Last month, Fission CEO Cheryl Contee (2nd from right in photo) spoke at the Girly Geeks Tech Panel at the opening of Dreamforce ‘14, an event hosted by our client Salesforce Foundation and Forbes’ most innovative company 4 years in a row, Salesforce. At this gathering of over 500 mostly female professionals, the panel gave a group of experienced female tech leaders an opportunity to have a lively, frank & inspirational dialogue about succeeding in the still male-dominated world of high tech.

 

Today, women make up 20% of all software developers and yet in the wider marketplace, women are the majority users and approbators of technology. Cheryl has spoken numerous times about the strides that women have made, surpassing men, in social, smartphone and mobile platform use. She constantly notes how the contributions of women founded and run tech organizations are undervalued. However within the tech world, women are too-often left out of discussions around innovation in this space and still make less money than their male colleagues.

These are just some reasons why the women on this Dreamforce2014 panel, who are executives at companies such as AT&T and Bluenose Analytics, are passionate about mentoring and sharing wisdom specific to women in tech. The wisdom they provided covered topics such as salary negotiation strategy, understanding the value in the origins of their dreams, and supporting other women in technology. They also believe it is important to discuss general workplace best practices. Cheryl’s advice encouraged people tweeting about some of her favorite steps to success. Even after the panels, there are still tweets about Cheryl’s speech on managing workplace challenges.

Cheryl spoke about how to manage your social media profiles in both personal and professional contexts. She noted that when it comes to personal branding and managing relationships, it is better to “act like your mother is watching”. A clip of her speech can be found below:

The panel ended with a celebration of the 5 years of Girly Geeks and the Women in Technology group, started by Salesforce team members. In addition to this special event, Fission Strategy partnered with our Salesforce Foundation clients to re-launch its flagship site SalesforceFoundation.org earlier this year in anticipaton of Dreamforce. And specifically for Dreamforce 2014, Fission collaborated with the SF team to create online presentations, printed collateral and branded signage for the even-larger-than-last-year “Salesforce Foundation Zone” in the heart of San Francisco. The space was filled with leading edge tech, great success stories and inspirational quotes from global leaders. Here’s an example of the images used in the “Salesforce Foundation Zone” during the conference.

Image by our Designer Martha Ormiston
 

We’re proud to partner with this great organization because of our common goal in providing nonprofits with the best innovative technology and cloud computing software for social good. To learn more about Salesforce Foundation’s work, watch Dreamforce 2014 highlights and share what you learn with us on Twitter!

Tweet Cheryl Contee, CEO of Fission Strategy, at @ch3ryl about women in tech. Written with Abigail Simmons, New Media Intern.