VOW (Voices of Women); an exclusive online writing contest for women powered by IBM and presented by We-Ace has provided a platform for women to share their thoughts on trending topics and current affairs. In most societies, women have been told to stay quiet and not share their opinion on any matters but on the contrary, women have done much better than society expects them to. This blogathon contest is a one-of-its-kind blogging contest for women to get their voices heard and stage varied thoughts, ideas and opinions; on burgeoning topics, themes and issues that matter to the women. This joint initiative of We-Ace and IBM has empowered many women to raise their voices and talk about the workforce and their role in business and society at large.
Amplifying Voices of Women through Blogathon
This second edition of VOW-Voices of Women brings together women from diverse backgrounds to engage in a discussion around larger trends, developments, and barriers in the face of building a more diverse and inclusive workplace and culture. 1000+ women from across corporates and colleges came forward and registered for VOW. Eminent thought leaders and industry experts from IBM have joined the event as jury panel members.
On Behalf of IBM, We-Ace reached out to 100+ organizations and colleges to bring along every woman who wished to showcase their talent on such a platform. The team got an overwhelming response from the women cohort where they shared inspiring blogs based on this year’s theme – Bespoke Skilling. Winners are awarded with exciting prizes like iPad, Kindle etc and winning blogs are featured on leading partner publications.
A jury member of the event and Chief Finance Officer, IBM India/South Asia, Tejaswini Rajwade shares her experience and says, “It was a privilege to be part of the Voices of Women jury which provided a platform for women to be heard on a topic very relevant in today’s world. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the blogs with their refreshing take on the topic.”
“I am passionate about building an inclusive workforce and embracing a culture of diversity and am enthused to see the tremendous response to the contest,” she added.
Another jury member Amit Sharma, Managing Partner, Global Delivery, IBM Consulting felt honored to be part of the jury of the blogathon and expressed, “The energy, passion and drive of the participants was very apparent, with some very high quality and memorable submissions. My congratulations to the winners and more importantly, a big thank you to all those who made time to participate and made this event a success.”
This year, the entries were invited on the following theme: Given that women are unique in the way they approach, build and experience their career journey – do they need bespoke skilling? If yes, what ecosystem do they need to come forward and aspire to learn, grow and ace at different life stages of their career? Share your thoughts and ideas on the topic in 800 to 1000 words.
The winner of this year’s blogathon Harini Srivastava termed VOW as an enthralling event. “It makes one tap on the inner value system, which in turn becomes an introspective session at a personal level. Heartfelt thanks for the Intriguing experience,” Harini says.
The second runner up of this year’s blogathon Mamta Mohan quotes, “I couldn’t deny the tempting offer to write a blog on one of my favorite subjects – Women Empowerment. As they say, pen is mightier than the sword, this platform that was provided by We-Ace for writing a socially relevant blog helped me pen my first ever blog and I am indebted to VoW for bringing out the writer in me that had gone into hibernation.”
The third runner up of this year’s blogathon Lavanya Ramamurthy expresses, “How skilling should be done for women is a forward-thinking topic that is personally very close to her heart too as she leads the gender ERG for Swiss Re APAC. Picking 2 lines from her blog, When intent and skill work together, you can create magic! Everybody does well when the women do well.”
The platform was also open for voting and the three popular choices awards were awarded to Rashmi Pandit from Morningstar, Meena Muthukumar from SSN College of Engineering and Yamini Naga Satya Pilla from DVR & Dr. HS MIC College of Technology.
About We-Ace
We-Ace is a leading global network of over 100k+ women aspiring to ace their careers. As agents of change for gender-balanced workplaces, the company’s mission is to engage, enable and employ women professionals to be in decision-making roles. Women can connect and network with the best in the industry through hiring drives, career fairs, skilling labs, CXO meets and various other industry led live sessions. Women aspiring to upskill can select from a wide range of life-stage enablement, self enhancement, functional and technical courses that start from as low as Rs. 99/-.
