When Araine Greer left her first AFROTECH™ conference in 2025, she made herself a promise.

“When I left the conference, I told myself I will be a speaker next year, and now look at me! God is so amazing!”

This November, the senior cloud solution architect at Microsoft will take the stage at AFROTECH™ 2026 in Houston. At the time of last year’s conference, she said, she was recently divorced and “trying every day to elevate myself and my brand!”

A Year That Tested Her

The stretch before that first conference was one of the hardest of Greer’s life. In a single year, she experienced the loss of a baby and went through a divorce, all while working at Microsoft, raising her son and building her brand, FashionTechDiva.

“Those moments tested me in ways that no career milestone ever could,” she said.

It changed how she defines success.

“My hardest version of success wasn’t becoming successful. It was refusing to let hardship define who I would become while continuing to build a future for my son who depends on me,” Greer said. “It requires endurance, not just achievement.”

Where Did Her Tech Career Begin?

Twelve years ago, Greer was at a standstill. She wanted to learn SQL and had been praying about it, but didn’t know where to start. Then a man she met at a courthouse asked what she wanted to do. When she told him, he mentioned that people in his office building taught classes. One of them was SQL.

“At that moment, I knew it was God orchestrating everything in my life,” she said.

A coding program led to her first tech job, where she stayed about a year. By the end, she wanted something bigger but was afraid to leave. That same week, she was laid off. Two weeks later, she had a new job paying nearly double.

Getting to Microsoft took persistence, too. Greer interviewed for her role three separate times, she said, “because when I want something badly enough, I’m willing to put in the work and keep showing up until I get there.”

Building FashionTechDiva

Outside of Microsoft, Greer works as a stylist and mentors people trying to break into tech through FashionTechDiva. She credits mentors of her own for helping her get this far, people “doing the very things I aspire to do and have reached levels I hope to achieve one day.”

She sees AFROTECH™’s first 10 years as part of that same story of people opening doors for one another.

“What started as a vision has become a movement that has opened doors, created opportunities, and inspired countless careers,” she said.

For anyone in the audience making their own promise this year, Greer kept her advice short: “If you really want it, go get it, and don’t forget your mustard seed!”

Buy Your Ticket Today

Innovate, learn, and lead at AFROTECH™ 2026! From shaping the future of work to championing tech for good, this is where innovation meets impact. Don’t wait — lock in your tickets today for Nov. 2-5, 2026, in Houston, TX!