Global nonprofit Girls in Tech is on the rise.

Since its inception in 2007, the organization, which is focused on eliminating the gender gap in technology fields, has grown to 55 chapters, with 130,000 members and a presence in 42 countries.

Recently, the 10th Girls in Tech conference was held at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville after two years of holding the conference virtually. The last time an in-person conference happened for Girls in Tech was in 2019 in San Francisco.

Nashville was chosen as the conference’s location this year for a special reason.

“Nashville is actually the new headquarters of Girls in Tech,” founder and CEO Adriana Gascoigne announced during her introduction speech.

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Gascoigne first arrived in Music City a year ago to visit friends and decided the culture of Nashville perfectly aligned with the culture of Girls in Tech.

“We thought it was an amazing place that's focused on community,” Gascoigne said.

As for the mission of Girls in Tech, she said: “Really, it's about building micro-communities around the world to really support and mentor women that are currently in the tech field or interested in entering into the tech fields.”

Gascoigne started the organization based on her experience as a female tech executive and the discrimination she said she faced. With events such as the Girls in Tech conference, talented women who are eager to learn about new skills and new opportunities are given the opportunity to listen to and connect with speakers who represent people from diverse backgrounds.

Accenture’s Latrise Brissett was a featured speaker this year.

She is passionate about getting any diverse employee excited about working for large companies and anything in technology.

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Diversity and inclusion in the tech industry can be a deterrent to those who are interested in working in the field but don’t often see representations of themselves succeeding in it. As a result, there is a scarcity of talent, and candidates are opting out of big companies to pursue non-traditional careers.

“If you don’t have your people, you don’t have your company,” Brissett said.

“I think, sometimes, people create pictures of what they think it could be in their minds and automatically assume, and then kind of opt out and opt out too early. If you are a person with a diverse background, that early disappointment might turn you away from it completely versus just chalking it up as an early obstacle – something you’ll have to push beyond.”

As Girls in Tech begins establishing its presence in its new home base, a mentorship program, hackathons, a startup challenge also known as their business pitch competition for women and coding boot camps are in the works.

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Entrepreneurship is bustling here, Gascoigne observed.

Renowned universities and institutions in Nashville offer STEM-related programs. There are numerous organizations, incubators and accelerators catering to the entrepreneurial community and supporting women and their dreams to launch companies.

“What I do notice is that this community has so many different types of industries that thrive here that are curious about tech and curious about innovation,” Gascoigne said. "So I think it has diversity of industry, which is very different than just being in Silicon Valley, which is primarily high tech."

Although the Girls in Tech conference was specifically geared toward early career women, overall, Gascoigne envisions it as a very inclusive organization.

“It’s for people who are in tech or not in tech," she said. "Or who might be interested in jumping in or who are getting a major that doesn't have to be technical.”

To learn more about Girls in Tech, including how to join, visit https://girlsintech.org/.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Girls in Tech makes Nashville its new headquarters