TechArena Launches Mentoring to Fill the Grace Hopper Gap

I founded TechArena on a simple belief: the best advancements in technology come from a wider range of voices than our industry usually puts on stage. That’s why this month’s cancelation of the Grace Hopper conference hit so hard. For more than 30 years, Grace Hopper has been where women in computing found mentors, sponsors, and their first real sense that they belonged in this industry. Grace Hopper also leaned into allyship, itself building the widest expanse possible for connection and community.

Anyone who has sat in a room or attended a conference where no one resembles you knows how important this is. Its loss is more than a canceled event. It leaves a hole in the pipeline at the exact moment the leaders of the AI era are being chosen. I’ve spent my career in this industry, from Intel and Micron, to building TechArena, and I know how much of career advancement happens through mentors, allies, champions, and people willing to tell you the unwritten rules. When the rooms where that happens disappear, talented people stall.

That’s why we’re launching TechArena Advisory mentoring now with a sprint of speed-round sessions. This program pairs emerging leaders with our advisors and leaders from our network. Operators who have run businesses, launched platforms, and made the hard calls at the highest levels of tech are dedicating their availability to engage. Our Advisors are collectively grateful and humbled by the collective outpouring of participation from executives who have shaped our industry for decades.

Anyone who is seeking help with connection or earned insight can simply visit our website and sign up for an available slot between November 2nd and 4th. Lakecia Gunter and Raejeanne Skillern, our TechArena Advisors who were planning to teach at Grace Hopper this year, alongside VSORA Chair Sandra Rivera, will also be delivering their course as planned online for all to access. The course is titled, "From Impact to Influence: How Women in Tech Can Prepare for Board Roles." And we're offering any other presenters the opportunity to host sessions on our platform as well.

This program comes from the same commitment to talent across all vectors of inclusion that shapes whose voices we publish, who we put on stage, and how we build our own team. If we want an AI era that works for everyone (and we certainly do), the people building it have to come from everywhere, and that work can’t pause because a conference did.