Girls in Tech, a global nonprofit organization created to empower, engage and educate women in technology held its fourth annual Catalyst Conference in Phoenix, AZ, recently to celebrate the women who are contributing to the new age of innovation.

Adriana Gascoigne, founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, Inc., met up with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference to discuss her reasons behind the event and her organization in general.

Inspired by Oprah

Gascoigne explained how the idea for Girls in Tech came about when she was working at Intel and was part of a conference that Oprah Winfrey held, called Oprah’s O conference.

She was inspired by the event because women actually had a voice and they were encouraged to raise their hand to share really interesting, hot-button topics, such as building a business, finances and other compelling topics. She wanted to bring this atmosphere to the tech world and enable women to speak up and share their feelings and their passions.

The impetus for change

The impetus behind Girls in Tech was Gascoigne’s experience working at a startup company that wasn’t doing enough to recruit not just women, but just diverse groups of people.

“(This) does affect product development,” she said. “You need many different perspectives and experiences and backgrounds in order to have a comprehensive product.” She continued to elaborate, “So I decided to take matters into my own hands and I started Girls in Tech in 2007, and nine-plus years later we’re in 60 cities around the world and six continents in 36 countries with over 40,000 members. It’s awesome to see the growth.”

Gascoigne was pleased with the conference. “All the sound bites at the conference are all so stellar,” she said. “Inspirational stories and skills, best practices, but the thing that really stood out this year were people’s stories, their passions, the things that wake them up in the morning and they say, ‘Yes, I want to change the world and make an impact and love my life while doing it.’”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference.

Photo by SiliconANGLE