6 Alternatives to the Grace Hopper Celebration and Conference
Every fall, many employers head to the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC), the largest annual conference for women in computing, to showcase their commitment to female talent in tech and recruit top Gen Z candidates. But this large event is expensive, and it can be extremely hard for lesser-known companies (or those that are less known in the tech space) to compete with brand name companies in a loud expo hall. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives to reach early-career women in tech, including recruitment strategies that can be used throughout the entire year.
Focus on regional events
Companies looking to recruit women in tech can benefit from smaller venues and more targeted events. More specifically, regional events can help you focus on recruitment in a specific city or metro area, and may attract fewer big sponsors compared to a national conference. Start by looking at local chapters of national women in STEM organizations to see if they offer regional events. For example, the Society of Women Engineers offers WELocal events for professional development and networking.
Host school-agnostic virtual recruitment events for women in tech
The benefit of a school-agnostic approach is that you can reach more students at more schools, without the time and cost associated with attending in-person career fairs at every potential target school. Hosting career fairs and information sessions virtually (in addition to in-person) can further diversify your talent pipeline by removing travel-related barriers to entry. RippleMatch Events can assist with planning, outreach, and analytics for your recruitment events, including those focused on DEI initiatives.
Sponsor professional development events or bootcamps for women
You can further provide value for women in tech and build your brand by sponsoring an on-campus event or other education bootcamp. Consider events that are specific to professional development, like resume workshops or interview prep, as well as broader industry events like hackathons or panel discussions with speakers from different types of tech roles or organizations. To showcase your commitment to diversity beyond the recruitment process, leverage ERGs and ask current employees in these events to talk about their experiences working for the company and why it’s a place where women can thrive professionally. Some seasonal topics and themes you could build an event around include Women’s History Month or Pride Month.
Connect with campus clubs for women in tech
You can build strong relationships with students by getting involved with campus clubs, especially those related to tech fields. If you’re taking this approach within your campus recruiting strategy, we recommend building a relationship with campus career centers to get your foot in the door. This is especially great for HBCUs and HSIs, where relationship-building is such an important factor of recruitment.
Offer networking opportunities or job shadowing programs
Consider implementing a job shadow program or mentorship day when students are off from school during spring break, summer vacation, or the holidays between the fall and spring semester. Pair students with a current employee for a shadowing day, or host a networking event in which students can speak with multiple employees across your organization. Similar to working with campus clubs, reaching out to a university’s career center is the best approach for building out a formal job shadowing or networking program.
Use tools like RippleMatch and LinkedIn to source female technical talent
RippleMatch is significantly less expensive than attending annual, national conferences like the Grace Hopper Celebration (between those registration costs, travel, and hotels for all attendees from your company), while still being a great way to connect with a niche audience for specific opportunities. Plus, RippleMatch makes it easy to calculate the ROI of your recruitment efforts with digestible data, when that can be difficult to quantify from large-scale events. RippleMatch’s sourcing platform features thousands of diverse users, including women in tech fields, and allows you to invite qualified candidates to your events and to apply for jobs. Likewise, recruiters can utilize LinkedIn to search for early-career talent by factors like job function, college, and location. A large benefit of these resources is that they can be used year-round rather than during one specific event or season, so employers can see ROI throughout the recruitment cycle.
While attending large-scale conferences can be a good way to connect with a niche group of talent, it’s not the only way to build strong relationships with promising and engaged candidates. In fact, it’s important that your early career strategy takes a multifaceted approach and that you attempt to meet candidates where they are — which is in a variety of places. By attending local events, connecting with student clubs, sponsoring professional development workshops, and leveraging the right campus or university recruiting technology (among many other ways), you can bring in more underrepresented talent to your company in a cost-effective way.
