“It takes a village” to raise an active local IT community – 2 Inchooers take the stage at #MM17ES

Inchooers at Magento conference? That’s nothing new. But 2 women Inchooers on the stage of Meet Magento Spain? Well, that’s something!

IT has always been a predominantly male industry. However, women are playing a huge part too! It is no longer such a huge surprise to see a woman in tech. Although they are still generally unrepresented in hardcore technology jobs, women are mostly finding their place in business development, HR, consultations, marketing and design fields of IT companies.

Let’s face it – men are from Mars and women are from Venus. We are alike, but again, we’re different in values that we bring to the company and ways that we are handling business, especially on soft skills level. Research show that women are better at using soft skills that are crucial for effective leadership and superior business performance.

If we want to create and foster a productive working environment, we need to rely on nurturing soft skills across the board. We are all people, and we, whether some of us like it or not, get in constant contact with others, so the ability to make meaningful interpersonal relationships in an office is crucial to the success of any organization.

Women at Inchoo and their involvement in the local tech community

Inchoo values the importance of women, that are now taking up to 20% of our company’s employees batch. Besides the value of the above-mentioned skills that they bring into Inchoo’s business, their roles have deep roots in our local IT community – attracting talents, organizing learning events, communicating with universities, educational institutions and much much more!

But they don’t do it alone. It takes a village made of IT enthusiasts and companies to form a healthy community that is raising talented, hard working individuals seeking for their place under the Tech Sun.

Our Event Coordinator Zrinka Antolovic and Lead Office Manager Dunja Vorkapic will show you on stage of #MM17ES how and why “It takes a village” when we were forming our local IT community through Osijek Software City association and how we keep it alive and kicking now more than ever!

They’ll be talking how our local IT firms cooperate and react to the biggest challenge we’re facing – lack of qualified workforce and how we include other stakeholders (high schools, universities, local government…) in solving challenges we face in Osijek’s IT industry.

Here is an interview with them to find out more.

Hi Zrinka and Dunja! Wow, 2 girls at Meet Magento conference! Well, that’s a first for Inchoo. Are you excited about it? How did you decide to apply as a speakers?

Dunja: A lot of “firsts” in one place.

This is the first conference I’ll be attending in 2 years of working at Inchoo (I do not count Developers Paradise 2016 and Meet Magento Croatia 2017 because I was a member of organizational committee) 🙂

Every time there is an open call for speakers and their entourage for a Meet Magento at Inchoo, many people apply. Since I’m not a developer and haven’t been that long in the firm, I‘ve never applied for one because I taught developers have the advantage. As the time went by, I encouraged myself to step up and share a story with the rest of the community.

Besides that, I wouldn’t want to miss the chance to visit my favourite country – Spain. I love everything about it; people, culture, language, weather… What better way of experiencing all that than to attend Meet Magento Spain 2017! I can’t wait for the plane to hitch… 🙂

Zrinka: Yes, a lot of “first” in one place. I’m looking forward to sharing the story of the Osijek Software City association. On the other side, I like traveling and Spain was on top of my “wish list”. I believe this conference is a perfect opportunity to do both. I also met some people from Interactiv4 (conference organizer) and I’m excited to see them again. I’m happy because Dunja and I will share that experience together.

Zrinka, your role at Inchoo is really interesting – Event Coordinator. Tell us more about what you do and why it turned out to be so important for us!

My job is about managing all events related to Inchoo, organize and help with activities in the local community, take care of student relationships and serve as Inchoo’s rep in board of directors of Osijek Software City association. This is the main topic of our presentation – to explain problems in our local IT community and and show what we are doing to fix them. As an Event Coordinator, I’m usually behind the curtains on such events. This will be the first time for me to be in front of them and I’m really excited.

Very impressed that @inchoo is getting involved in university programs training the next generation of #Magento developers. #mm17hr pic.twitter.com/iyWwjOdZtt

— Talesh Seeparsan (@_Talesh) March 18, 2017

What is Osijek Software City and why is it so important for local IT community?

Dunja: Osijek Software City is an association born in 2012 with a purpose of acting towards the local community by increasing people’s engagement in IT and increasing their competitiveness for the labour market (whether local, or international).

The association was founded by IT companies that came to the same conclusion about what challenges them the most – finding and recruiting talented individuals. All activities the companies have done so far, yielded nothing but positive results.

As a regional IT center that counts more than 100 IT companies, Osijek has a lot to offer. What would be your top picks to lure someone that is thinking of moving here?

Zrinka: Osijek is a beautiful place for living. It is a small town that can provide you with everything you need. It has excellent traffic infrastructure, especially for bikes, so you don’t waste nearly any time commuting. When it comes to IT, companies from Osijek compete with large world companies and offer a lot of opportunities for employment. I was not born and raised in Osijek, but I am happy to have gotten the opportunity to live and work here. One of the strongest attractors to move to Osijek as an IT worker would definitely be our closely-knit community.

Dunja, for those who will, unfortunately, have to miss MM17ES and your presentation, give a sneak peek of key takeaways for those who are interested in what you’ll bring with “It takes a village” presentation.

It’s a story about how IT companies from our region (eastern Croatia) react to the biggest challenge they’re facing with – lack of quality workforce. They teamed up and, in 2012, established the association “Osijek Software City”.

After comprehending that commitment to the local community is one company characteristic they all share, they all stood up together to promote IT among young people and decided to invest in them in terms of knowledge without knowing when and whether the “return on investment” (hiring these people) is going to happen.

It takes a village to raise a child would, in our context, mean that it takes a community to help a developer grow. 🙂

For those of you who are attending #MM17ES, feel free to welcome our Inchooers Zrinka and Dunja to their first international MM event. They will teach you about our local IT community, and you show them what #Real Magento stands for and what Magento community is all about!

See you there!