Hi, everyone. Uh, good afternoon from Vienna. Hi, Amy. Oh, you can hear me? Wonderful. Wonderful, thank you, Yasna. I was curious and you can see me. Excellent. Excellent. Oh, it's so nice to see you people. There's like one minute left um, before we uh officially kick off.But in the meantime, so I see we have six people here. Uh tell us where you're, where are you from? So, um, where are you from? Uh joining us. So I, I am sitting in Vienna, uh Montenegro. Wonderful Riga Montenegro. I'm in Vienna in Austria. It's, uh, it's a beautiful day. So I'm, I'm watching through, through the window. So that's why my looking that way. Uh The weather is really, really nice. It's hot. It's finally so now we can complain that it's too hot, you know, a few days ago, it was just raining weeks after weeks and then everybody was like, oh my God, this is not what we expected for spring, especially now that the lockdowns are more or less over and that we can go back a little bit and enjoy being outdoor, enjoy, uh meeting other people, um going for coffee, you know, it's been, it's been like a year and a half, uh, in Austria.

Uh, and this was locked out after lockdown after lockdown. So it feels good to, uh, to be back. It feels good to meet people. Of course here, uh, virtually, but as well, you know, outside, uh, fresh air, uh, good coffee. Hi, Sue. Oh, nice to meet. Nice to see so many familiar faces here. We're gonna wait a couple of more minutes, uh, to have you all. Kara? Oh, Kara, thank you. Oh, yeah, Kara was, uh, as you can see she was here last year. So last year I will tell you all about it. It was the first time I uh, participated at the women tech conference online. Um, and it was a wonderful, wonderful session. I got the chance to meet, uh, hundreds of amazing women across the world, uh, who were inspired by my mission. 1000 women. And they were so curious about it and they basically, I would like to say this is the stage where it all happened. So I'm really, really glad and grateful, happy, excited to be here. I hope you can, you can hear the excitement. Um, as some of, you know, so I have a nine weeks old daughter. She's in another room. My friend, uh, came around to, um, be with her while I give this talk. Uh, because this mission is very close to my heart. It's, it's, it's important and I hope that you get the most out of it. Uh And that you can, you know, rock uh your world and start your own missions because that's the reason why we are here.

So I would, I want to inspire all of you here today to start creating your own missions, your own causes and to be true to this wor world where we say always a phrase I would say make the world a better place. Yeah. Be the change you want to see in the world. Yes, that all sounds like great, amazing, uh nice uh you know, to put it, to put it, put it as a poster on your wall. But what is exactly that you can do basically to go forward, you know, and, and do something and, and feel like every morning when you wake up, you are, you're contributing to that cause you're making the world a better place. You're creating opportunities for others you're creating to these, these changes. Thank you, Veronica. Happy to see so many uh familiar faces here. Uh Are you excited as I am? Uh So type in the chat if you're excited. Yes. If you're excited to be here, I thank you all for, for joining. Um And right now thank you uh Samara Yasna Kara. Wonderful, wonderful. Uh before we start. So I, I already gave you a little bit um intro. So, what is this mission uh all about? So, 1000 women. So my mission for 2020 was to inspire 1000 women and women in tech and beyond uh with my story. Um And I want to uh give you a little task. So while I'm talking, you can think of that.

And of course, if you want to post, if you know already the answer, you can post it in the chat, please feel free or you can just later on send me a message via linkedin. So more or less we are all connected on linkedin. If not, please, let's connect and um let's, you know, let's chat. Let's see. What's your mission for this year? Please share. So I was thinking end of tw uh 2019, beginning of 2020. What is that? Uh there was this, you know, this, this fire inside me, there was this untold story inside me. There, there was a story that wanted to come out. There was me, wanted to go out and start talking. Um So I hope you had this, you, you have this, I know you have it, it's been, I had it, it's been in, it was, you know, deep, deep down. I was, you know, it was covered with all other, you know, daily um activities that we have. I was, you know, uh uh climbing the corporate ladder. I, I traveled around Europe and in the U SI, I've been managing teams in uh across central eastern Europe. I made it uh to as we would say to the top. So, and I, I enjoyed so working in, in tech and I enjoy still working in tech. And I enjoy, you know, working with people and, and making bridges, building communities. So this is, this is a short introduction. So I'm in tech, I'm a speaker. I'm a mentor.

Uh And I've recently started my own uh youtube channel called Making It in Austria. So I, I invite people like myself who made it in Austria from 0 to 100 to the top uh to share their stories, to inspire all of you here. So this is one of the missions that I have for this year. And so I came to the top and I was thinking, oh, so what's next, what's next for me? So is there something else that I would like to do beyond being going to the, to the office and uh you know, making these incredible products and, and talking to the customers and so on and so forth. Is there something else that I would like to do aside? Is there some, what is that that I would like to um as you call legacy is there, is there is something that I would like to give back? So I want to give back to the community. I want to give back to the world because throughout my whole life, I've been uh there were people who were believing in me who were saying, yeah, you are talent, you can do things, you can move things. So for me, as a person coming from a very, very, very small village back in, in uh northern part of, of Bosnia, coming to Austria and starting from zero, basically without context, without job, without knowing the language together with my husband with less than €10,000 in in our pocket coming here and starting all over uh from, from the beginning because we believed that we, you know, that we can make the difference so that we can do something that we can, you know, do something for ourselves.

Firstly, you know, firstly, take care of ourselves, grow, grow outside of uh what we already know and hopefully find a way to give back to the community. And for me in 2020 was the time the point when I felt OK, I can do it now and I can, I can go out and I can share my story as, as the first thing and then hopefully with that, that can inspire others to start sharing their stories and start creating their own missions and their own causes um by combining many things together.

Uh So that idea with uh with mission 1000 women is part of like larger vision. So 10 years uh years vision that I have uh in, in a way to support black community and support girls and education back in Boston as a governor because I believe and most of you are here, proof of it that the education is the best way how to move out from, you know, um poverty move out from, you know, not being able to, to access things in, in the world and not being able, not being asked for your opinion.

So, education is the way forward and I strongly education helped me along the way to be here and talk to all of you, amazing people across the world. I'm here because of that because I believe that even though if I'm coming from a, you know, very, very, very small beginnings, if, if I, if I'm like studying hard, if I'm putting my best and if I'm showing up that there will be, you know, opportunities out there for me and there will be people showing up uh and in my life that will believe in my cause and that they will say, OK, I will support you along the way.

And now it's my time to basically to give back and um that can be done to many things. One of the initiative is the 1000 women this year. My vision is my mission is that uh making it in Austria and building up a new community of amazing people like yourself that came to Austria, started from scratch. You have managers, you have enterpreneurs, you have uh CEO S, you have many, many people out there who came across the world came to uh to Vienna and started from the scratch and they are now as well. Like I'm doing uh sharing their, their stories and they're inspiring others to do the best they can. So in tw beginning of 2020 I was thinking, OK, there's one this mission so that I, the cause that like as we said, education, women, girls tech, uh that I care about. And what are the skills, what are the things, how, how can I bring this message forward? What are the skills that I could, maybe that I could uh improve as well. And speaking, for instance, in improving my communication skills was always on top of my agenda.

But I was like, as I said, like busy in my, in my business, business world and I was thinking how I can uh merge and how I can combine these things because, you know, it, it's, it's close to my, it's close to my heart. And uh so I'm giving back to community. I'm sharing my, my knowledge, I'm opening up my network, I'm mentoring other, other, other women and men as well. And I'm also learning. So I'm, I'm, I'm learning new skills, you know, I'm, I'm learning, it's not like repeating. I'm learning like uh communicating with you. I remember back in the, in the beginning of 2020 posting a video of myself, you know, just like that. It was like, no, no way. There's no, there's no video, there's no presentation, there's no interview of me. Uh in a casual form, let's say, apart from uh the internet of things available online and everything started back with uh with 2020 mission 1000 women. And exactly here and, and exactly here at women tech uh network back uh back then a year ago is when the mission started, basically when we, when it all came together. So when I um met Anna back in March just before the first lockdown in Austria, I met Anna Rodski who is one of the, who is the founder and CEO of this wonderful conference.

And I met her in Vienna and I told her look, I want to share my story and I'm looking for the stages, I'm looking for the opportunities uh to tell my story and looking for uh for stages to inspire others and, and bring more women, you know, kind of creating this sort of sisterhood in uh in the, in the tech world.

And, and of course, beyond, you know, nowadays, everything is t in the future and everything will be software so beyond. And uh I'm looking for like kind of ally sisters across the world that want to do the same. And I, I'm looking for the platforms that I can um that I can spread my word. And that's how the, she gave me the, the context and we exchanged the context to linkedin. And uh later on, I applied to speak at this wonderful conference and spread the word and the rest is basically I will, the rest is history in the sense that uh when I came there and when I share my story, so many people, uh uh so many women so picked it up and they said they wanted to know more.

They wanted to know why is this so important to me? Why, why does, why, why is that matter to me? Why now um they wanted to hear all of my story and, and I did from there lots of lots of interviews and podcasts and workshops and on different topics. And now I want to ask you. Hi, everyone. I see uh I see so many amazing comments here and now comes the task for you to think about it is um is what is this cause that you care about? And you can share it here or you can share, basically you can write it somewhere. Uh You know, if, if you have a pen and paper. So think about it. What is this one thing? One thing that you really, really, really care about? It can be, you know, bringing more women in the tech industry, it can be sharing your experience that you have maybe in tech that is completely different than anyone else has. Uh You know what's been been shared, maybe it's, you know that you care about the climate change, maybe you care about the green energy. So what is this one cause that really, that doesn't let you keep sleep.

You know, it's like it wakes you up at night and say, OK, there is this burning desire inside of me that I want to tell the world, you know, and please think about what is this cause you know, that's one thing. So one thing is always, you know, think about OK, what is that? And the second we need, how do you get there? So how do you get there? Uh How do you spread your cause? You know, what are the skills maybe prob like in my case, like speaking communication? So what are the skills that can help you that you already have? And as well, some of them that you improve because you want to grow as well together with your mission. So what are the skills that you can do? How can you do that? Maybe you can your film, make a movie, maybe you can start, you know, in podcast, maybe you can have your youtube channel and, and, and because, you know, apart from this is like building your side business, your side gig, you know, uh you're successful in your business at the moment and maybe you're doing something completely different what you care about and that's perfectly fine.

I work in it, software iot industry and I do something completely different than I'm doing here now building the, the communities. But it all comes together once you, once you go back and, and, and have a big uh big picture because it's always about us, about me being in service, you know, being in service, uh sharing the message building the community, connecting people. Uh Those are the topics that I'm very, very passionate about. I'm not a recruiter, I'm not a coach, I'm just a person that wants to, you know, um make the difference in world basically and wants to, to do, do my fair share part uh in, in this world and leave, leave something behind me so that it's not just, you know, targets for the companies, it's like some goals that I have uh personal.

And so what are these things that you want to do and then look for the ways how you can, you know, find the, the platforms and uh stages that can help you uh spread the world uh and inspire others to do that. And you might not have the plan at the beginning. I didn't have the plan at the beginning for the 1000 women. So I just what I did and so it's very significant to do that is I went live, I went out there and I posted on linkedin in Jan in February 2020. I said I want to do this. Is there anyone that can, you know, connect me with people who have their own channels uh recommend me to the platforms. Is there any advice and idea and tip that people have within my community that um you know, could support me along the way and you would be surprised how many great things came. And one of the things as well was the introduction to Anna because Anna Roosky, uh the CEO of women tech network was because I publicly alive went out there and said this is what, this is my mission for 2020. This is what I want to achieve.

Can you support me along the way? And you will be very, very much surprised. What does it mean when you're open, when you're, when you're speaking out of your heart? Because you're not, you know, speaking out of, to gain the profit, to create whatever it's about, you know, really telling that story out there and and spreading the word with other, with others. So I want you to take this with you back and think about what is that uh that message, what is that uh you know, that is that message that you want people remember you for, you know that say, OK, yeah, uh Sarah did this and Samara is this person for that. If you want to talk about this specific topic, driving moms, uh then yes, definitely go and explore uh go and talk to her because she's the the person for that. So my mission in 1000 women because we already um we are running late and I see so many great comments. It's been a very successful, it's been very successful. Thanks to people like yourself, who showed up, who showed the interest and as well as to, to me uh who didn't give up. So, you know how 2020 was uh was busy for all of us and challenging for all of us.

So I was basically spending as much time uh an effort uh on the mission 1000 women as much as I was uh uh for the, for my job, I have a full time job. And apart from that, I'm uh a vice president of two great uh other communities, female leaders network and business, women of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where actively contribute uh to all the activities. So it's been very, very, very busy 2020. But it was very uh um you know, rewarding, you know, that, that feeling, the feeling when you wake up in the morning and you feel like, OK, today I'm doing this thing or I'm doing this interview or I'm doing that podcast or I'm, uh you know, have a chat with this person from across the world.

And I know that we are going to do something um a magazine together. I know that we are going to start whatever initiative or I am going to show up at some other people's podcasts and support and spread the, spread the word about them on my uh channels and so on and so forth. So it's, it's really about the impact and it's, it's about making sure that, you know, along the way we give back, we are of service. And with that in mind, we can, you know, we can move mountains. I'm, I'm, I'm, I living proof of that, that we can move mountains when we, um show up when we are speaking out of heart and when we are in service to others, you know, it's not just about ours, it's being in service and there's so many ways that we can do and I know some of you are uh doing so.

Uh let me go back to your chat. I see so many people. Knowledge is power of the energy. Thank you so much. Um Excellent uh sum are asking me, is it going to include people, try and come to Austria? Uh Not at the moment. Let's see what next year brings. Uh So the idea with making it in Austria uh is to make sure interviewing uh like uh this year, my plan, my goal is uh uh 100 people from 50 countries. So if you know someone like that made a great career uh here in Austria coming from abroad, please do. Let me know, just send me a, a short message and I will uh pick it up over there. I know that uh Ronke is here. She's also a speaker and, and I have the pleasure to interview her for my uh podcast and, and she interviewed me for her women in technology spotlight, uh which is a really cool uh podcast over there. So check it out, connect with people network here because that's the way how you can take your initiatives or your missions uh to the next level. And if you would like to start, you know, one of the two free, two or three free resources that I have available are on my linkedin profile. So if we haven't connected, please connect on, on linkedin. Uh So I'm over there.

So, and if you go into about me section, you have a free downloads on the on networking. So how to start networking. So all about starting uh before doing and after the networking session. So and starting your own virtual office, which have been successful. So for so many uh people from my network, some of them here as well. And of course, uh as well for the linkedin as you know, I'm very um fond of linkedin as a tool as a platform to reach uh many, many people across the world communities. Uh So please feel free to go there and, and check it out. There are a couple of uh free resources uh that you can, you know, free, freely download and that can um support you and elevate your mission to, to the next level. And of course, um if you are curious about the making it in Austria uh uh people. So there are already 42 interviews such as go in in youtube and look for the making it in Austria. I will be uh I will be recording new ones um in the coming weeks. So I'm uh I, I would like to publish a couple of more before the summer and then uh in September to get more and more people and hopefully to, you know, you can join our linkedin group as well and uh you can mingle and you can ask any question.

So please use the, I would say by before we close, um use today's opportunities that are at your hands. So you can basically connect with anyone anytime, anywhere in the world. And I think that's just fascinating for me. It's just, you know, gets me up in the morning. I say, OK, I can talk to just the other day I listened to, to, you know, one of the top, top, top person in the, in the IBM world IBM fellow. So he's rocking the A I uh world in the, at the IBM. And I listened to one of his podcast and I just wrote him on, on linkedin and, and we, we exchange the, the message and we stay in touch and there are so many things that I would like to, you know, ask him. So please use this opportunity, use this conference today network with others. Connect on linkedin, share your, you know, write private messages over there, share your missions, share your podcasts, youtube channels and so on and so forth, cross, you know, cross elevate cross support one another uh cross create uh missions because there's so much that we can uh do uh together and there's so much that we can do when once we are in service and once we are thinking that uh you know, thinking of others and uh creating opportunities for others.

So, thank you so much. Um Roque. Thank you for sharing my link for. This is, you know, this is the beauty of, of uh you know, community uh sharing uh profile. Thank you so much. Uh Thank you everyone if there's any question left. Um Please do, let me know, I know you're joining for other sessions as well. Um But please feel free to reach me on. Uh Please feel free to reach me on uh on linkedin. Send me a private message. Uh Share this uh women tech amazing initiative that they are doing. So, sending back love, I see love from India and, and sending back love to India. It's so great guys to have you here. Thank you for spending the time with me. If there's anything else, uh please feel free to, you know, drop a message, get in touch. Thank you, Sue. Thank you everyone. Thank you Savita uh for, for connecting. I wish you a great conference for the rest of the day. Um We stay in touch and I'm really, really excited about all of your missions that you're going to start and I'm sure you will uh because I've seen that in the last year and I've seen that uh they're just uh popping up more and more and if there's any way that I can support you through my community, um through linkedin, through any other resources that I have at my hand.

So please feel free to send me a message and then we take it from there. I'm very much available um uh through linkedin mostly. So, thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. Enjoy, um enjoy the conference and we stay in touch. Yeah, bye from ya. Bye from now and looking forward to hearing your mission. So send me your messages. I would love to, you know, uh hear from you or maybe support you one way or the other by crafting and sharpening your message. Yeah. Cheers. Bye.