Around 100 women demonstrated their tech talent and business acumen at one of its kind event – CodeGirls TechFest 2022 – organized by CodeGirls Pakistan, a women-only coding BootCamp.
CodeGirls TechFest 2022 showed that women have extraordinary potential to join the industry and have a great future in the tech ecosystem.
About 100 tech women registered for the event to connect young techies from different institutes and participate in multiple competitions and a hackathon. The participants were all women, students, or young professionals from well-known universities and tech institutes.
The event was held at the Muhammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) Karachi on November 26.
Four competitions were conducted in
- Web development
- Software testing
- UX/UI, and
- Mobile app development
The participants were allowed to participate in any of the four competitions or hackathons.
Competition winners:
Web Development: Kiran Shakeel won the competition, while Khair-un-Nissa was the runner-up
Software Testing: Danella Patrick won the first prize, while Noorah Ahmed grabbed the second prize
Mobile App: Faiza Zafar was the winner while Hadia Malick returned as runner-up
UI/UX: Taskeen Zehra was the winner of the competition, while Sadaf Zehra ended up second
Hackathon winners
Winners: Ayesha Zia and Noor Afshan for (BeeSafe: An app that works on women’s safety in Pakistan by detecting a keyword and alarming the trusted contact of the user to provide instant help)
Runners-up: Hina Shabbir and Sabeen Murtaza for (Happy Hands: Day Care Service that allows mothers to monitor their child’s learning and care in real-time)
Virtual workshops
At the event, Sanam Khan conducted the workshop on “How to give stealer presentations,” and Hira Wajahat Malik gave insights on “Business Model Canvas.” Faiza Yousuf, the cofounder of CodeGirls and founder of WomenInTechPK conducted a workshop on “Product Development 101,” and Shamim Rajani, founder –of CodeGirls, and COO of GenetechSolutions, on Customer Development.
Earlier, four virtual workshops were conducted to help the participants get ready for the hackathon. The workshops were on:
- How to give stealer presentations
- Business Model Canvas
- Product Development 101
- Customer Development
With a goal to “improve the gender parity in Pakistan’s tech industry”, CodeGirls is working towards empowering young girls with coding and entrepreneurial skills, so they could excel in the tech industry, kick-start their careers and become financially independent. ConsulNet Corporation founded the program with its partners United Global Initiative and WomenInTechPK. Leading tech giants, influencers, tech community members, and business moguls are funding CodeGirls.
More than 844 young women have graduated from the program acquiring 170 plus jobs in the tech industry, with a starting salary of over Rs. 40,000. The program has more recently incorporated a new track in Phase II: Microsoft Dynamics Power BI.