CONNECT Project

Let’s CONNECT at the Grace Hopper Celebration!

Looking for a fun way to improve and expand your personal and career network? Try CONNECT, a free and green way to assist attendees at the Grace Hopper Celebration in professional networking. With CONNECT, you will set networking goals before the conference, and then receive assistance to achieve your goals during the conference. At the end of the conference, you will receive contact information of the other attendees you CONNECT’d with during the conference – no business cards required!

How do I make a CONNECTion with another attendee? Every Grace Hopper Celebration conference badge will have a bar code. When you meet someone who you want to exchange contact information with, you can choose to have your badges scanned by a CONNECT scanner.

Who will receive my contact information? The only conference attendees that will receive your contact information are the ones who YOU choose to make a CONNECTion. Contact information is only shared between those attendees that choose to have their badges scanned.

Is networking a function of attending GHC? According to attendees of previous Grace Hopper Celebrations, networking is an extremely valuable piece of the conference. The objectives of the CONNECT project are to help you meet your networking goals. The CONNECT team will combine motivation, practical tips, on-site connection technology, and follow-up reminders/hints in order to assist you in successfully building on the connections that you make at the Grace Hopper Celebration.

What types of CONNECTions should I make at GHC? Depending on where you are in life, you should concentrate on strengthening your network in different ways. Some of the obvious types of connections you might want include peers, mentors (obtain help in your career path!), mentees (pass on what you know!), role models (someone to emulate!), and technical connections. As you roam the conference venue, look at ribbons on the badges for the types of people (e.g., Faculty) you want to meet for your career path.

We encourage all GHC attendees to participate in CONNECT!

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The CONNECT project was developed via support from the National Science Foundation (under #CNS-0738102) and ACM’s Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W). Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation nor the Association of Computing Machinery.