ChickTech

Frequently Asked Questions

We hope our FAQ answers your questions about ChickTech! If you have additional questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us by using the form at the bottom of this page.

General FAQs

Yes, men are welcome to volunteer with us and attend adult events! We believe in the importance of allyship, and encourage men to join and learn from our community, too. While we focus on the needs of women and non-binary individuals, we welcome people of all genders, backgrounds, races, faiths, and beliefs who support our mission to promote diversity in technology and agree to our Code of Conduct.

Men attending our events can look forward to engaging with outstanding content and diverse participants, showing an active commitment to allyship, and supporting ChickTech’s mission of increasing diversity in the technology workforce.

Yes! We welcome students, participants just starting out in tech, people who’ve never been a part of tech at all, unemployed individuals, and experienced technical professionals. The majority of our high school students do not have any previous background in technology, and many of our adult participants are just starting out in STEM. Whether you have no experience in technology or are a lifelong coder, ACT-W has something for you. Alongside our technical learning sessions, our events and programs also include valuable lessons in career development, diversity, and leadership.

Yes! Our volunteers are a vital part of our work and help us create a welcoming and outstanding experience for participants. People of all genders and backgrounds are welcome to volunteer. Volunteer opportunities range from leading a workshop, to event planning and marketing, to conducting student outreach, and beyond! You can learn more about becoming a volunteer here.

We do our best to create virtual and in-person events with accessibility in mind. All our in-person events are wheelchair accessible. Online events include closed-captioning available through Zoom.

For youth programming, we offer additional accommodations to remove the barriers for our participants to join. These include Spanish & ASL language support, internet & device access, childcare stipends, and transportation.

If you need other accessibility options or support in order to fully enjoy any of our programs, please let us know! When registering for our events, you’ll have the option to include any accessibility needs. We welcome you to contact us at [email protected] with additional questions or concerns.

Event & Program FAQs

The process is a little different depending on the event or program:

For youth programs, sign-up can be found on our For Youth page whenever registration is open. Keep in mind that parental/guardian permission is required for all youth to participate. Sign up for our email newsletter to be the first to know when youth programs open.

For adult programming, you can check out our Events page to sign up for an individual event (including external events from our partners). Any applicable registration questions or event fees will be available for you to review when signing up for an event.

All talks, workshops, keynotes, and breakout session options are included with your registration to our yearly conference (formerly called ACT-W or Advancing the Careers of Technical Women). Depending on the conference, you may need to register separately and/or pay an additional registration fee to attend any in-person conference happy hours.

Our yearly conference includes:

  • Engaging and inspiring programming
  • A community of empowerment and support
  • The chance to network with like-minded participants and organizations
  • Opportunities to meet organizations looking for talented technical professionals
  • Individualized career coaching
  • Connections to recruiters and hiring companies

Generally, yes! We encourage you to share our events with your network.

Adult events and conference sessions are built to inspire discussion and action, and watch parties absolutely complement this ethos. To help support our work, we ask that all watch party attendees register for the event. Registering helps us more accurately report on the impact of our conference and directly supports ChickTech’s work fighting inequity in STEM industries.

ChickTech’s youth programs require prior registration to access the content. Registered students are more than welcome to host watch parties for our events, but we ask that all students present are registered for our programming first.

Conference registrants will receive a follow-up email within two weeks of the conference with an access link to the recordings and any additional materials from the presenter.

Job Board FAQs

Your job package expires one year from the purchase date. Need extra time? We’re happy to chat with you about how we can best support your hiring needs—email us at [email protected].

We do not offer refunds for job posts. Unhappy with your service? Contact us at [email protected].

Each job posting is active for 60 days.

Speaker FAQs

Speaking opportunities are currently available through our youth program, yearly conference and stand-alone webinars and events for adults in tech. You can apply to speak here.

We are proud to offer a well-rounded selection of content to our community. Our content generally falls into four categories: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); Leadership; Career Development; and Technical Skills. If you have any other ideas, we would be more than happy to hear them!

We require all events to be scheduled least a month in advance to ensure we have enough time to effectively communicate the event to our community. We will provide suggested days and times for you to choose from if you would like to do a live webinar or workshop. We’re very flexible, and can schedule sessions in the daytime or evening. Yearly conference sessions follow a more rigid schedule, and must be presented during the days of the conference.

Please note that a ChickTech volunteer or staff member will be present for all live webinars and conference sessions to introduce you and help navigate and operate logistics in real time.

The ChickTech community is comprised of students and professionals of all genders, ages, and technical skillsets. Our programs focus on the needs of girls, women and non-binary individuals, but we welcome allies of all genders into our adult programming as we fight to create more opportunities and empowerment in the technology industry.

The audience size for our events range widely depending on the format, content, and date/time. You can expect anywhere from 10 to 100 participants at your session. We are happy to provide registration numbers to you leading up to (and after) your event upon request.

This is up to you! If you decide to have a Q&A portion, the audience can address their questions through the Zoom chat function or by un-muting themselves at that time. You can also choose to take questions throughout the presentation.

It is strongly encouraged that our speakers save about 15 minutes at the end of the session to answer any questions from audience members. We also welcome you to share your contact information (LinkedIn, email, website, etc.) for attendees who wish to connect with you outside of the session.

You will need a device that can download Zoom Video Conferencing software. This will require internet access, speakers, webcam, and a mic. We recommend a laptop/desktop computer. A tablet or smart phone will also work, but the screen sharing feature (to share presentation slides) may not be available.

We encourage our speakers to practice their session to get familiar with Zoom software and configure their setup. Once a date and time is selected, a Zoom link will be provided to you. From there, you are free to test it and do a practice run at any time prior to the scheduled meeting.

We also ask that live presenters jump onto the Zoom link about 15-20 minutes before the scheduled live webinar to ensure everything is working properly.

At ChickTech, we strongly believe that you own your recorded content. You can request a copy of your presentation at any time or request to withdraw it from our recorded video library by emailing [email protected] with a 30 day notice.

As part of the speaker agreement, you must agree to not copy or modify in whole or in part, the material or branding of ChickTech and not rent, lease, distribute, sell, or create any derivative works of ChickTech-owned material, beyond your recorded talk.

Information shared during your talk will stay yours and will not be shared by ChickTech without your written approval and consent.

How can we help?

Have additional questions? We’re happy to help! Please fill out the form below and we will contact you as soon as possible.