On April 25, 2013, the American University of Armenia hosted the “Tech Needs Girls” forum, which was organized in celebration of the International Girls in ICT Day. The forum was designed to encourage Armenian girls to choose a career in information and communication technologies (ICT). A number of successful women from the ICT sector, the government, academia, and public and private sectors shared their knowledge and experience with over 200 participants. The event closed with an award ceremony to acknowledge the high schools students who participated in a recent essay competition. The forum was live-streamed to Armenian high schools in the provinces, allowing young women and girls in rural areas to participate remotely.

USAID Armenia Mission Director Karen Hilliard, AUA President Bruce Boghosian, and Director of the Women and Information Society NGO Narine Abazyan delivered opening remarks at the forum. Participants also included female leaders from the Enterprise Incubator Foundation, the Union of Information Technology Enterprises, the Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia, the Gyumri Information Technologies Center, Idram LLC, the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, and other institutions.Out of 127 students from 18 schools, 23 received prizes from the USAIDEnterprise Development and Market Competitiveness (EDMC) project, a second-time supporter of the event.

The forum was organized by the Women and Information Society NGO in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, the USAID/EDMC project, the American University of Armenia, networking leader Cisco, VivaCell-MTS, and the National Center of Educational Technologies, with information support from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The International Girls in ICT Day is an initiative of the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations. The dayhas beencelebrated internationally since 2010 to create a global environment thatempowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of ICT.