Baku, Finance Time. Azerbaijani Women in ICT Club – FEMMES DIGITALES held its first meeting in 2016 in Baku. Traditionally, each meeting of the Club is hosted by one of its members.

This time the meeting was hosted by one of the founding members of the Club – Ms. Nigar Arpadarai, the press-secretary and head of marketing & communications department of Baku Grand Prix, the organizer of Formula-1 in Baku, at the premises of Baku Grand Prix.

During the meeting the founder of the Club and B.EST Solutions LLC, Mrs. Jana Krimpe shared the plans of the Club for the first half of 2016. 

According to her, the Club is currently negotiating with the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan regarding organization of meetings with the girls studying at 9-11 classes in secondary schools with the aim to stimulate them to continue their higher education and build their future career in ICT. The initial phase provides for holding meetings in Baku, but it would be desired to arrange such meetings in the regions of the country and in remote villages as well as with the students of high schools across the country. At the same time, there are plans to conduct a research of the girls studying or working in ICT sector in order to be able to define statistics of female employment in ICT as well as to eliminate stereotypes and fears preventing girls from occupancy in this sector. The Club sets a goal to demonstrate how fascinating, versatile and demanded sphere ICT is, in the examples of the women and girls successfully working in the ICT sphere in Azerbaijan.   

Another founder of the Club, the marketing manager of Microsoft for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus, Ms. Sabina Parvizi informed the participants about the project “Technovation” which provides for organization of software coding trainings for girls. The members of the Club decided to participate in this project next year; however the preparations will already be started this year.    

The participants also discussed the organization of the traditional event – Girls in ICT Day and ICT Week in April this year in close cooperation with ADA University and collaboration with relevant government institutions.

The members of the Club also discussed the action plan for 2016, set the date of the next meeting timed to 8 March – International Women’s Day which is to be hosted by Ms. Shahla Mammadova, the member of the Club and the advisor to the CEO of Cybernet LLC on March 11. It was also agreed to conduct the first ever bowling contest in Azerbaijan among the women and girls employed in ICT on March 12 timed to the International Women’s Day.

The meeting was then continued with the corporate presentation of Baku Grand Prix which hosted the event in its venue. The representative of Baku Grand Prix Ms. Nigar Arpadarai spoke about the preparations and innovative technologies to be used during the Formula-1 contest in Baku this year.

At the end, there was a photo-session of FEMMES DIGITALES with the Formula-1 bolide of Baku Grand Prix.

Azerbaijan Women in ICT Club – FEMMES DIGITALES is a non-profit organization established in 2014 with a goal to get more women excited about technology and IT. FEMMES DIGITALES has been designed to be an advocate for women who are currently working for technology companies and for those that may work for business in other market sectors working with technology in their roles. The mission of the Club is to bring together stakeholders from the business sector, the government, the academia and from non-governmental organizations, giving the opportunity to support and to work for increasing the women’s professional participation in the sphere of ICT, as well as to take part in the development of technological and engineering products.