Empowering Women in STEM at Acumatica Summit 2026

The Acumatica Summit 2026 Women in Tech (WiT) Luncheon opened with Martha-Lucia Groulx, Acumatica’s Chief People Officer, sharing the exciting news that over 600 people were in attendance. With the Seattle Convention Center providing abundant space, every attendee had front row seats to an hour filled with deep insights and compelling stories of success by inspiring women in technology.

JJ DiGeronimo, the president and founder of Tech Savvy Women as well as an award-winning author and former tech industry leader, headlined the events, but before she took to the stage, Martha-Lucia shared her appreciation for the Acumatica Community.

“Thank you for making this space a space of empowerment, of growth, and enabling each other and learning from each other.”

Illuminating the Path Forward

JJ, who has partnered with Acumatica Summit for the last four years to advance women’s roles and confidence within the technology industry, shared some of her own journey about getting to the next level in her own career. In the past, she would reflect on her outward accomplishments and think about the actions she needed to take as well as the relationships she had to build, but over the last 10 years, she had a revelation: there’s a lot of inward work that needs to be done before true advancement can happen.

What is this inward work? Overcoming the negative inner voice.

“I have participated in a lot of women’s conversations, panels, and events like this,” she said. “And what I was always amazed by were the women that would join me on stage or the women leading had to often push through, step around, or hurdle over that self-talk. That conversation you have with yourself when you say, ‘I want to do this, or I’d like to influence that.’ But then you have this little voice in your head that says, ‘You are not ready. You haven’t checked these boxes. You haven’t done these things.’”

It’s time for women to “maneuver that conversation” so that it doesn’t stop them from leaping into opportunities they may feel they aren’t fully prepared for, she said, but while doing so, they need to recognize which path they want to illuminate going forward. That starts with recognizing that there’s only so much time and energy in life, so choose wisely, and then working to change the negative internal voice.

“What do you need to tell yourself,” she asked. “And what are the conversations you need to have with people that can help you open those doors, that can help you get in rooms that you’re not invited to, or that can give you access or connection or even a bridge to things that you’re not really involved in today?”

These are important questions women need to answer, but JJ also pointed out that women in technology often forget to celebrate their achievements before moving on to the next step. To highlight why documenting these achievements is so important, JJ sat down with a panel of women professionals who shared their advice on what they’ve done as well as on how they overcame their negative thoughts to find real success.

Shifting the Inner Dialogue to Help Drive Success

Before panelists Lori Seal, Loni Unser, and Helen Yu, joined JJ on stage, she had a few important questions audience members needed to ask themselves:

• What impact have I already created?
• Where do I want to create more value?
• Who needs to be involved?
• What does illuminating my path look like for me?

These questions were a great segue into her discussion with the three women. Starting with Loni, a professional race car driver for Kellymoss, JJ asked her about any doubts she had about mapping a path in the male-dominated professional racing industry, and if so, how she faced them.

According to Loni, there were no doubts in the beginning. They did, however, come rushing in later, so she read an inspiring, life-changing book, “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Hay, which she said helped her shift her inner dialogue.

“[I turned] that voice inside of my head around, and when I started to say, ‘I can do this’, it changed everything for me. I started instantly to see more success and more results and that was so important to me. I think so much of our success comes from how we speak to ourselves.”

For Helen, CEO of Tigon Advisory Group, self-doubt has followed her throughout her very successful career, but she has three things she does to counteract it. One, she puts together a personal board of directors made up of a mentor who has walked the path before her, a sponsor who has advocated for her when she’s not in the room, and an advisor who acts as her sounding board. Second, she practices genuine networking, where she supports others in need and receives support in return. And third, she firmly believes in what she calls “relentless learning”.

“I’ve switched so many fields, from finance to marketing to sales to technology, self-taught coder…all through relentless learning. So, if you constantly learn, it makes you feel comfortable to step out of your comfort zone constantly. That’s how I sidestep my doubts,” she said.

As CEO of Blytheco, Lori says fear and self-doubt are part of being human beings who are wired to protect ourselves from fear, embarrassment, and harm. Acknowledging this truth, she said, is important, as is recognizing that someone must feel uncomfortable in order to grow.

“When you’re feeling those feelings, you’re feeling nervous or you’re feeling self-doubt, you’re in the right place because that means you are challenging yourself,” Lori said. “The very definition of courage is being afraid to do something but doing it anyway. And that is so incredibly important.”

She added, “I have this saying: You’re not going to have the thrills if you’re not willing to take the spills. Life is full of failure, and I jokingly say, ‘I feel like I’ve failed my way to success,” and failure, she said, is just being one step closer to learning and becoming a master at something new.

Throughout the conversation, the women offered additional words of wisdom. Some of their advice? Be as well prepared as you can, which can help you feel confident in your ability to achieve big things. When you’re in a stressful situation, and you want to stay focused, aligned, and impactful, zoom out to understand the situation fully, think about the value you add to it, and then zoom back in to address it. And give yourself permission to take space to look at things differently.

“We don’t, in my opinion, spend time visualizing and seeking out wisdom to accomplish the things that are most important,” said Lori. “There’s a bad habit of trading out what’s urgent for what’s meaningful.”

Empowering Women in Tech

The hour-long discussion was filled with real conversation between successful women who give back to their communities, mentor the younger generations, and work to attract other women into the tech space. It served to encourage other women in STEM—as well as in other industries—to recognize their achievements and to change the inner conversation so they can continue climbing the mountain of success.

We can’t thank JJ, Loni, Helen, and Lori enough for participating in such an authentic conversation and bringing their rich experiences—both the wins and the failures—that we can all learn from as we walk our own journey of success. We highly recommend every person in the Acumatica Community who couldn’t make it to the Luncheon to listen to the full conversation, which is available on demand. It will inspire every person to reach higher and go further, even when doubts arise.

The WiT Luncheon and our new WiT Networking Lounge, which offered more learning opportunities throughout Summit, were a huge success. They, along with our focus on listening to others and championing equity and inclusion, our WiT forum, female-centered scholarships, and advancement of women in STEM at Acumatica, are empowering women in our Community to take full advantage of transformative opportunities as they strive to advance their careers.

We hope you’ll join us again next year at Acumatica Summit 2027!