I’ve had a busy week attending tech events at 68 Middle Street to celebrate the role of women in the digital industry. Spring Forward, timed alongside Women’s history month is a month-long series of events which celebrate, inspire and encourage women in the digital industry.
The week kicked off with Tech in Ten (part of [She Codes](http://shecodesbtn.co.uk/) ), packed with a wide variety of ten minute tech talks. Throughout the evening I was introduced to mobile app development, digital forensics, Python, Django, Ruby, web design and WAI-ARIA. I also enjoyed hearing about how we can all help educate young people. I scribbled down plenty of notes, had a glass or two of wine and chatted to some lovely people.
Tuesday was Codebar, a place for women and other minorities in tech to learn web development. The venue for this week was Ribot's shiny new studio. I’ve been attending this weekly meet-up for a few months now and I love it. It’s a wonderful community where people share knowledge and resources and teach others to code. This week I started learning Ruby, which I’m sure will take a while. But having help available and meeting new people makes learning fun. After pizza and coding there's one thing left to do — move onto the pub.
Finally, I attended 300 seconds, a regular event giving women the chance to improve their confidence and experience in public speaking. Once again I heard an array of inspiring talks, one of which encouraged everyone to share their experiences of being a female in the tech industry. We discussed the lack of progress on the inequality of women in tech and what opportunities are currently out there to encourage women to join the industry.
As a female, I feel lucky to say that I have only had great experiences in this industry. So far, I have never worked with another female developer, but everyone I have worked with has been encouraging, approachable and friendly. I don't feel like my gender has influenced my progression or how I have been treated. I know this isn’t the case for everyone though, which is a shame and frustrating and I want to help change it.
One thing I love about the Brighton web community is events like Spring Forward. I’ve ended this week feeling inspired and excited to be in the digital industry.