Google on Thursday abruptly canceled a town hall meeting to address the fallout from an anti-diversity memo, but CEO Sundar Pichai made his feelings on the matter known  that evening at an event honoring girl coders from around the world.

"I want you know that that there's place for you in this industry, there's a place for you at Google. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You belong here and we need you," he told the coding teams who were being honored at the Technovation awards ceremony at Google's campus here.

The 12 finalist teams, all made up of young women who developed apps to solve challenges in their communities, came from Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, India, Armenia, Kenya, Canada and across the United States.