WEB DESK: With more than 3000 women involved in various fields of technology attending ninth edition of Women Tech Quest, experts stressed financial independence, appreciating those who showcased their tech skills.
Held simultaneously in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad on February 15, Women Tech Quest is an initiative of 10Pearls that acts as a platform for students and professional women to compete, learn, network and showcase their competency and talent in tech.
The event featured three key competition streams namely coding, testing, and design. Participants in the coding stream solved programming challenges using any language, while the testing competition assessed database and automation concepts. The design competition evaluated UI/UX skills, including user research, persona building, and user flows. Competitors were divided into two categories, professional and student with each city producing six winners, leading to a total of 18 winners across all locations. The editions for Lahore and Islamabad were held in tech institutes UCP and NUST respectively.
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To help attendees engage with the industry experts, there were also sessions focusing on financial independence and inclusion for women. Notable speakers included Senior Director at 10Pearls Anne Bracegirdle; Dr Sara Saeed Khurram, CEO of Sehat Kahani , Tabinda Islam, CEO of Arfa Karim Foundation & Director Arfa Karim Technology Incubator, Zainab Saeed, Gender & Financial Inclusion Specialist at The Asian Development Bank , Javeria Siddiqui, Chief Financial Officer at Feroze 1888 Mills Limited among others.
‘Financial independence is a must. All women must work so they are able to become financial independent resources of the country,” said Tabinda Islam.
For the event, Slack was the official Ecosystem Partner, CW was the technology media partner and Empower Foundation, Ashreitech, NUST- SEECS, UCP, NASTP, Circle, PSEB and P@SHA joined as event partners.