The Grace Hopper Celebration was more than a conference. Its cancellation should be a wake-up call

This week, thousands of women and nonbinary technologists were supposed to walk into the Grace Hopper Celebration in Anaheim, California. Instead, the doors are closed. The tech industry named some of its most powerful AI chips after Grace Hopper. This year, it could not sustain the conference that bears her name. AnitaB.org canceled this year’s celebration after individual registrations and sponsorship commitments fell short of what it needed to run the event. The celebration was first held in 1994, co-founded by computing pioneer Anita Borg. Last year, it drew nearly 15,000 attendees from more than 60 countries. The loss is bigger than a few days on the technology industry’s calendar. The Grace Hopper Celebration was not merely a conference or a symbolic celebration of women’s contributions. It was part of the industry’s career infrastructure, and when budgets tighten, convenings are often the first to go. Confidence and information For students and early-career technologists, that infrastructure matters. Research from Girls Who Code and the Burning Glass Institute, set to be released next month, shows the entry-level door for software engineers has narrowed. From early 2022 to …

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