It might be an odd title for the overview of yesterday’s Women In Tech meetup but bear with us for a bit. To be honest, after everything was said and done, this was the overall message that stood out.

We can, we should, and we will!

Now, we won’t give you a word-by-word overview because so much of what was said yesterday evening was truly important. You will get to hear (or re-live) those messages once the video of yesterday’s panel discussion titled “The Power of Female Entrepreneurship” goes live on Split Tech City’s YouTube channel.

We’re just going to shine a light on some of the key points. And on some amazing women!

The reasons why we still need Women In Tech and similar events are numerous. We knew that even before hearing the experiences our panelists shared with us yesterday, but hearing them solidified this fact even more.

There’s still work to be done.

But luckily enough, as it was also proven yesterday, there are many inspiring and strong women willing to do said work:

• recognize their value and contributions: “Not minimize them by thinking we’re not good enough.”
• believing in oneself and doing things despite fears and doubts: “Done is better than perfect!”
• ending the vicious cycle of female enmity: “It was hard for me, so I’ll make it hard for you. We need to stop that.”
• taking up space and using their voices: “You can talk to me! I know as much or even more than my male colleague.”
• challenge the existing societal norms: “It has always been done this way doesn’t mean it should continue to be done this way.”
• becoming mentors to empower and uplift other women

Empowered Women Empower Women!

That’s how it should be. Lifting each other up is what we do at Split Tech City no matter what – gender, age, work experience, or chosen field.

We want to see that happening everywhere, so women empowering other women will always be a priority of Women In Tech events.

So here’s a bit of written empowerment for the amazing women we had the chance to collaborate with in realizing this edition of Women In Tech.

It’s a bit of a shoutout if you will…

To our hostess Tamara, who couldn’t be there with us because she’s busy being amazing in Zagreb and taking part in organizing Money Motion. She is the one who kindly offered us to use the space at The Works Coworking – the roof over our heads for the evening.

To Vanja who admitted to not being into either art, or tech, but who dared to start AymoLive anyway – a startup that is a tech company working with and for artists. It takes a lot of time spent out of your own comfort zone to do something like that. So she’s living proof of “daring to try” and should inspire us all to do the same!

To Ena who may have “crashed” with the two previous startups she was a part of, but who is doing everything in her power to make MetaBelly a success and help as many people as possible along the way. It took guts (Yes, pun intended!) to build a startup out of her own research – construct a functioning practical thing out of theoretical words on paper!

To Nikolina who started Evala while still studying at the university when she noticed a need for something like that through her own experiences. It is a young startup – it may succeed, it may fail, it may pivot and change – but the most important thing it will achieve is to empower her and help build her knowledge and skill set. And that’s an admirable thing to do while so young!

To Pinija who expertly guided our lovely panelists through this discussion with to-the-point questions that made us all reflect on many of our own experiences. Having recently entered the entrepreneurial waters with Art Media, she truly could ask the exact questions any new entrepreneur would like to have an answer to.

Finally, to every single woman and girl in the audience. Never forget that you’re not alone – as you witnessed yesterday evening, there’s surely a woman out there who went through a similar experience as you did.

We’re in this together!

And last but not least…

Happy International Women’s Day!

Which for us is every day. Women do an enormous part of this world’s work and contribute so much. We’re there every day of the year. Showing up and doing our best. Failing and picking ourselves back up. Shining brightly despite any obstacles on our way.

However, we still need an “official” day because the world tends to forget this little fact.

We sometimes do, too. And we should start the changes we want to see by changing that first. Not forgetting and/or doubting our value and contribution to society.

And uplifting each other. Being an ally to one another in reaching this same goal: equality. Not domination, but equality. Then Women’s Day will be just a day, and Women In Tech will be renamed People In Tech. Until then…

See you at the next Women In Tech meetup!

Photos: Vanessa Barač