• Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) has agreed on a strategic alignment with Women Who Code (WWCode) Edinburgh, following the closure of a charity that previously supported the organisation.
• The partnership will see SWiT extend its offering to include technical meetups which will further foster collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity within the Scottish tech community.
• Former WWCode Edinburgh Director, Lea Savage, has also been appointed to the SWiT board.
• Separately, SWiT has created the Scotland Women in AIcommunity in partnership with Nine Twenty Recruitment. Its inaugural event will take place on Wednesday18th September in Edinburgh.
Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) has today announced that it has agreed a strategic alignment with the meetup network, Women Who Code Edinburgh (WWCode), which will see it become part of SWiT.
Launched in Edinburgh in 2017, WWCode Edinburgh was founded by director’s Maria Gutierrez, Ceri Shaw and Lea Savage. It was forced to pause its membership and events when its previous supporter, the Women Who Code charity, closed due to a lack of funding.
Until it paused in activity, WWCode Edinburgh had an active membership of 3,000 women working in the Scottish tech ecosystem and had hosted 100 events over seven years.
With such a thriving membership and a desire to continue to champion collaboration, innovation and inclusivity between women working within the Scottish tech ecosystem, WWCode Edinburgh were keen to continue the success the group had enjoyed and approached SWiT to become its new partner.
As part of the alignment, the current directors of WWCodeEdinburgh - Lea Savage,Ceri Shaw, Stephanie Boyle and Dr.Aamani Budhota – will continue to run the hugely successful technical meetups under the SWiT brand which provide a forum to provide a supportive and empowering environment for networking, skill-building, and ideas exchange.
Silka Patel, Founder and Chair of Scotland Women in Technology said: “Having attended several of WWCodeEdinburgh’s events in the past, the SWiT board was upset when it heard that WWCode would have to wrap up its Edinburgh chapter when its previous supporter closed. Given the immense value that women bring to tech organisations and the rate at which we see women dropping out of the sector due to a variety of reasons, we felt compelled to protect the hugely valuable work that WWCodeEdinburgh had done over the last seven years.
“In addition to the inclusion of the meetups under the SWiTumbrella, we are pleased to welcome Lea Savage, a former Director of WWCode Edinburgh to the SWiT board.”
Lea Savage, newly appointed SWiT Board Member and Computer Scientist at Adobe added: “When we were looking to the future of WWCode Edinburgh, we wanted to engage with an organisation that shared our values and mission. We had long admired the work that SWiT does to champion and inspire women working in the Scottish tech ecosystem and felt that there was a lot of crossover with our values. After approaching them to understand how we could work together, we were over the moon when they said they would welcome us into the SWiT family. The team and I are already planning our first meetup, and we cannot wait to create a new programme for all our members.”
Separately, SWiT has partnered with Nine Twenty Recruitment to create a new Scotland Women in AI community established to increase visibility and create opportunities in the rapidly evolving field. It will hold its inaugural event in Edinburgh on Wednesday 18th September. The evening event will include networking with fellow AI enthusiasts as well as guest speaker, Dr. Aamani Budhota, who will provide insight into ‘A Day in the Life of an AI Scientist.’ Tickets for the free event are available now here.
ENDS
For media enquiries related to Scotland Women in Technology contact:
- Kirsten Paul / 07751897729 / kirsten@brassneckhq.com
Attached images:
- SWiT board, (l-r): Margaret Totten, Ketty Lawrence, Lea Savage, Silka Patel, Caroline McDowall, Lianne McGrory and Iona Grant
About Scotland Women in Technology
Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT), exists to Champion, Celebrate, and Invest in women in the technology ecosystem within Scotland.
Founded in 2008, SWiT is a not-for-profit organisation with a drive to put gender equality at the forefront of the technology ecosystem. It is run by a board of committed volunteers who have the vision and alignment to promote and champion gender equality at the heart of our proposition.