Thanks for being here and welcome to Women Rock – a voice for diversity in tech! I’m Alicia, founder of Women Rock, co-founder of SR2, founder of Technology Volunteers organiser of Codebar (phewwww) I’m a positive vibe advocate, lover of constant learning, mushrooms and anything pickled. Dislikes pigeons, bad manners, and baked beans! Outside of all of that, I’m probably best known for by handstand ability and my almost 10 year tenure as a Tech recruiter in the UK, born and bred in Bristol! Over the last 10 years I have been a huge support for diversity in Tech but always felt I could do so much more, Women Rock is the start of my more. In the early part of my career, it was rare that I spoke to or met women in the industry. Technology wasn’t offered to myself as a career option at school, my family or friends weren’t interested in Tech so - maybe naively, I concluded that it was just an industry for men! That Made me sad and we all know we still have so much more to do but not just for women, we’re talking about diversity as a whole. I love to build relationships everyday and in starting this blog, being supported by our awesome Women Rock ambassadors and some of the best companies who are committed to talk about and improve ED&I across our industry, I really hope we can make the world a better place! Women Rock isn’t just for women, we have and will continue to hear stories from folk from ethnic minorities, folk who have physical and hidden disabilities, we have incredible stories from trans and gender diverse peeps and we have spoken to many allies who are committed to live, work and support diversity in their workplace, careers and lives. Included are conversations about successes, peoples struggles, frustrations and commitment from their perspective. We have seen so much improvement when it comes to ED&I but I just don’t think we are sharing and shouting about it enough so that others can follow suit. I want to create an incredible community and Women Rock to be the place to go to that celebrates diversity. I’ll leave you with my favourite quote ‘’No matter where you are in life, inspire and empower the women around you. Success is never reached alone. And wisdom and wealth are sweeter shared.’’ Be kind, get enough sleep and don’t change for anyone. Smiles, Alicia x