Uniting youth with technology to increase diversity and gender equality:

STACK Infrastructure supports The Women’s Forum Tech4Women hackathon as top sponsor

October 3, 2022 - For more than fifteen years, the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society has led the way in transforming the power of women’s voices and perspectives into forward-thinking economic and policy initiatives for societal change. Each year at its annual global conference, the Women’s Forum brings together female business leaders, lawmakers, and agents of change in various sectors from more than 175 countries to network, debate, and promote initiatives aimed at empowering women in all walks of life.

As part of its Youth Voices campaign, which creates opportunities for youth aged 16 to 25 to influence global debate on critical issues, the Women’s Forum has launched the Tech4Women hackathon, a unique and exciting international contest focused on employing technology to challenge gender disparity. Tech4Women takes place online from September to November, inviting teams of two to five young adults to submit ideas for a technology solution that helps foster gender equality and challenges the status quo in four critical areas: climate, health, entrepreneurship, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). Three finalist teams will be selected and invited to participate in the annual Women’s Forum conference in Paris where they will pitch their ideas on stage and a winner will be crowned.

A Perfect Match for STACK’s Purpose

At STACK, we’re committed to OnePurpose: to work for the world, to build sustainable infrastructure, and to take responsibility for our collective future. These values focus our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts, including contributing to the communities and societies in which we operate as well as advancing opportunities for all within the data center industry. The Tech4Women initiative closely aligns with STACK’s vision that technology can be an enabler of opportunity, and our support is a testament to our commitment.

We know that vision alone is not enough; we must actively support and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to attract and retain women in roles at all levels across the technology industry. By supporting initiatives like Tech4Women, we hope to encourage and attract more female talent to STACK, and to the technology sector as a whole.

Exciting Opportunities

As a member of the jury, STACK will evaluate the contest submissions, which are sure to be rich with creative solutions. We expect to be challenged, surprised, and invigorated by the revolutionary thinking of youth from around the world with the passion, skills, and commitment to make a difference. We firmly believe that initiatives like this will not only change the face of technology for the better and lead to a more diverse, equal, and capable workforce, but will also unleash ideas that will change the world.

Get Involved

Anyone interested in participating in the hackathon, from engineering students to young entrepreneurs and beyond, should register and submit a five-slide presentation that introduces their team and outlines their idea via the dedicated hackathon website hosted by Agorize. Applications are open from September 26 to November 6, 2022 and teams should start working as soon as they can. By November 13, STACK and our fellow jury members will select three teams who will then be invited to the final pitch and award ceremony during the Women’s Forum conference on November 29, 2022.