Team Titans Season 4, Episode 4 - Women in Tech, featuring Liza Magcale and Sherry Yang

Ryan Spilken:

Hello everyone and welcome to Team Titans. This is the show where we take a look at the people behind the people, process, and tools that we all work with every day and do our thing. My name is Ryan Spilken. I am a senior communications and employee and engagement manager at The Adaptavist Group, and joining me today on co-hosting duties is the one and only Sarah McCoy, a senior brand marketing manager and advocate for women at The Adaptavist Group. Sarah, welcome, and thank you for joining me.

Sarah McCoy:
Thank you for having me.

Ryan Spilken:
Sarah, full disclosure to our listeners, we are on the same team. We talk on a routine basis.

Sarah McCoy:

We do.

Ryan Spilken:
Frankly, we really talk about gardening quite a bit. How are the tomatoes coming?

Sarah McCoy:

Well, I popped down to the allotment just before this call, and I'm pleased to report that we have a few flowers on the tomatoes.

Ryan Spilken:

Yes, yes. I'm very excited for the growing season this year, but I really wish it would warm up a little more so that my eggplants and peppers would get off the ground. Now, Sarah, I mentioned that you were an advocate for the women at The Adaptavist Group, and so that brings us to our guests for today who have done some amazing work for women around the world. I'm very proud to introduce first fellow human and advocate, Liza Magcale. Liza, thank you so much for being here.

Liza Magcale:
Thanks for having me, Ryan.

Ryan Spilken:

Very great to meet you. And also joining us from The Adaptavist Group is engineering team lead and woman tech maker ambassador Sherry Yang. Sherry, awesome to see you.

Sherry Yang:

Hello.

Ryan Spilken:

The two of you have a pretty interesting background together. You met through your travels because you're both travel aficionados, but tell us the story of how you two got together and started collaborating.

Liza Magcale:

Sherry and I met at a #IamRemarkable Workshop. We're both gold facilitators for the Google Initiative, and they paired us up to facilitate an #IamRemarkable Workshop during International Women's Month. That's how we actually met.

Ryan Spilken:

But there was more to it. You were in California. It wasn't just Google put you together, which I mean is cool, but there's more.

Sherry Yang:

Yes. We find our vibe sinking really well together. Liza shared the fact that she was working closely in Hawaii. She's in between the two places. At the time, Liza was based in BC and then she was telling me like oh, she also work out of Hawaii as well. And then I shared the fact that I actually have relatives in Hawaii. And that is really cool. We vibe even more and we decided to do an event together. We're like, hey, let's make #IamRemarkable bigger and let's bring these resources to Kelowna.

That's why we hosted Kelowna Women's Day, which we'll get to pretty soon here. But after the event, my friend, through my social media posting, she reached out to me and she's like, hey, I know this fellow human. It's Liza who I did leadership training with in California at a ranch. I was just like, hey, maybe this is meant to be like. Are the stars aligning? What's going on?

Liza Magcale:

Absolutely. It is. We know. She told me about Catherine, that's her name. Catherine and I met in Clearlake Oaks, California, also in the sixth of Northern California, in 2014. I was living in Toronto at the time when I did that program, and she had come out to visit us in Toronto. That was kind of cool. We stayed in touch. Social media supports doing that, right?

When Sherry told me that we had a mutual friend in Calgary, I thought, wow, who? And then she told me who it was and I was like, oh my goodness, yes. We did the Life Success Course together in 2015. We're definitely tied in more ways than one. And then she's got some people here in Oahu. I recently expanded one of our businesses out here, and so I'm here for a few years doing that. I'm hoping to see her out here too.

Ryan Spilken:
Sherry, go to Oahu. I mean, come on. Who doesn't want to go to Hawaii?

Sherry Yang:
I have no excuse. My sister is there. I have a very cute nephew that's there. No excuse.

Sarah McCoy:
Perhaps the next venue event.

Sherry Yang:

Yes, absolutely.

Liza Magcale:

We were definitely talking about that. There's a lot of women leaders here. I think it's much bigger than Kelowna. Kelowna is a very... It's a hub, I want to say, or an incubator almost. They like to do business the same way as they do here in Hawaii, meaning it's very relationship based. They want to see face-to- face. When I talk to people about Kelowna here, they're like, you mean the destination place in Canada?

And it very much is like that. I think we had to experience that together. Thank you for the introduction. Sherry and I, we met through #IamRemarkable. However, have very many commonalities. I'm looking forward to exploring some more of them.

Sarah McCoy:

Wonderful. Before we hear a little bit more about your events, I just want to touch a little on your personal experiences. Sherry, can you share your experience as a female leader in the tech industry and what has motivated you to initiate change in that field?

Sherry Yang:

Obviously there is a diversity gap in the tech industry with not enough women in the tech space. I'm focusing on technical women in the workplace and women in leadership as well. Because of that, being very obvious to me as well as my own career development, that I would like to see a future path for myself, I am in that path of changing the culture, as well as advocate for more opportunities for women like me and many other more.

Ryan Spilken:

We've already kind of crisscrossed the globe a bit in this conversation. I mean, you've been working with women from different countries throughout your career, getting ingrained with other cultures, learning about their practices and preferences, that diversity, what have you learned from those experiences?

Sherry Yang:

Yeah, that's a great question. Personally, I am Taiwanese, born and raised, and then grew up in Calgary, Alberta. These two culture as an upbringing has changed me in a significant way and allowed me to see two very different aspect growing up. I take the same sentiment into my career as well. I understand both culture. I understand both side of the spectrum.

At the same time, while I am seeking better opportunity for myself and creating that space for women in tech, I'm also seeing the challenges that my fellow women in tech are having residing in different country, having different work cultures. And that is one thing that I would like to remind themself. What makes the #IamRemarkable initiative so endeared to my heart is that it really empowers women and underrepresented groups to challenge this perception towards self-advocacy and self-appreciation, as well as sharing your accomplishment with anyone else.

Because not only you recognize your own wins, but you also give yourself more opportunity in a bigger space, which allows you to have more promotion, more career advancement, life advancements, so on and so forth.

Sarah McCoy:

Liza, Sherry's just mentioned about the #IamRemarkable program. Through this, you've been helping people to identify and celebrate their achievements. Can you tell us a little bit more about the program and how it came to be at Google and what that impact it's having on women across the tech space?

Liza Magcale:

Absolutely. #IamRemarkable is a global initiative. It started I think 2016-2017 by two women named Anna, both of them, within Google. It was really designed to help women specifically within Google celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond, it's not just at work, while challenging, like Sherry said, self-perception around self-promotion. I think there's some cultural things that we can get into about why one would not share those things. Not only in the tech space.

However, really in the tech space. Like she said, there is a disparity gap in the numbers, the positions that women hold. For me that is leadership and tech. That whole career pathing, if you will. #IamRemarkable specifically realize that it wasn't only women. It was any underrepresented group. And that underrepresented group is subject to where you are. You're not underrepresented if you're Taiwanese and you're in Taiwan. However, you come to Canada, you might be. It is all subjective.

And that in itself has, again, just taught me personally how to meet people where they're at and really not look at the diversity, be equitable, be inclusionary, promote a sense of belonging. I think in the tech industry, there has been some impact, although that needle is slow to move. We have statistics that show that things that were existing 20 years ago still exist, whether they're in the UK, whether they're in Canada, whether they're in America, whether they're in Asia Pacific.

They still exist. However, I certainly believe, like Sherry, it is dear to me that we continue to make the effort to move that needle forward. Hope that answers your question.

Sarah McCoy:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just looking at some of our statistics in the UK, we've gone from I think 13% women in technical roles to 19% as an average, which is still truly terrible. But it is those increments, isn't it? We've got to celebrate the promotion.

Liza Magcale:

It is. I think you do. Because really when you look at 13% and you move to 19, you're between 40 and 50% increase. It's a win, right?

Ryan Spilken:

In exploring this space, in exploring the movement towards getting more recognition and more... I can't even think of the right word for it, but more credit, more of the spoils of victory, as it were. You must have seen some really awesome stuff, really some incredible achievements. What have you seen from around your travels, and why do you think that some of these accomplishments get overlooked?

Liza Magcale:
Sherry, do you want to go first?

Sherry Yang:

Yeah. For example, the tech industry is definitely hiring different, and the technical training part of it is also changing. We have a lot of folks who are self-taught. We have a lot of folks who are coming out of bootcamps. The angle that I see from this is that we're closing the talent gap, but at the same time we're also including for folks who are training to have a career pivot into tech, and at the same time bringing different aspect of knowledge from previous experiences into the tech industry.

The way that we have to make sure we can include these folks who are career transitioning into tech is to change the way we hire. We have to make sure we are inclusive around credentials. We don't ask for specific university degree, or we don't ask for specific certification. The way we hire has changed over time, and I see a really great inclusivity there in terms of change over time.

Liza Magcale:

I'd like to address the root cause of it. Gender biases and stereotypes are probably what we're challenging here. I think this is what has led to the undervaluation of women contributions. When you look at where COBOL came from, when you look at some standard SAP language, women contributed to these things. However, we're not talking about them. Again, it's I think the gender biases and the stereotypes that have preexisted and that overshadows the abilities of women in the tech industry, making them perceived to be less technically competent for certain roles.

Now they are being hired, let's say, in engineering or coding or that type of thing. However, where's the representation in leadership? And that's really where I want to support women like Sherry, like us working together, going, no, she's a lead person. You know what I mean? She's not behind the scenes anymore. She's actually capable of leading the team and might even do a better job because there's an empathy there that might not exist in another candidate.

When women are not adequately represented in conferences, in panels, in media coverage, they're getting less attention and recognition. Thank you for this opportunity because this is a global platform that people will recognize. That then leads into cultural and societal factors. We both come from Asian backgrounds where we're taught to be a certain way and we're not talking about our accomplishments. And because we're not talking about our accomplishments, people don't know what we've actually done.

So then how do you get recognized and promoted and get the title change and get the increases and get your hands on projects that are really going to bring highlights or what Ryan was saying earlier, the credit for certain projects? That's why I love the #IamRemarkable Workshop because it really challenges people who are uncomfortable because of those cultural, I guess biases isn't the word argue I'll use, to share what it is that they've done.

I think those biases, so the people who are making the decisions, as well as the person who is actually the candidate, that selection process becomes a little bit skewed. You have your personal biases against what you think a woman can or cannot do, and then the woman sitting in the chair not wanting to share what she's actually accomplished.

Ryan Spilken:

Then you add in human resources software with AI biases baked in, and we've just got a big ugly mess to untangle. It's going to take people speaking about their work and being ready to declare themselves remarkable.

Sarah McCoy:

Speaking of sharing people's achievements through the program, has it helped the both of you identify your own accomplishments?

Sherry Yang:

Oh, sure. I've been a facilitator since 2021. Yes. Throughout the years I've actually facilitated the workshop and do the exercise with my participants. I have a box of accomplishments that I have. It's behind me actually right here. I put it in a red box, a Kit Kat box. It has pages of me writing my own accomplishment, how I am remarkable personally, how I am remarkable professionally. They're different every time. There's some overlaps. But going back and reading these things makes me feel good about myself. I'm like, if I feel challenged at any way, this is the box that I go to.

Ryan Spilken:
Awesome. But are there any Kit Kats left in it?

Sherry Yang:

No.

Liza Magcale:

That is awesome. Similar to Sherry, we do practice the same way. I do have a box. We actually encourage people to write an email of all of their accomplishments to themselves every month, so that at the end of the year you've got all of your accomplishments. One of the underlying gifts for me is I've become a better leader because I see where my biases are that I didn't even realize I was doing. If I do a workshop today, something will speak more to me than say a month ago and I'll be like, oh, okay. I need to give more time for people to speak if they have English as a second language.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the time. However, it's about the connectivity, it's about the productivity, not only about the time. In that way, I have definitely myself and improved as a leader. Those are the things that I'm also looking for, not just what I've done in the past. However, that's remarkable. The stuff that's not remarkable that I actually have the power to adjust today to really become an ally for others and that's another cool thing.

Sarah McCoy:

That's really cool. You both co-hosted the International Women's Day event earlier this year in Kelowna. What inspired the event? Do you have any key takeaways?

Sherry Yang:

So many things has inspired the event, and I think it took us multiple session to follow it down to where we wanted to host it, what are we going to do. It just took shape and then it happened. When it happened, we're just like, we're so critical of ourself as a team. We're just like, everything went wrong, but everything went well. That was a huge, huge, great takeaway from the event for sure.

But in terms of factors that took us there, in the beginning, is not just our vibe and our spirits that took us there to have the same value and want to share resources with the Kelowna community, but mainly it's because we know that we have so much resources to give that start somewhere. That's what we did. We started at Kelowna and we want to provide them with the knowledge that we know, the networks that we have, and the resources that we've gathered for them locally to use. And that's what we did.

I just want to add to that, Kelowna is probably one of the more less diverse or was one of the more or less diverse places in Canada, and it has increased significantly over the last two years. Giving them something to stand on in terms of DEIB is super important. I think supporting the community in itself in various demographics, from mothers to lawn bowlers, I mean and everywhere in between, business owners, the colabs, the innovation center. We really got a good variety of people in there, young and seniors as well.

I think my key takeaway is that intention... We have other people doing events now in the city. We definitely have planted a seed and it's growing. That was also really awesome. We got to actually work together in person. I mean post-COVID, this was my first in-person event, and it was really great to be able to contribute to that and get the ball rolling for that in the city. Thank you.

Sherry Yang:
It was a pleasure.

Ryan Spilken:
Tell us about the program for the day. What went down at the event? How did you plan it?

Sherry Yang:

I have done many conferences and many events in my previous community building process, so I have a pretty good idea of what I would like to see at a conference, especially a woman focused conference. In this case for Kelowna, we wanted to work on something that not just for tech, but for more for women in workforce. We came up with the seed of #IamRemarkable. We want to be able to bring in resourceful presentations and speakers to give to our participant that they have immediate takeaway and something that they can practice on long term.

Part of that magical thing that we have in terms of having the theme of this as part of our agenda, we allow participant to naturally making meaningful connection and at the same time getting them to practice what we are presenting on the day of. I'll let Liza talk a bit more on that. But the formation of the conference is really through the theme of #IamRemarkable and empowering woman, giving them the right tools to practice what they would like to become.

Liza Magcale:

We did something kind of unique. I also have a history of building communities and hosting events and stuff and going to conferences. My biggest thing is sitting for a very long period of time is not necessarily the best way to foster engagement. We purposely built in 15 to 20 minute breaks after each segment. I think that probably day of event, event day, was the feedback that we got. We love that we're able to take breaks. You can go up to whoever was speaking. You can talk about what happened.

You're not just absorbing the information, you're really doing the work to talk about it after. What did you like about it? What was your takeaway? What are you going to implement right away for that specific thing? We also, again, because we wanted to promote the city of Kelowna, incorporated a walk, a tour around visiting the collabs, where people work, where you're going to find innovation, creativity. That's I think one of the reasons why people are now doing events because they built this whole thing around connectivity.

You're not going to have that if you're inside an auditorium the whole day. I think those were some key things. #IamRemarkable, again, talks about self-promotion and declaring what you're remarkable about and planting the seed that this would continue. Everyone declared some goals at the end of it, which was really, really awesome because it really forced them to go up on stage and take the leadership role.

You have women just walking across the stage talking about what they're going to do, what their plans are. I think that was another visualization and kinetic experience of what it's like to take the stage, and now we have people taking the stage on their own. It's quite inspirational.

Sarah McCoy:

Sherry, The Adaptavist Group sponsored the event. Or possibly more importantly, they sponsored you. What did this mean to you as a team member and what can you encourage more companies to do to support their staff to be a force to change the industry?

Sherry Yang:

I appreciate Adaptavist for doing this for me. Actually it's not until Liza mentioned it to me that they're like... She actually told me, "Sherry, do you know how much this means to you that Adaptavist value you as an employee and that they are willing to sponsor you to make this happen?" I'm like, oh, I didn't think of it that way. I thought this was more of they are trying to make more marketing campaign around women in tech, being inclusive as part of this diversity trail. For me, that's how company branding comes.

I didn't really think too much about how I value my pitch and how the company values me. To flip this around and revisit it again, I really appreciate the fact that Adaptavist believed in me and my vision and my initiative and made it happen. I would encourage other companies and Adaptavist also in the future to really see the value in employee initiatives and find the purpose that they could relate to and provide positive impact on the purpose. For this case, it's pretty valuable for Adaptavist because it is supporting women in the workforce and it will relate to Adaptavist in any shape or form.

It's parallel there. But in other initiative that we could possibly get into, we could always find a lending hand, find partnership and have future sponsorship around that. It is so important for a company to sponsor underrepresented groups, especially in the purpose of finding growth, making significant stride towards accomplishment in the industry.

Sarah McCoy:
And your pitch was also brilliant.

Sherry Yang:
I don't remember what my pitch is.

Ryan Spilken:

You should look at it. It was good. It worked. Keep that one in the back pocket. Liza, what about you? What advice would you give to organizations who want to create opportunities, mentorship, networking spaces for women or underrepresented groups? What's your take on how they build that?

Liza Magcale:

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge Adaptavist for supporting Sherry. She is an all-rounder. When you're looking for a five-point player, that's her, right? She's really great with the team. She's really great with leading the team. She's personally investing a lot of time and energy into going out there to becoming women tech makers, the #IamRemarkable stuff. She does no compensation whatsoever. The fact that, again, Adaptavist is acknowledging her and supporting her in this initiative, I hope it comes back to you tenfold by way of a really, really great team.

Because I think that's really what you're asking is, how can you use these things to create a better workforce? I think what we're talking about here is networking and mentorship for women and underrepresented groups. We're eliminating a whole LGBTIQ+ community that's part of that. Whatever that underrepresented group is. One, to find what the underrepresented group is. Take a look. Figure out what it is based on where you are. You guys are a global multinational.

Figure out where they are and support them. To foster a supportive and inclusive culture, find out what's working, what's not working. What do you want to know? The fact that you know that you both grow tomatoes, that might be something that you want to do in your community. Honestly, I remember talking to Sherry about that when I was like, hey, they're really doing this for you. It might be a marketing play. However, they're really supporting you for who you are. That goes a long way.

You're going to get better engagement. Again, this whole networking. She's going to talk about it to her peers, and it's going to actually encourage other people to talk about what matters to them. They might even join her in her thing. The other one is encourage. I know that Ryan and Sarah, you two work together every day. However, look, now you're encouraging cross team collaboration and visibility and we're going to take this online, which is another really, really great thing.

Partnering with the external organizations. You've got vendors now that are on your list from Kelowna, like the innovation center. That's a really great place to start, and the people that are in there. And then again, you've already done it, the sponsorship and advocacy. You really are taking a stand for what matters to your people. I think if your people are your workforce, you're going to want to do that. Those are my top five or six things for organizations.

Ryan Spilken:

Very meta, because we were talking about the podcast while being on the podcast. You know what I mean? For a minute there I was like, really, that was big picture, little picture at the same time. I loved it. Thank you.

Sarah McCoy:

But what's some of the biggest hurdles that women and other underrepresented groups face in the tech industry? Have you seen anything that is supporting overcoming these challenges and how we can support as a community?

Sherry Yang:

I talked about this a lot is the lack of visibility of resources that's available for people. The reason why this initiative with Kelowna Women's Day was so significant is that we actually reach out to their community personally. Liza was running around literally a couple days before our events talking to radio show hosts, talking to just like anyone she can talk to about the event. People are like, oh, what's happening? When? Where? And then they're showing up last minute.

It's that energy that we need to share with folks who are in need to let them know that resources are available, not just doing social media campaign. We also have to do community touchpoint as well. If we are trying to do something meaningful with a lasting connection and lasting impact, we want to make sure we actually go out there and touchpoint with people in person. That's where that connection will last.

Liza Magcale:

I'm going to chime in. Some of the other hurdles would be, like Sherry said, people just don't know. Women and underrepresented people, they don't know. They either don't have the access to find the information, and then once they find the information, they may not be able to articulate what they need or they don't even know how to ask. I think those are a lot of the hurdles. Accessibility, number one. And then maybe the mindset. I don't know a lot of people who would just go out and run to do things.

I think overcoming these challenges, again, visibility, like Sherry said, you got to put people out there that look like you, that sound like you, and then get into the communities to get there. If you start maybe in the education system, letting people know this is what's available to you. I know other companies that have, like yourselves, gone into communities and just made people aware of what it is that we're doing.

We talked about, hey, if you're interested in working with Adaptavist, go to the company website and figure out what they're looking for. And in that, are there training programs if you don't meet the requirements? I think those are the majors, right? Awareness and access.

Sarah McCoy:

What advice would you give underrepresented people who want to enter the tech space, but feel like they don't necessarily have the resources, or perhaps are a little intimidated by not seeing other people like themselves?

Sherry Yang:

I would start with education. Like I said, it takes a lot of your own energy to give back to the community. I also volunteer for a organization called Junior Achievement. It's a 15-minute blurb interview that I show up for classrooms like this. These are K to 12 classrooms, and I am broadcast on their screen. This Junior Achievement representative would interview me on what I do in my job and how I get here.

I think it's important for students to understand that there are opportunities like engineering team, the software engineer, front end, backend, whatever, all these software related opportunities under my realm of work in that early education. And then they can brainstorm and be like, "I want to become a software engineer." Again, with a face attached to what it looks like to be an engineering team lead is important. I would have students who are in the same race as I am in the classroom and then no longer want to become a doctor and want to become an engineering team lead.

That could be an inspiring moment. Starting from education. And then from there, you could have folks who want to attend conferences or events that they should have proper proposals around these initiative of like, could you sponsor me to go to these events? Some conferences would provide this sponsorship letter that you can provide to your line manager. And then there's programming around that. I know Adaptavist has appropriate sponsorship around that as well. We do allow folks to go to conferences and events based on direct line of training. We have successfully brought people to events and then bring back meaningful knowledge to disseminate with the rest of the team and the company.

Liza Magcale:

I'm going to address the intimidation factor. This is exactly why the #IamRemarkable Workshop has so much value because it actually challenges one to self-promote. I would start with the mindset. Regardless of feeling intimidated, take the action. Go find out what you need to do and just take the first step and keep going, because it's not going to change if you actually don't step up to the podium. That's why I think if you can start there, then you have a shot to go forward.

Ryan Spilken:

For folks who might be worried about financial concerns when they find certifications or they find training courses, I know that the formal education systems are maybe a step too far for people. What are other ways to get in the door?

Sherry Yang:

There's lots of resources to be self-taught in the tech space. Nowadays, like I said, if the way that folks are getting trained and knowledgeable in the tech industry are changing, the way we hire also has to change. As a hiring manager for my team, I am responsible for this and I will make sure I remove these bias lenses around folks with degrees or from folks who are coming out from specific universities.

Those are no longer my measurement. My measurement is can you work and what is your scale level based on our assessment? It is an open set of assessment where the complexity of the solution can be zero to 10 and even 1,000 based on your ability. Really that is how we assess our talent and candidate. It's not based on certification and so on and so forth.

Ryan Spilken:

Oh, that's important to know. Do you have any favorite methods of self-teaching? Where are some of your favorite resources for learning these days?

Sherry Yang:

YouTube. They have a lot of educational resources. If you are someone who needs to see a face to teach you and then guide you and do practice programs, Adaptavist does have partnership with Udemy, and we have all these training courses that we could sign up to to do more professional development.

Again, these are also like an instructor guided training where you have to use your own self-taught pace to apply and make sure that you are gaining new knowledge through this process. If you're someone who needs learning from a classroom setting, then I would definitely encourage anyone to sign up for a university level course or a bootcamp setting.

Sarah McCoy:

I was going to ask Sherry a little bit more about bootcamps. How do you go about finding a bootcamp? Are they just in local areas? Do you need to be part of a network already?

Sherry Yang:

They're pretty flooded right now. There's lots of bootcamps for programming training, and there are proper certifications around them. I would highly suggest the ones that are sponsored by the government because they have curriculum approved by the government and they also have instructors approved by the government. In Canada, that is part of the practice for actual certified bootcamps. I'm not sure about the US or the UK.

Liza Magcale:

I wanted to second Sherry's comment about there are lots of resources online. Google is offering training. They offer certification, again, self-pace. Along with Udemy, there's Coursera. All of these other places that are offering free training. That's why, again, I think barring the intimidation factor, as long as you can Google free training for a specific program or code that you want to learn, it's actually available to you. And then yes, you can go get certified and earn a degree. If money is an audit barrier or you scholarship out, then you can also do that too.

Ryan Spilken:

All right, you two, what's next? Are you doing the Women's Day event again? Are you going to be doing any talks coming up soon? Where can people connect with you? What's going on?

Liza Magcale:
We just talked about this actually two days ago. We're like, what are we going to do next?

Sherry Yang:

Yeah, for sure. #IamRemarkable week is coming up in July. This is in the middle of July. Remind be of those dates, Liza?

Liza Magcale: 10 to 14.

Sherry Yang:

Yes, July 10 to 14, and we're going to be hosting an #IamRemarkable Workshop together on July the 11th. This will be cross time zone for Hawaii and as well as Pacific Coast in North America.

Liza Magcale:

Sherry, what else have you got going on outside of that? Are you doing any other events or talks or inclusion in tech?

Sherry Yang:

Oh yes. Always. Always. I am planning to start a Woman Who Coach after in Calgary in person. I am also organizing DevFest. This is an initiative by Google in Calgary in November. DevFest is just like it sounds, it's a conference made by developers for developers, and we are partnering with the Calgary startup ecosystems here, as well as the central library. It's going to be a big show. I'm looking for sponsors.

Liza Magcale:

That's awesome. That is awesome though. Calgary is a big market out there for tech. I know that's going to be the next one in Canada for sure, right? I mean, remote working, affordable housing. It's going to blow out there. Congratulations. I'm focusing on, again, this whole expansion to Hawaii and looking for women who are comfortable and proficient in tech to work. Again, our jam is a little bit different. We're looking for part-timers that want to work so that they can balance being a mom or still want to contribute in a retired life kind of thing.

That's what I'm doing. We haven't really talked about doing another Women's Day event. However, there are a lot of women here who are asking about that. That would be a lovely thing to talk about. Maybe after the summer, but that's our jam right now. We're just settling in for right now.

Ryan Spilken:

Well, I am definitely available for onsite support in Hawaii at any point. Even if that's just getting the avocados, I'm there. Just let me know.

Liza Magcale:
That's awesome. Thank you. We will definitely keep that in mind. How about you, Sarah?

Sarah McCoy:

Well, I'm gearing up for Adaptavist Women in Tech 2024. This year I'm going to be hosting the webinar for the first time. Wish me some luck. Call out to all of our colleagues across The Adaptavist Group. If any of you awesome females want to get involved, come and find me. My aim every year is to make it bigger than last year's, and last year's was pretty big. Watch this space.

Ryan Spilken:

I'm also available to be on-site for support there, Sarah. But given that that's over in the UK, the avocados are a little more precarious. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it all out. All right, that's it for this episode of Team Titans. First of all, Sarah McCoy, thank you so much. It's been a lot of fun.

Sarah McCoy: Pleasure as always.

Ryan Spilken:

We will catch up on the garden shortly. And to Liza Magcale and Sherry Yang, thank you too for everything. Thank you for sharing with us, and thank you for doing the things that you do. Incredible work you're doing through the #IamRemarkable initiative.

Sarah McCoy:
Thank you for having me.

Liza Magcale:
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Honored.