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Giving Thanks for Diversity in Tech: Chloe Condon

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Giving Thanks for Diversity in Tech: Chloe Condon

Giving Thanks for Diversity in Tech - 15 Part Series

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Chloe Condon is a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft where she helps developers learn all about Microsoft Azure. Lately, Chloe has been focused on developing fun and practical examples of ways to use Azure Functions and Cognitive Services, which reflects her passion for showing folks ways to use technology in ways they may not have thought of before!

She also brings her passion and creativity to her role as the content director for the San Francisco Microsoft Reactor, where she helps host and organize events! As a bootcamp grad with a non-traditional background, she loves being able to host events with bootcamp students/grads as a way of helping to alleviate the stress and isolation that many experience when trying to bridge the gap between their graduation and their first developer position.

Chloe is an extremely active speaker, currently delivering talks about her fake boyfriend app that uses Azure Functions and the Twilio API, as well as her keynote titled "The ROI of LOLs" which talks about the importance of humor and entertainment in tech.

Chloe not only regularly attends and participates in developer events- she also founded her own meetup called “Sentry Scouts”- an award-winning, high energy meetup based out of San Francisco, which focuses on open source technologies in a fun and uplifting way.

“I want tech to be a welcome place for everyone,” Chloe says, “regardless of gender identity, race, background, and experience. Often times, I find myself being the only woman in a meeting/conference room/tech event/etc. and it's truly baffling to me.” She also added this advice to other women who want to enter the tech industry: “Be you. Don't change who you are to fit a mold. We need diverse perspectives, and we need you here!”

Chloe credits her strength as a speaker and larger-than-life personality to her past as a musical theater performer. She loves to bring in elements of humor and theatricality to her demos, tutorials, and presentations! In fact, she hasn’t completely left her theater days behind- you can catch her every year at RuPaul’s Annual DragCon, dressed in elaborate costumes, “Last year I attended with a bunch a lady devs and my friend April and I dressed as Dionne and Cher from Clueless!”

You can catch Chloe next year at Refactr, and NG Con, which will have a musical theme this year, much to her delight! In the meantime, you can follow Chloe on her Twitter page @ChloeCondon.

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