It can be overwhelming, nerve-wracking, and just plain difficult to find communities to joining and participate in; especially when you want to learn or share your own expertise. Below is a list of communities online and that have local meetups, encouraging people to follow on Twitter, and a short list of blogs to read if you’re interested in the tech community.
Join the Community
While I haven’t personally joined each of the communities below, I have looked into them. They each provide a special benefit to their members and focus on encouraging them to learn and grow.
Tech Ladies – I joined Tech Ladies earlier this year when I was trying what to decide what I wanted to do with my career next. Browsing their secret job board gave me some ideas of what I wanted to do. Also, make sure to join their Facebook group. It’s an active, encouraging community of women in tech – who also have local meetups.
Women in VR – Virtual Reality is an exploding industry. If you’re involved or want to be a part of it then I highly suggest joining this Facebook group. Their Community References doc is filled with events, meetups, and even more VR communities to join.
WIVR – Women in VR – Although this group has fewer members than Women in VR, it is still an active group. People post VR events and current events about virtual reality. It’s a good group to stay caught up on the latest news.
Women of Wearables – Events, workshops, what more can a girl ask for? Women of Wearables is based in the UK but they have an active online community as well.
Women Who Code – This is a huge group of over 50,000 members around the world. Their membership focus is on engineers and anyone who wants to learn how to code. They have local communities as well as an online presence, and job board.
Female Founders – A badass group of female entrepreneurs focused on success!
Women in Manufacturing– Women in tech includes more than those of us who code. This is a great group to be a part of if you’re involved in the manufacturing side of technology. They have local meetups as well as a solid online presence.
Local Meetups – meetups.com is a great resource to find local tech communities. I found a local Toastmasters, VR group, and Startup meetup but you can find whatever you’re interested in. And hey, if it doesn’t exist you can always start a group!
Follow Women in Tech
Oh my gosh, there are so many cool ladies to follow online. I’m not even close to scraping the bottom of the barrel. Here are my top favorites, in no particular order.
I’ve been following Sandra since my early days of Twitter. I met here while still in undergrad a local meetup while trying to figure out what I wanted to do after I graduated. She’s a good resource to follow for business info.
If you’re passionate about women in tech then this is the account to follow! They Tweet helpful posts, current events, and events happening.
Eva is all about virtual reality, which I am a little biased towards at the moment. But she brings a fun edge to tech. When you follow Eva, you feel like you’re part of the community.
Virtual reality, startups, technology in general.
Quotes on Leadership, posts on collaboration. A good business account to follow.
Another fun VR Twitter account. Based in Seattle and posts about event and news.
Good posts on communicating at work.
This Instagram account is for the Virtual Reality Girls, a group of people creating the future of storytelling in VR.
*Bonus*
Your very own @Lilyotron – writes about virtual reality, startup life, and motivational stories about entrepreneurship.
Read Great Content
Carol Ann Benovic – Her post on Instead of “getting a seat at the table”… is what got me hooked to her blog.
Geek Girl Web – A space to share resources on learning to code, techniques for personal branding and career building through technology. Thanks to her post, Diversity + Visibility in Tech: #WOCinTechChat Stock Photos, I found the awesome stock photos used in the title image of this post.
This girl – Allison Esposito, creator of Hiretechladies.com. Enough said.
Flow Financial Planning – Provides posts on financial planning for women in tech.
Lady Dev – A personal account of a woman in tech, exploring what it means to be a woman in tech. She writes about resources for women in or interested in, tech careers.
Wow, there’s my list! Who do you follow? Did I miss any organizations that you recommend? Let me know in the comments below!
I am always looking to expand my field of knowledge. Let’s connect on Twitter @Lilyotron or on LinkedIn!
Lily Snyder 
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