The MIT Women's unConference, March 9-10, 2018, sought to engage hundreds of MIT alumnae and friends in a unique, crowdsourced weekend-long conversation about the challenges facing women in tech, science, engineering, and finance in this decade. As an "unconference," all content was sourced from the bottom-up and all stakeholders on campus were invited to the table. The event was a great success, engaging more than 800 women and over a dozen MIT departments/labs/centers.
From the Judges
The Women’s unConference checked a lot of boxes for the selection committee. The experience targeted an underrepresented community, focused on engaging those who were previously not engaged, and produced measurable outcomes. We were impressed about how this experience wasn’t suited for the casual attendee – everyone has a pathway to be engaged, whether it be the SXSW inspired panel or to participate virtually. We have seen other conferences and workshops tailored toward women, but this was incredibly unique and innovative, and should be considered a model for other organizations who aspire to take their programming to the next level.
