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On October 13, AnitaB.org canceled this year's Grace Hopper Celebration, 14 days before the doors were supposed to open on October 27.
As a former Latina in technology (Silicon Valley) and a fractional consultant now to startups and venture backed early stage companies, I saw the Grace Hopper Celebration as one to seek out and attend in solidarity with other women. There are hardly any conferences for women in technology, one of the toughest industries dominated by men. As a Latina, I hardly saw or met others like me either.
When I read the news, I thought a lot about the conference itself. I thought about the very few Latinas and other women of the New Majority who were counting on it, and where they're supposed to go now. So that's what this piece is for.
What Happened to the Grace Hopper Celebration?
The short version is that the money ran out. And it has been a recurring theme for a handful of women-focused national events and organizations. Women Who Code, which had more than 340,000 members worldwide, shut down in April 2024, citing a lack of funding.
Brenda Darden Wilkerson, AnitaB.org's president and CEO, said registrations and sponsorships came in well short of what it takes to cover core operating costs. "This isn't a decision we made lightly," she said in the statement. "We know this decision affects far more than an event."
Along with dwindling philanthropic funding, the impact of fewer diversity programs and people were not showing up, a conference of its size isn't sustainable anymore. Counting virtual attendees, about 29,000 people took part in 2023 and 17,000 in 2024, according to those same reports. Bloomberg puts 2025 at roughly 15,000, the smallest crowd since 2016.
Wilkerson says the organization is "evaluating strategic alternatives," which tends to mean nobody knows yet what comes next. The India edition, set for January 20 to 22, 2027, in Bangalore, was still on as of the latest reporting.
Why Does This Matter to Latinas?
Because we didn't have many rooms like that to begin with.
Women held 27.5% of U.S. computer and math jobs in 2025, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers cited by Forbes. Girls Who Code says women make up about a quarter of U.S. computer scientists, and in 1995 it was 37%. We've gone backward.
For Latinos overall, the numbers are thinner. A report from the Kapor Foundation, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and SomosVC found that Latinos hold about 6% of technical roles at U.S.-based tech companies and 5% of executive leadership jobs, even though we're roughly one in five U.S. workers. At the current pace, the report projected parity for Latino technical workers in 2077. I'd like to see it a lot sooner.
All of this is happening while companies back away from diversity spending, a pullback that sped up after President Trump's executive orders targeting DEI in early 2025. Bloomberg reported that this year's sponsors included Amazon, Google, Nvidia and Bank of America. The organizers haven't said who pulled back or why, so I won't guess.
Sue Harnett, who founded the nonprofit Rewriting the Code, told Bloomberg "it's a precarious moment," and that the signal the cancellation sends "to the general public, to the companies, most importantly to the women, is really awful."
I agree with her. When one of the few big tables gets taken away, the people who had the fewest seats at it lose the most.
Where Latinas in Tech Can Build Relationships Now
Nothing replaces 15,000 people and a career fair under one roof, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But Latinas have never built our networks in just one place. Several of the groups below were started by women who got tired of waiting for an invitation.
SHPE National Convention, October 28 to 31, Indianapolis
If you're a student or early in an engineering career and you were counting on a career fair this month, start here. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers holds its national convention October 28 to 31 in Indianapolis, the same week Grace Hopper would have happened. SHPE has more than 20,000 members, and the convention runs on workshops, networking and recruiting.
Look for SHPEtinas, its Latina program. It started in 2009 as an Empowering Latina Luncheon at the convention and took its current name in 2019. Can't get to Indianapolis on a week's notice? Next year's convention is October 6 to 9 in Houston.
Latinas in Computing
This one is tied right to the cancellation. Patty Lopez, Claris Castillo, Raquel Romano, Gilda Garreton, Dilma da Silva and Cecilia Aragon founded Latinas in Computing in 2006 to support leadership and professional development for Latinas in technical roles. For years its best-known gathering has been a reception at Grace Hopper, so they just lost their biggest night of the year too.
They also have a Discord, a Facebook group and a LinkedIn page. If you're a Latina engineer, researcher or computing student, join and ask what they're planning instead.
Latinas in Tech
Not every Latina in tech writes code, and this group gets that. Gretel Perera and Rocío Medina started Latinas in Tech in Silicon Valley in 2014. It now has chapters in cities including Austin, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami, plus Mexico City, and its members work across product, marketing, security, data and investing. There are local meetups, mentorship, recruiting and an annual summit, which ran as a one-day virtual event this past May.
LatinaGeeks
LatinaGeeks is especially good if you're trying to build skills, not just contacts. Lala Castro and Tanya Salcido co-founded it in 2012, and it became a nonprofit in 2018. It's volunteer-run, with chapters in Los Angeles, San Diego and Silicon Valley, and it focuses on hands-on coding and tech workshops, business skills and entrepreneurship. It also puts on events like LatinaGeeks Day and runs a Latina Leaders in Tech cohort program.
Techqueria
For the everyday stuff, there's Techqueria. It's a nonprofit for Latine professionals in tech, with chapters in places like Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego and the Bay Area. Its Slack and job board are where a lot of the real day-to-day networking happens, the kind that doesn't wait for a once-a-year event.
Tapia Conference
Tapia is run by CMD-IT and named for computer scientist Richard Tapia. It's for computing students, faculty and professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. This year's was September 16 to 18 in Atlanta, so it's already passed, but watch for the 2027 dates and apply early if you need a scholarship.
LatinX in AI
This year's Grace Hopper was built around AI. If that's why you were going, look at LatinX in AI. Laura Montoya co-founded the group and co-chairs it, and it runs affinity workshops alongside major AI research conferences, including ICML and NeurIPS.
Rewriting the Code
Rewriting the Code says it has about 52,000 members, and it's strongest with college students and early-career women. One thing worth knowing: in October 2025 it changed its mission to say it isn't exclusively for women. Harnett told Bloomberg that corporate backers are still wary, and that one asked whether the group could add a photo of a man to its website. That tells you plenty about the pressure these groups are under right now.
How to Build Your Network Without a Giant Conference
A big conference squeezes a year of relationship-building into three days. Without one, you stretch the same work out over months.
I think of it as the difference between a quinceañera and Sunday cafecito at your tía's. The quince is a great party. But cafecito is where people actually get to know you, and they remember you because you keep showing up.
- Start local. A 40-person chapter meetup where people learn your name will do more for you than an expo hall where nobody does.
- Be in the Slack, not just at the event. Answer questions, share job posts, celebrate other people's wins. People notice.
- Ask for 20 minutes instead of a mentor. "Can I ask how you moved from QA into product?" gets a yes way more often than "Will you be my mentor?"
- Follow up within a week. After SHPE, a meetup or a virtual summit, send a short note that mentions something specific you talked about.
- Introduce people. The quickest way to grow your own network is to connect two people who should know each other.
What Happens Next?
AnitaB.org hasn't said whether Grace Hopper will come back in 2027 or what it would look like. The fee update is due October 26, and we'll update this story when it comes.
Here's where I land. No single organization, however big, should be holding our careers. Most of the groups on this list exist because Latinas got tired of being the only one in the room and built their own. Grace Hopper was a good place to find each other, but it was never the only one.
Were you planning to go to the Grace Hopper Celebration this year? Did I miss an event you love? Tell me where you're headed instead, or which Latina tech community changed things for you.
