Women In Tech — The Definitive London Guide
By: Ellen Kate Donnelly
Tags: Women In Business, Tech, London, Women In Tech

Ada’s List

www.adaslist.co

Come here to find: Newsletter, Community, Events, Job Opportunities

Notes: This is a very active community, where members are encouraged to participate. Expect discussion threads, speaking and event promotional opportunities, job openings, advice etc. During sign up, you’ll be prompted to provide some background on yourself as well as confirm you’re open to receiving 15+ emails per day but you can edit your email preferences to reduce this frequency

Code First Girls

www.codefirstgirls.org.uk

Come here to find: Events, Skills Development, Job Opportunities

Notes: A Not for Profit Social Enterprise that provides training and community for women in tech and also helps companies to build better female-friendly recruitment methods. They have taught 8,000 women to code to date with a target of 20,000 by the year 2020.

DevelopHer

www.developher.org

Come here to find: Newsletter, Community, Skills Development, Events, Job Opportunites

Notes: Non-profit community focused on women in tech, innovation and entrepreneurship. DevelopHer is dedicated to bringing women together to provide a network of support via events, networking, and learning.

Elpha

www.elpha.com

Come here to find: Community, Job Opportunities

Notes: Elpha is a Y Combinator graduate — a tech company itself — Elpha provides a private community created by women, for women. In the aftermath of women sharing horror stories of workplaces and investor relations gone sour, Elpha aims to raise up the companies who are getting it right for women in tech, and connect people with shared experiences.

GeekGirl Meetup

www.geekgirlmeetup.co.uk

Come here to find: Community, Events

Notes: A network and meet up for women in tech, design and startups. GGM host monthly breakfast meetups and a yearly conference designed to bring women together for networking and learning purposes.

Witty Careers

www.wittycareers.org

Come here to find: Community, Events, Skills Development

Notes: Designed for Black and Ethnic Minority women in tech specifically, Witty Careers run frequent corporate sponsored events to get women together to learn about key skills needed to advance their tech careers. I actually was lucky enough to speak at one of their events focused on entrepreneurship and can be found talking about investment opportunities for BAME women in this YouTube link to the talk here.

Blooming Founders

www.bloomingfounders.com

Come here to find: Newsletter, Community, Events, Co-Working

Notes: Whilst not specifically focused on tech, Blooming Founders is such a unique and powerful force in the London ecosystem supporting women in entrepreneurship it has to have a mention. Blooming Founders is an active co-working and membership based community for women (some running tech startups). If you’re a women seeking a community and support system or desk space — even if just for 1–2 days each month as they have tons of flexibility for members — then you can’t do much better than this. Blooming Founders also run programmes or host events often with an investment focus, such as Scale, the 12-week accelerator with PwC.

23 Code Street

www.23codestreet.com

Come here to find: Newsletter, Skills Development

Notes: The place to learn to code if you’re a woman and care about advancing the cause for women like you globally. For every coding course students take with 23CodeStreet, they fund a woman in India to take an equivalent course of study. Training women in core 21st century digital skills is the core mission statement of this business and they have been successful in helping thousands to date.

Women of Silicon Roundabout

www.women-in-technology.com/

Come here to find: Events, Community, Job Opportunities

Notes: This annual 2-day conference brings together women from around the world working in technology, to celebrate, learn and connect — all in the ExCel London. This event attracts big-name speakers, top tier companies who are hiring, a networking app and free goodies (technically not free, but if you can get your employer to pay for your ticket...). I wrote a post about what I discovered after attending the 2018 conference which you can read here.

TLA Women in Tech

www.tlawomenintech.org

Come here to find: Events, Community

Notes: This is a 700 -strong group that has come together under the umbrella company of Tech London Advocates. The mission is to address the gender imbalance within technology through pledges, community events, partnerships, and corporate initiatives. To be accepted into the Advocates requires approval from the Founder Russ Shaw.

Women Who Code London

www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-London

Come here to find: Community, Events, Job Opportunities

Notes: Community of women engineers which meets up regularly, often to learn specific tech skills. They also curate jobs sent in from employers on their global jobs board. Find the London chapter and upcoming events via the Meetup pages.

London Tech Ladies

www.meetup.com/London-Tech-Ladies/

Come here to find: Community, Events, Skills Development

Notes: This group began with colleagues working at eBay on the Lean In circle platform, but has since extended into women from all organisations with a common focus of enhancing their soft and hard skills to progress in their careers — focused on workshops and events this is still actively working with external partners to host relevant teaching.

Women of Wearables

www.womenofwearables.com

Come here to find: Newsletter, Community, Events

Notes: Specifically aimed at women across the world who work in wearables (wearable tech, fashion tech, smart textiles, IoT, health tech and VR/AR) they have a very active London Chapter. Known as WOW, this is a great network to join if you’re in any of these industries as they keep a pulse on the global tech developments and key movers and shakers in a way many groups aren’t able to, thanks to their local chapters. The blog features insights into the career paths of many interesting women.

Angel Academe

www.angelacademe.com/

Come here to find: Newsletter, Funding, Community

Notes: This is a network for entrepreneurs, investors, and partners who are in, or are supporting female-led technology businesses based in the UK. Their mission is to make angel investing easy, fun and rewarding for women (& supportive men) who want to be part of a diverse investor network and actively back the best women-led tech startups. Join if you’re serious about getting your startup funded, or in personally funding women in this world.