GoPro Hosts 2018 Womens Summit

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Mar 20, 2018

On March 14th and 15th, GoPro invited all women from US-based GoPro offices to gather at the San Mateo headquarters for a day of growth and learning at the 2018 GoPro Women's Summit. Nearly 140 women, representing departments across the company, gathered for the two-day event that was kicked off by a welcome from CEO and founder Nick Woodman, followed by a keynote speech with WNBA President Lisa Borders.

Lisa's charisma set the tone for the event, telling the room that all of the leaders she's encountered, from her work in the public sector to a nonprofit branch of Coca Cola to her current gig as WNBA Prez, share what she likes to call the three C's: confidence, competence and compassion.

This event marked the second US-based women's summit but was the fourth women's summit GoPro has hosted since the inaugural event in 2016. Other summits took place in Manila, Shenzhen and Munich.

This was, however, the first year that all US employees were invited to join the day-one kickoff event as well as day two's keynote that invited Bloomberg Tech host and author of Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys Club of Silicon Valley, Emily Chang, to the women's summit stage for a fireside chat and Q&A.

Emily wasn't shy about sharing the need for promoting women in Silicon Valley workplaces, which is a point well proven by the investigative reporting that led her to write Brotopia. She noted the tech industry has a worse gender gap than Wall Street, saying, If we can get to Mars and build self-driving cars, we can certainly hire women and pay them fairly.

Reversing this is a work in progress, and Emily advised the women of the room to help in this process by knowing their value and not being afraid to ask for what you believe you're worth. A point she proved by saying that when she started at Bloomberg, she negotiated a salary she felt her male co-host was making and got it.

Additional keynote speakers included life coach Carol Isozaki and co-founder of the nonprofit Do It for the Love, Sara Franti. While both women shared powerful messages about using empathy to excel in the workplace, Carol focused on how attitude has a profound impact on how you are perceived in the workplace. Whereas Sara shared how the trials and tribulations, and especially the tribulations, of life teach grace under pressure and help people hone in on their strengths.

These themes were weaved throughout the heart of the event, which included a series of seven workshops that were hosted by a mix of external and internal experts. Topics ranged from being a boss in the workplace to turning passion projects into paychecks, of which attendees chose two morning and two afternoon sessions.

Attendees were also treated to a morning yoga class and Green Heart Foods' phenomenal catering menu throughout the event. And in true GoPro fashion, the women were encouraged to participate in a scavenger hunt curated by the GoPro Awards team. The hunt took place at everyone's own pace and required capturing everything from a selfie with Nick Woodman to a strategically timed time lapse to grabbing a group of friends to illustrate elevating one another, all presented in a GoPro App-generated QuikStory. Needless to say, the creativity was flowing, and it perfectly complimented the open-hearted vibes circulating through workshops.

LINK:	https://gopro.com/news/gopro-hosts-2018-womens-summit...
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