This is a guest blog post written by Avanade alum, Vikki Leach.

For the second year running, Avanade partnered with Microsoft to sponsor the Pink Cloud.

The Pink Cloud is an initiative that aims to train and support young women and promote STEM courses for young women to provide them with more job IT opportunities. The event is supported by international organizations such as United Nations Women, ITU and Unesco as well as local Institutional Referents such as Ministry of Education, Ministry of Equal Opportunities and Ministry of Work. The event is organized by Microsoft as part of its Social Citizenship Program and Avanade is one of the active sponsors of this initiative.

Avanade had a number of speakers, an amazing amount of media coverage and had the opportunity to connect through social media and in person with international female students, giving them advice and tips on starting a career in technology.

We had our very own Anna Di Silverio, general manager for Avanade Italy, and Stella Goulet, global Chief Marketing Officer, speak at the event, whilst myself, Gemma Fiorentino and Laura Arnaboldi (both in marketing and communications for Avanade Italy) ran sessions. Avanade also had a recruitment stand to attract young women to considering taking a career at Avanade.

The speeches from everyone were really informative, from both the private sector and NGO. Did you know that worldwide…

• Women perform two thirds of the world’s work
• Yet, women and girls have less access to technology
• 83% of bachelor degrees will be owned by women / less white people

Men still dominate the technology industry. But, there are thousands of incredible women working for technology companies all over the world. We need to hear more from them. We need to seek them out and learn from them. See them as role models and get them to share their stories, encouraging more women and girls in IT. And, we need to support and train younger women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields.