WITI was founded in 1989 by Carolyn Leighton in recognition that women back then weren't being paid or treated fairly in the technology industry. And while some would say things have come a long way, the percentage of women in the US IT workforce has actually been on the decline since around then.
The marketing of the Women in Technology Summit is accentuating the positive however, trying to shine a light on the accomplishments women have made in the industry. Among those women are five new inductees into the WITI Hall of Fame, which was established in 1996:
Speakers at the event will include Academy Award winner ("Boyhood") Patricia Arquette, whose talk will be titled "Emboldening Women To Believe They Have A Purpose. " Arquette, who stars on TV's CSI:Cyber as a psychologist, garnered attention by using her Academy Award acceptance speech to address the topic of equal rights for women.
Other speakers include IBM's Linda Bernardi and Sandy Carter, as well as Gartner's Tiffani Bova. Internet of things, big data and career topics will be among the session fodder at the Summit.
The winners of WITI's first hackathon, run with support from IBM and Intel, will also be revealed at the conference.
Even if you're not in Silicon Valley for the event you can catch it online via a live stream: http://witi.com/summitlive