from Vancouver Island, it’s certainly been an adventure! I know Paris is coming up, and I can’t wait to catch up on everything I’ve missed and hear all about it. See you all back in the chats soon. 😊 What have I missed you wonderful lot???? 🌟 💛 ✈️ 💛 🏖️ 💛 🌋 💛 🌟

Happy Friday you lovely lot! 💜 Time for another weekly leaderboard! 🎉 A massive well done to this week’s Top 10… 1. @Jane Fullman 2. @Gita Singham 3. @Kat Heywood 4. @Susan Walsh 5. @Sivasharmini Ganeshamoorthy 6. @Muthu Karunarathna 7. @Shereen El-Shennawy 8. @Amanda Parkin 9. @Karen Jones 10. @Cigdem Sengul Another brilliant week and it’s lovely seeing so many familiar names on there. Thank you to every single one of you who gets involved, whether you’re posting, commenting, asking questions, sharing advice or cheering someone else on. You all make this such a lovely place to spend my days. ❤️✨💃🏼😘 This week’s Member Spotlight is our fabulous @Sivasharmini Ganeshamoorthy 💃🏼✨🎉 I’m super excited to share Siva’s profile because she’s just landed an incredible new role, which is amazing news and so well deserved! 🥳🎉✨💃🏼 On a personal note, she’s also been an absolute superstar with my Finn. Siva has been tutoring him through his A Level Computer Science and we’re already seeing the difference in both his confidence and his grades….. I have watched him fall back in love with the subject & it’s been so warming!!! As a mum, I honestly can’t thank her enough. ❤️🎉✨💃🏼…. so keep an eye out for her spotlight over the next few days and make sure you show her lots of love when it goes live. ✨ Also… I have to share this because it made me laugh this morning. 😂 My manager messaged me to say most of this week’s work is done, we’ve got a busy week ahead next week, so I should take it easy today… then followed it up by saying if I needed some time off I should go and watch Gilmore Girls. 🤣😂🤣I don’t think I’ve ever had a manager who’s actively encouraged me to chill out so much in my life! Safe to say I’m still getting used to that, but I’m not complaining. 😂

Hey you lovely lot……My whine this week is I ended up back in hospital with my stomach from Sunday through to Tuesday. The whole time I was there they couldn’t get me a bed, so it was a bit of a nightmare!!! Thankfully I was well enough to come home on Tuesday morning, I’ve had a proper sleep & I’m feeling much more like myself now ✨💃🏼 Now for the wins…Tomorrow I’m off to London for the day! 💃🏼 get there about 12 go straight for lunch with my managers & then to a company-wide event at a hotel… so technically it’s a work day, but not really any work…. I’ll take that! 😂 And of course… the countdown to RAISE is on! I can’t wait….I’m sooooo excited to catch up with everyone who’s going, see everything our gorgeous @Sian Kelly Guy has worked so hard on, and I’m super for the after-party too. 🤣💃 Right, over to you lovely lot…. What’s your win this week? Big or small, I want to hear it…..And what’s your whine? Get it off your chest… work, kids, life, technology behaving like technology usually does…

Hi lovely Women in Tech, I'm posting from Malta where I've taken my daughter after her hard work all year for GCSEs. My beach/pool bag is freebie swag from the Women in Data conference earlier this year: it's just perfect and I'm thrilled with it. However my most enduring event freebies to date are still my TechUP Women hoody and multi-USB port, both have been used to death! 😍 Do you have any conference swag or employer merch that's made it to unlikely places with you?