One month before the second iteration of the Sistech Conference was set to greet women from the tech industry at the Hyatt Regency Bloomington on May 3, Serena Roberts, the event’s co-founder, had to confront the possibility of canceling the conference due to funding challenges.

The Sistech Conference is a one-day event that invites women in tech to take part in a space that empowers them in a male-dominated sector. It includes a range of women speakers and vendors. The inaugural conference took place in 2021 as a hybrid event, with 90 attendees in person and 60 online, and secured corporate sponsors.

After a two-year break, organizers brought the conference back. But due to sponsorship pitfalls, Sistech found itself short of the $25,000 needed for the event to carry on.

Roberts, who is also the chief operating officer of Sistech’s parent nonprofit Moxy Foundation, quickly took to LinkedIn to post a call for help. “No one plans for failure or major setbacks, but for most of us, they are an unavoidable part of life. Some of them sting more than others—this one sure does,” she began the post.

She explained that the Sistech Conference was only able to secure one corporate sponsor–Moxy Analytics, the business counterpart of Moxy Foundation. “Our team of volunteer organizers have reached out to dozens of potential sponsors operating in the Twin Cities (and beyond) over the past few months and we keep hearing ‘we don’t have the budget.’”

In an interview with TCB, Roberts emphasized that it wasn’t a problem of registration as the conference was nearly sold out at 285 seats. “We just kept hearing budget, budget, budget from corporate companies,” she said. “We really did not know what was going to happen and when I put out that call for help, I feel like I mentally had already sort of prepared and accepted the fact that we were likely going to have to cancel this conference.”

But over the next two weeks, Roberts’ LinkedIn post was shared and amplified, and financial support began to pour in. The Sistech Conference received more than $13,000 in individual donations, $5,000 in corporate matching, and secured three more corporate sponsors, including software company Dataiku, Turnberry Solutions, and Best Buy Foundation.

The conference was able to raise just over $58,000–enough for organizers to proceed with the event.

“I was genuinely blown away,” Roberts said. “People are seeing what we’re doing. They care about it and want us to continue. It was a great feeling.”

Roberts has already discussed what the third iteration will have to look like to proceed more sustainably.

“What our key takeaway was from this year is that we’ve lost traction when we took those years off,” she said. She explained that the Sistech Conference will still keep a one-year gap between events, but on the off-years organizers will plan to host a fundraising gala event in its place instead.

But Sistech is certainly here to stay. “What I really loved is that there’s this authenticity that we purposely try to create in [women-centered events],” she said. “It’s just magic when you’ve got a bunch of women coming together, having real conversations and making real connections.”

But she also acknowledged the irony of the event’s funding gap. “It’s a little bit bittersweet. I’m proud of what we were able to do. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment there. But we would have loved to have gotten one more sponsor.”

She added: “Companies can’t say diversity is important, that it’s hard to find female and minority candidates, and then turn around not support events like Sistech and organizations like The Moxy Foundation.”