FITC 2014 Submission
Ivonne Karamoy
Every year FITC comes to Toronto and for the fourth year in a row they are setting aside FREE tickets to give away as part of their Women's Initiative. I love this initiative because it gives women working in the tech space an opportunity to discover all the wonderful things that are going on in the industry and well, I would love love love to go to the conference again!
For my submission I created this poster series which in my opinion clearly defines what FITC is all about and why I would love to go.
(Click each poster to see a larger view).
A little history of FITC and me
I had the amazing opportunity to attend FITC Toronto 2012, thanks to a ticket giveaway by the lovely people at Ladies Learning Code (thanks ladies!). It was my first conference ever and I was so inspired and I admit, a bit intimidated. I didn't know many people but what I saw at FITC blew me away. It wasn't all about technology, it was about experiences, real world experiences with people who had successes and failures. The whole point of it was to learn from each other and to meet people who work along side you everyday. We all work in technology for all the possibilities it has to offer and one of the reasons I love working in the web is the openness of the community we're in. I learned so much and met some incredible people along the way. Most importantly I was inspired to return to my desk and get working. As a freelancer, working in my home office, it is necessary to find inspiration and connect with people.
Through the community here I've met a ton of incredible people who are doing great things. One connection I made was with Cassie McDaniel, who submitted an app design for her entry for the FITC Women's Initiative that year. The app was designed to help women connect with each other to put themselves out there for conference organizers to find them (there are fewer women who speak at conferences). Shortly after FITC 2012, I tweeted Cassie to make that app a reality. What began as a tweet turned into a group of men and women dedicated to turn this idea into reality. When we met, instead of an app, we decided to launch Women && Tech, an interview series that shares stories of incredibly talented women doing great things in the world of technology. It's been one and half years since we launched we're still sharing stories. I am proud to be a part of the Women && Tech team and continue to help manage the project today.
So, what started as a free ticket to FITC turned into ideas, connections, and inspiring work.
This year, I would love to attend FITC 2014, because the possibilities of what an event like this does, is endless!
My submission
As I sat down to think about what I wanted to submit to this initiative, I wrote all the reasons why I wanted to go to FITC in my notebook.
I thought about what I could create that would summarize all of this. I decided early on that I wanted to create a poster of some kind. But I wanted it to be clear, to the point and to not only convey what FITC meant to me but what the conference is all about. I wanted it to stand on it's own as a testament to the FITC experience. After some sketching and preliminary ideas, I came up with the poster series above. I could see this series grow but these 3 posters for me is what FITC is all about and why I would love to go! Fingers crossed :)