On International Women's Day 2025, GIBA hosted its inaugural Women in Tech Goa conference at the Cidade de Goa hotel in Dona Paula. The event brought together 200 women technologists, entrepreneurs, and students for a day dedicated to addressing the gender gap in Goa's IT sector.
The conference opened with a striking data point: while Goa's IT sector has grown 40% in five years, women still represent only 28% of the technical workforce — below the national average of 34%. GIBA Vice President Priya Naik set the goal of reaching 40% by 2030.
The morning featured three parallel tracks: "Technical Leadership" with senior women engineers sharing career navigation strategies, "Entrepreneurship" with women founders discussing funding challenges and wins, and "Return to Work" — a track specifically designed for women re-entering tech after career breaks.
The afternoon's Mentoring Circles paired 50 senior women leaders with groups of 4 early-career professionals for intimate, structured mentoring conversations. The format was so well-received that GIBA announced it would become a quarterly program.
The day's highlight was the announcement of the GIBA-WIT Scholarship Fund, seeding ₹10 lakh to sponsor 20 women from underrepresented backgrounds through tech certification programs. Three corporate sponsors — Mandovi Labs, Zuari Systems, and Pillar Infotech — immediately pledged matching contributions.