Registration & Networking
Welcome to European Women in Tech 2023!
Here you will have the opportunity to elevate your career through impactful sessions delivered by our expert speakers and expand your scope of influence by networking with other like-minded women in tech.
Pick up your badge from the Registration Desk and meet other attendees in the Exhibition Area!
Chairperson Opening
Welcome to European Women in Technology. Join us for the official opening and welcome remarks to kick-start your day with inspiration and empowerment!
Our two-day agenda is filled with expert-led sessions designed to help you learn how to start putting in the building blocks towards the future and securing your position as a futurist leader in tech and strategy.
Future-Proofing Tech Through Inclusion & Diversity
We recognise that there is an unequal representation of women in engineering and technology roles. We also recognise that we need to work harder to improve the status quo.
During conversation, we’ll explore the where we are now and how to move forward, discussing the challenges and triumphs they faced as they stepped into roles of greater influence and exchange ideas on how to catalyse a shift in the way we think about inclusion and diversity
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to create far-reaching impact on both local and global societies, to lead lasting improvements in our products and technology
- Learn how inclusion & diversity can radically change our future in today’s quickly changing world of technology
How To Attract Talent During The Greatest Tech Revolution Ever
As more and more employers and employees are confronted with hiring challenges, we’ll hear a honest and personal view from a CEO of a company that is accelerating the energy transition.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Smart recruitment is crucial when fishing from a small pond
- Creating an inclusive environment cuts both ways
- Technology mastership is key for a future license to operate
The Digital Symphony: Orchestrating End-to-End Business Transformation
Consumers everywhere expect new engagement models from the brands and seamless experience across all touchpoints. Inner organisations seek for solutions that are easy to use, with data at their fingertips. Digitalisation plays pivotal role to shape the future of the industries and transform businesses to win the hearts of consumers and own employees, to enhance agility and competitiveness.
At HEINEKEN we shape the future of beer and beyond driving value creation for our consumers, customers and employees, looking outside, experimenting at scale, accelerating our digital transformation towards our dream of Becoming the Best Connected Brewer.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Learn on what it takes to onboard traditional organisation into digital transformation journey
- Reflect upon key dualities of digital transformations: adoption of new technologies vs maintaining legacy systems, standardisation and control vs customisation and flexibility to innovate
- Learn on what it takes to re-imagine a business enabled by technology and powered by a data driven culture
How To Outcompete In The Age Of Digital And AI
With the rapid acceleration of (Gen)AI, quantum computing, climate tech, and more, the demand for understanding the true value of digital transformation continues to rise. But how do you separate the hype from the proven playbook for technology-enabled growth?
New technologies will continue to disrupt. The job of executives is how to deliver value out of disruption for all their stakeholders and success will depend on how well a business can rewire itself to take advantage of it. This session will transform your understanding of what you need to know and how to get it done.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to align and focus the executive team’s energy on where the value is
- How to build a tech talent bench equipped and empowered to succeed
- Learn how to Adopt an operating model in which teams can innovate
- Explore how to scale digital and AI across the entire enterprise
Networking Break
Connect with attendees and share your thoughts on the first sessions of the day!
Revolutionising How You Plan Your Own Career Journey
Research tells us that we typically spend 90,000 hours of your life at work. That’s over 10 years when you work it out concurrently, making it vital that we make the right career decisions.
Life, roles and skills requirements change so rapidly that career plans can be outdated even before they are written. To meet these many changes we need to start to adapt our approach and focus from career planning to opportunity readiness.
Within this workshop will explore where you want to take your careers to and most importantly how you can you be in the best shape to optimise on opportunities when they come your way.
Within this workshop, you’ll analyse:
- Who you are
- Where you want to be
- What is your first step to get there
- What’s your career story starting today?
At the end of the session you will walk away with clear insights, tools and the next steps to build your opportunity readiness plan.
Inclusion As A Tool For Innovation
Discover how to turn inclusion into a powerful tool to create a psychologically safe work environment and therefore promote innovation within teams.
How do you build inclusive leadership in times of change, uncertainty, and loss? As organisations navigate complexity, diversity is a strategic advantage and inclusion might be the key to empowering innovation. We’ll explore the importance of creating a safe space for everyone to thrive and find belonging
Session Key Takeaways:
- Discover the keys to building a safe space within your team
- How to role-model inclusive behaviors
- Learn and practice tools to apply inclusivity to your own contexts and your individual approach
This session is for you if… you want to develop your own approach to inclusive leadership, create an inclusive work experience, and acknowledge the challenges of fostering it.
The Power Of Healthy Tension: A Conversation Between Product And Design
A good product and design relationship is critical to building successful products. Healthy tension is a key part of this relationship – but how do we maintain the healthy part? This session will walk you through common challenges, pitfalls and how to avoid them. This will be illustrated with real-world examples of where we’ve built incredible relationships and where it’s gone wrong. We will explore these from both the perspectives of Product Managers and Product Designers to give you deep insight into the key challenges.
As people come and go from companies, we have to constantly build and rebuild these new relationships fast. This workshop will provide practical information about how to overcome common challenges, or better yet, avoid them from day one.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to build better Design and Product collaboration
- Who owns what?
- Leaning into healthy tension for better product outcomes
This session is for you if…
- You’re interested in organisational psychology and building healthy working relationships
- You work in a tech team
- You work in Design or Product Management
Contract Testing Workshop With Pact
Explore the fundamentals of contract testing, delving into the use of Pact and examining a range of real-world examples. Equip yourself with the expertise needed to effectively apply contract testing in your projects, ensuring a more seamless and efficient development process.
In this engaging and interactive workshop, you’ll acquire valuable, practical skills for implementing contract testing in your microservices-based projects. Contract testing is a crucial practice for teams developing software with a microservices architecture, as it guarantees service compatibility, enhances quality, fosters collaboration, and conserves time and resources.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understand the benefits of contract testing
- Learn how to use Pact for contract testing
- Learn how the Pact broker can improve collaboration
This session is for you if…you are a software developer or tester who wants to improve the quality and reliability of your software.
EQ For Work/Life Harmony
Achieving professional success goes beyond just IQ and technical expertise. Studies have revealed that emotional intelligence (EQ) plays a significant role in determining long-term accomplishments. EQ encompasses staying composed under stress, demonstrating resilience during challenges, maintaining a positive attitude, and being in tune with others’ emotions.
Join us for this workshop, where you will learn how to enhance your EQ to foster a balanced work/life equilibrium. The session will feature self-reflection exercises, community interaction, and various EQ development strategies.
How To Embed Digital Ethics And Responsible AI Frameworks Into Your Work
Don’t miss out on this essential workshop where we’ll introduce you to the knowledge and tools needed to embed digital trust and responsible AI frameworks into your work. Explore the key principles of responsible innovation and gain practical insights on integrating them into your tech projects. Discover how you can shape an ethical future and make a positive impact while navigating the evolving landscape of technology and AI.
When Data Becomes A Product
As data is seen more and more as a product we need to focus on the data supply chain, how we create higher revenue, gain competitive advantages and mitigate risks. A central point to this is collaboration, which encapsulates everything from the production lines from raw data to end data product. With real time collaboration you are not only speeding things up, you also lower costs and are more efficient which goes as far as being better for the environment.
Come spend some time to better understand how easy it can be to collaborate when data becomes a product. Data does not need to be your background for this interactive session to benefit your daily activities!
This session is hands on. You will need to bring a laptop.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Learn how to take part in the Data Supply Chain
- Explore keys to access a wide range of data products in real time
- Discover how to mobilise the world’s data
This session is for you if…you are interested in the data supply chain and what is already possible.
Empowering Yourself: The Key To Building A Thriving Career
Whether you are looking for personal development seeking to advance your career, or just starting out, this session is for you! Fatima Fares, CIO for Chemicals & Products in Shell, will share practical tips and tricks on how to boost your performance based on her experiences in the IT industry. Moreover, she will share more on how consciously and unconsciously you influence your career development.
The Why: It is not all about performance and just doing a good job, it is crucial to cultivate a positive image, while gaining exposure to the right stakeholders.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Good performance is the critical foundation
- Be the leader you want to be led by and always stay true to yourself
- Be visible, network and leverage sponsorships
This session is for you if…
- You want to own your career in the most effective way
- You are looking for growth opportunities, a way to advance your career or just starting out but would appreciate some handrails on navigating the corporate world
Collaboration, Creativity & Connection: Bringing To Work What AI Cannot
According to the World Economic Forum, 1.1 billion jobs are likely to be transformed by technology in the next decade. In order to remain competitive, it’s more important than ever to be aware of the skills that are most in demand as well as identify the best ways to leverage technology to empower and future-proof your teams.
With the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, we’re witnessing a significant shift in the types of skills that are most in demand for today’s hybrid, distributed workplace. To stay ahead, it’s essential to understand how you can differentiate and future-proof yourself and your team members by developing in-demand skills, like problem solving, collaboration, and adaptability, as well as knowing the ways you can amplify those skills within your team by implementing the right technologies and recognising the ways your team members work best.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Review what skills currently are and will be most in demand over the coming years for individuals and teams to remain competitive
- Understand how advanced technologies can amplify skills for both individuals and teams
- Discuss practical ways to promote inclusion, innovation, creativity and agility within your teams by understanding their work styles and leveraging technology
This session is for you if…
- You’re wanting concrete ways to progress and future-proof your career
- You’re looking for innovative ways to leverage technology at work
Empowering Women In Tech: Challenges, Opportunities, And Strategies For Success
Women in leadership roles in the tech industry face both opportunities and challenges. However, research suggests that a diverse workforce can drive innovation and success in the tech industry.
To overcome these challenges and achieve leadership positions, women in tech must be prepared to navigate personal and institutional biases and understand how they can make the best of the opportunities that are offered to them.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Discover best practices for communication and navigating challenging situations
- Discover new ways of working in tech, including the importance of being flexible and adaptable
- How to be a leader vs individual contributor and learn how to overcome biases
- How to organise your support system in your career journey and to help others. Better is good, be kind to yourself!
Secure Your Hybrid/Multi-Cloud Environment With These Achievable Steps
As organisations rapidly adopt hybrid and multi-cloud environments, they must consider the unique security challenges associated with this digital evolution. Discover the basic steps required to secure your hybrid and multi-cloud environment effectively, with the investments you have likely already made.
Attend this session to gain an understanding of the security challenges associated with hybrid and multi-cloud environments and to explore practical and achievable strategies for securing these cloud environments effectively. Plus actionable insights on the essential security controls and best practices required to protect your organisation from potential cyber threats.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Gain insight into the essential security controls and best practises required to secure your hybrid and multi-cloud environments effectively
- Understand the importance of continuous monitoring and risk assessments within the cloud
- Understand the unique security challenges associated with hybrid and multi-cloud environments and practical strategies to overcome these challenges
This session is for you if… you are looking to gain practical insights into securing your hybrid and multi-cloud environments. It is also suitable for IT professionals who are involved in cloud migrations and those interested to learn about the security challenges associated with hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Building A Blueprint For Hiring Tomorrow’s Tech Talent
Join us for a fireside chat with Nike and the CEO of Code First Girls as we explore their blueprint for hiring tomorrow’s tech talent. Discover how Nike responds to global talent trends, attracts tech talent in the retail industry, retains and grows their top performers and promotes diversity to positively impact transformational change. Don’t miss out on learning from two of the industry’s leading experts on attracting and developing the best tech talent.
AI Everywhere: Leveraging Data For A Unified Fintech Solution
Uncover the transformative power of AI in fintech: Gain a deep understanding of how vast amount of data can be used to solve problems, enhance decision making processes, improve merchant experience and streamline internal operations. In addition, take a peek into real world applications/examples of AI in the fintech domain and understand the challenges and ethical considerations associated with AI adoption in Fintech.
This session brings to you an overview of the transformative potential of AI in the financial technology sector. Digitisation is everywhere in financial services – this makes available vast amounts of data – paving way for both challenges and opportunities. This session will delve into harnessing this potential of data to develop fintech solutions as a one stop shop by integrating AI technologies across different sectors of financial services – banking, payments, risk assessment, credit risk and anti money laundering efforts at scale.
Session Key Takeaways:
- The power of data and AI in the fintech landscape, i.e. how AI is revolutionising the current industry at a fast pace
- the attendees will also gain an insight into how the solutions are implemented at scale
- the challenges faced by the different players in the industry, both in banking and technology
This session is for you if…
- You are a fintech professional working in payments, risk, banking, compliance this will give you a chance to look at a real life example of AI being leveraged in the industry
- You are a data scientist/AI practitioner, the talk will gloss over the different technologies being implemented and researched at adyen
- It is also meant for technology or fintech enthusiasts who want to know what the industry is up to
What’s Next For IT & How Do We Lead Into The Future
The business landscape has shifted dramatically in the last 3 years. In a world where nothing is the same, has the moment come for a new way to think about IT and how it enables business outcomes? During this session, Christine will explore a future in which the ability to choreograph technology will be more important than our ability to code it.
Much of the last few years has been a fight for survival. Amidst the need to accelerate delivery and cut costs, we haven’t dared to let ourselves dream. As the time comes to think about rebuilding, we have a real opportunity to do things differently. And to take the lead in defining and developing areas of IT that were immature or simply didn’t exist before.
Session Key Takeaways:
- What changes if we start to think about IT as a product instead of as a service? With a much greater acceptance amongst businesses of standardised platforms, where can we truly add value?
- How can we spark our own creativity and start looking outside the traditional spaces to find people with imagination and curiosity who can challenge and expand our thinking? By accessing a more diverse pool of talent and respecting real world experience as much as technical certifications, we can explore the real power of technology to do more for both the businesses we work with and for society as a whole
- How do we open a more fruitful dialogue with our peers and business leaders about how IT can contribute to longer-term business success and potentially bridge the perceived digital skills gap in a different way?
This session is for you if…you like to ask, ‘What would happen if…?’ This is a rare opportunity to revisit what drove you to pursue a career in technology in the first place and come together with your peers to think about how we recapture that magic.
How To Create An Impactful Engineering Team By Pushing Back The Barriers Of Tech Recruiting
Recruiting tech profiles is increasingly complicated given the growing demand, the expectations of candidates, the increasing competition, and the difficulty of finding suitable profiles with the right skills.
Whether you are a recruiter or a recruit, discover insight into how a company can adapt to the new societal context, what you can expect from an agile and flexible company, and the importance of diversity of profiles within the same R&D team.
During this dynamic conversation between two developers. you’ll discover how to navigate trends in recruitment, adapt to societal changes, new market expectations and how to demonstrate flexibility by blurring the boundaries around tech recruitment. Through best practices, learning, and feedback, you will discover how to build an impactful engineering team despite an evolving and uncertain context.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Discover best practices for recruiting tech profiles in the new societal context
- Explore the advantages of working in an agile and flexible company that values its Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity policy
- Learn the importance of diversifying the backgrounds of tech profiles within the same team to make it impactful – diversity always means richness
The Dangers of Succumbing to Cognitive Biases in Cyber Security
Cognitive biases are everywhere, and have the power to derail working practices. At every turn, cognitive biases can hinder and distract cyber security teams and their strategies away from the key risks and threats likely to catastrophically damage their network environments, in favour of new headline-making attack techniques or vulnerabilities which may never be used against their organisation.
In this presentation, Hanah Darley will provide a brief introduction to cognitive biases and discuss the implications within cyber security for leaving those biases unchecked, as well as identifying key mitigations for cognitive biases and discussing the growing role that technology is playing in augmenting human analysis and security strategies.
The Rise Of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) already seems to be taking over the world with its various applications, ranging from healthcare to robotics and computer vision; from data centres, through edge accelerators to endpoint devices and from smart virtual assistants and self-driving cars to checkout-free grocery shopping.
With the large-scale research and development being carried out, the AI landscape is constantly evolving, and we are already using many different forms of it in our everyday life, e.g., signing into a website and interacting with virtual assistants.
Session Key Takeaways:
- AI in smart devices
- AI in travel and transportation
- AI in climate control
This session is for you if…you want to understand the role and impact of AI in everyday life including devices and vehicles, as well as how it can tackle climate change and environmental challenges.
Self-Compassion: The Step To Building Truly Inclusive Workplaces Part 1
Although the world is rapidly changing, the big radical change is still to come. Current work structures evolved from outdated, low-tech, exploitative systems, and simply do not meet the needs of today’s workplaces nor take us where we want to go. The coming change is radical, yet is a return to a more natural and humane way of working together to produce greatness. Let’s tap into our collective intelligence, let’s build and co-create, instead of exploit. And it all starts with self-compassion.
Does it still feel like no matter what you and your organisation do to be more inclusive and to benefit more from diversity, nothing really changes? The change we are dreaming about is RADICAL, and it requires adequate actions/solutions. In this fully interactive and experiential workshop, you will learn and explore the new possibilities that are accessible when you communicate and connect with others from the place of self-compassion. It’s transformative, fun and your name will be spoken a lot.
Session Key Takeaways:
- The change you are longing for starts in you. This technique makes it easy not to forget about it
- The way you communicate and connect with others has an impact on the whole team dynamic. With this self-compassion technique you can reduce stress, performance anxiety, and burnouts, making your team/s holistically healthier
- The technique to stay connected with your team/s and navigate with ease through the rapid changes
This session is for you if…
- You are a leader, manager or HR-professional looking for better tools to support your people
- You are a change maker, an advocate for equity and diversity looking to create greater impact
- You want to transform your business and stay ahead of the competition
- You believe in the workplace that is built on talents, respecting boundaries instead of exploiting individuals
Powerful Storytelling: Presenting Technical Ideas In A Highly Relatable Way
Stories are a game changer in business! Often people fail to understand technical concepts and proposals because they can’t relate to them. Stories can breathe life into abstract ideas and create real change in attitudes and behaviour.
In this workshop you will find out why stories are so powerful and how they work their magic. And you will create a compelling story of your own that can be put to immediate use in a business setting.
All you need is an open mind, a creative imagination and a willingness to experiment with new ways to communicate your ideas.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understanding of how stories work and the ingredients of an effective story
- A flexible framework to give your story structure and shape
- An opportunity to create and practise delivering your own story
Building Modern Data Architecture To Drive Innovation
The growth of cloud technologies and the increasing adoption of public cloud solutions have revolutionised the way organisations manage and process data. In today’s fast-paced business world, companies must be able to leverage the latest data architecture technologies to stay ahead of the competition and meet their customers’ data needs. So, what does a modern-day data architecture look like, and how do you set it up?
Join our workshop to discover the basics of data management, including data storage and retrieval, data processing, and data analysis. You’ll learn how Microsoft Azure can help organisations build scalable, secure, and reliable data systems.
During the workshop, you’ll dive into the latest technologies and best practices for building a modern data architecture, including serverless and dedicates SQL polls, data lakes, delta lakes, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Synapse Analytics. This is a great opportunity to learn how to design and implement data pipelines, store and retrieve data in Azure, process and analyse data in real-time, and how to use Azure to build a data-driven application.
The Why: In today’s business world, a modern data architecture is critical to staying competitive and meeting customers’ data needs. This workshop equips attendees with the knowledge and skills needed to build a modern data architecture using Microsoft Azure, allowing organisations to build scalable, secure, and reliable data systems that provide valuable insights and improve business performance.
Session Key Takeaways:
- The workshop will provide attendees with an in-depth understanding of the latest data architecture technologies and best practices for building a modern data architecture using Microsoft Azure
- Participants will learn how to design and implement data pipelines, store and retrieve data, process and analyse data in real-time, and build data-driven applications that can provide valuable insights to improve business performance
- Attendees will gain practical knowledge and skills that they can apply to real-world scenarios, including how to optimise data workflows using serverless and dedicated SQL pools, manage data lakes and delta lakes, use Azure Data Factory for data integration, and utilise Azure Synapse Analytics for big data analytics and reporting
This session is for you if… you are looking to improve your knowledge and skills in modern data architecture technologies and best practices. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional, this workshop will provide you with practical insights and hands-on experience to build scalable, secure, and reliable data systems using Microsoft Azure.
Navigating Career Paths: How To Build A Sustainable Career
Research findings highlight that women often hesitate to apply for new positions if they do not fullfill all the criteria. This is particularly noticeable in the tech industry, where female representation is markedly low and declines further at higher organisational levels. To counter this, it is critical to disrupt the norms and craft inventive strategies to promote women’s growth and development.
In this interactive session, we will delve into the intricacies of career progression, examining both conventional and unconventional pathways. We will also engage in fruitful discussions on the challenges and prospects of career development in an ever-evolving world. This will provide a roadmap on how to make audacious choices regarding your career trajectory and devise a plan for continuous professional growth.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Explore both mainstream and alternative career pathways.
- Design a bold career plan for you next move
- Master different approaches to steer your career development journey.
This session is for you if…
- You are enthusiastic about confronting new challenges
- You are intrigued by the idea of charting their career growth in an unorthodox manner
- You are eager to experience an enjoyable and inspiring session
Navigating The Innovation Maze: Balancing Teamwork And Stakeholder Expectations
In territories where well-laid blueprints have been replaced by uncertainty, effectively managing the balance between team exploration and execution versus stakeholder buy-in and expectations becomes the engine for propelling products forward. In this session, we’ll talk about practical approaches and processes to help early adopters turn ideas into reality in business contexts.
There are many obstacles on the road to getting cutting edge technology implemented in real world settings, this maybe the understatement of the decade. Nobody has it all figured out, yet everybody fears they’re falling behind. For those that have braved the journey and are close to shipping, still the risk of overpromising and under delivering looms large.
Effective Communication: Mastering Constructive Feedback
Deep dive into the science and art of feedback. We will focus on how effective feedback can act as a catalyst for empowerment and growth within your team and the tech industry.
You’ll explore a broad spectrum of strategies for offering impactful feedback to diverse audiences, from peers and direct reports to managers. The session will encompass key elements such as defining scope, comprehending the audience, and identifying personal biases.
This session is for you if…you are a professional who provides feedback in any capacity, making it a must-attend for those looking to foster a nurturing, growth-oriented environment.
Disrupt or Be Disrupted: Embracing Change to Thrive in the New Frontiers of Technology
In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business world, companies are being forced to adapt to the latest technological advancements to remain competitive.The shift from traditional to tech-first companies is not only necessary, but also inevitable.
In this session, we will explore the challenges and opportunities that arise when embracing the new frontiers of technology. Through real-world examples, we will examine the benefits of becoming a tech-first company, including increased efficiency, enhanced customer experiences, and greater agility in responding to market demands.
Join us for an inspiring and informative session about the next frontiers of the technological advancements that help us shape the future.
The Why:
- To acknowledge that technology advances at a very fast pace – to remain competitive there is no other option but to embrace change.
- To be inspired about how new technologies can shape new value propositions for digital health.
- To learn that technology is not the only component needed to succeed in the future; it’s equally important to find the value propositions that solve our customer needs and are compelling for our organizations.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to leverage frontier technologies to be at the forefront of change
- How new technologies are accelerating our drug discovery processes today and providing new value propositions to customers.
- How to leverage the power of data and usage of digital means to enhance products.
This session is for you if …
- You are a new technology enthusiasts
- You are a women in tech
- You are a subject matter experts (software engineers, data scientists, researchers…)
- You are a business leader
From Engineering Manager To Director: What Does It Take?
Becoming a people manager often happens as a natural progression, but too often we are stepping into the role not knowing what to expect or understanding the trade offs.
As we climb the ladder, the fuzzier the role and responsibilities become, whilst this leaves room to define your own role it can create confusion when successfully transitioning from an engineering manager to a director.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to manage Managers Vs Individual contributors
- Discover how being a good engineering manager is different than being a good director
- Understand the core and unique set of responsibilities
How Technology Is Enabling Inclusive Product Development
Raising awareness of the interconnection among technology, inclusivity, and UX research is essential for designing products and services. As technological tools have become more accessible to users of all genders, it has become increasingly important to integrate UX research into the development of new digital products and services. In order to be inclusive, UX researchers must systematically consider diverse audiences, taking into account factors such as gender, technology literacy, cultural background, origin, and accessibility.
Today, we can really see how technological evolution has changed the life of researchers (from carrying heavy equipment such as video cameras, tripods or running sessions in labs full of cables to now conducting sessions remotely on any devices with end-users from all over the world). Although the evolution of technology has made it easier to conduct UX research, this can also lead to a lack of context in the data collected. As a result, there is a need for future tools (such as AI or virtual reality) to provide deeper insights into user experiences.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Technology has improved and can facilitate inclusivity in product development.
- There is a growing awareness of the importance of inclusivity in creating products and services.
- UX research is crucial in promoting inclusivity in product development.
This sessions is for you if.. you are a Product manager, Developers, everyone involved in developing digital product of services.
Blockchain And Crypto Exchange As A Gateway
In an era of digital disruption, understanding blockchain’s impact on financial services is crucial. Join us for an insightful session on the transformative potential of blockchain technology in the financial services industry. Discover how blockchain can revolutionise various sectors of financial services and explore the key advantages of blockchain, including auditability, transparency, fast settlements, and reduced transaction costs. Additionally, we will delve into the exciting challenges faced by cryptocurrency exchanges, serving as gateways to unleash the possibilities of blockchain technology. Discover how to leverage blockchain’s potential, and to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry.
Session Key Takeaways:
- The benefits of blockchain technology have a transformative potential to financial services
- Understanding how to leverage the main advantages of blockchain technology, such as auditability, transparency, instant settlements, and reduced transaction costs
- Insights into the different components of a Crypto Exchange and what factors to consider while choosing one
This session is perfect for you if…
- You are seeking to understand the transformative potential of blockchain technology
- You are looking to explore new opportunities and gain a competitive edge in the evolving landscape of finance
- You are curious about how Crypto Exchange serves as a gateway to unleash the possibilities of blockchain technology and what factors to consider while choosing one
ChatGPT, OpenAI, Bard…Could An Artificial General Intelligence Be Created? Should We Be Worried, Excited Or Both?
We will present an overview of the latest uses of GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) models and we’ll discuss the fears and excitement created by artificial general intelligence (AGI) – an emerging field of AI research that aims to create machines capable of human-like intelligence . We’ll discuss how the technology is used in various industries, and we will clarify both the capabilities and limitations of this technology. In addition, we will delve into the potential impact of this emerging trend on society and ethics, and its implications for the future of humanity. All sparkled with some demos!
Session Key Takeaways:
- Good understanding of what do we mean by AGI? Where does ChatGPT and Large Language Models fit in AGI?
- Awareness of what are the capabilities and limitations of such AI models. What are the ethical implications on bias, privacy, and accountability?
- Spark your creative side, making you think how can this AI be used in your world?
This session is for you if…you are curious/interested on future tech trends.
Generative AI: The New Industrial Revolution?
As more generative AI tools are developed and layered into existing software packages and technology platforms, we’ve learned that there are several different use cases available—each with unique strengths and characteristics. Generative AI has the potential to change the shape of our workforce, and this type of transformation will require us to think differently about the skills needed for roles we have yet to define.
Generative AI (Gen AI) is a type of AI that can create new content and ideas, including conversations, stories, images, videos, and music. This extraordinary technology enables us to reimagine what’s possible, not only for individuals and businesses, but every aspect of life. Gen AI has the potential to have a tremendous influence on the world as we know it.
This session, led by Melanie McGrory will discuss how we can adapt to these developments and more. The session is perfect if you want to reimagine the future with Generative AI, consider the impact this will have on the way we work, and understand what we need to do to support the generation of people that will follow us.
Impact Investing Landscape In Europe
Full session details coming soon…
Digital Transformation: What’s New?
Transformation is more than just digitalisation. Technology will deliver what you want it to deliver but crucial is the mindset and organisation shift which is very often underestimated when embarking on a big change.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Transformation is about people, process, technology and everything in between
- How to manage the clarity of impact, empowerment of your people and knowledge of your data.
- How to master the “dance” of constant change – the why, the what and the how?
This session is for you if…you are someone who is is managing or working on an organisational transformation journey, or just wondering what’s missing.
Why Should You Scale Bottom-Up In Your Organization?
We all have been through company reorganisations, probably more than once. Some are understandable and produce good outcomes, others aren’t, creating insecurities, lack of confidence in leadership, unnecessary changes, and even more complex paths of communication or decision-making. What is the difference, then?
Team-first thinking and the importance of well-defined boundaries to balance cognitive load within the teams is an important matter to consider: it directly fosters teams’ independence and minimising the overhead of communication, enhancing faster decision-making and increasing the quality and throughput of delivery.
Is there a well-proven way of scaling or changing the current landscape of company organisations? In this session we’ll explore Conway’s Law and the importance of team landscape and interactions, supported by an actual study case in the industry, and how well-designed teams charts can improve independence, autonomy, and motivation of the teams, leading to a faster and better rate and quality of delivery.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to scale organisations based on the interactions patterns
- Exploring the importance of a clear architectural strategy to a clear team topology landscape
- How to improve productivity with “fast flow”
This session is for you if… you influence the scaling processes of your company at any level or if you are interested in understanding the importance of having effective and efficient teams within your company.
The Future of Work: What Now?
The end of remote working and ‘the great return?’ Is progress on flexibility, employee well-being and skills development at risk due to cost pressures and a challenging recession? Or has the workplace been so entirely reshaped that a return to pre-pandemic ways is impossible?
We are in the midst of one of the most significant transformations in the modern work era. One that will require all of us to rethink, reskill, and reconnect. If we do it right, this period could be remembered as the human transformation of the workplace.
Leading Through Uncertainty With Authenticity To Deliver Business Goals & Employee Happiness
Whether you’re just starting up or in the midst of scaling a global team, this session will give you everything you need to know about keeping employees happy, while delivering the bottom line.
In this session Eve will share her experience and key lessons learned at the helm of Uber’s European delivery business during the post-pandemic ‘boom’ and ‘bust’ cycles. This will include topics such as balancing bottom line targets with ambitious growth plans; successfully managing global reorganisations, locally; and building meaningful connections at scale.
Session Key Takeaways:
- The importance of seeing the forest and the trees and why knowing the details that matter is critical to delivering the bigger picture
- Building with heart and maximising your impact by putting yourself in the shoes of the people who use your products
- Great minds don’t think alike -why embracing diversity is fundamental to building a global and profitable business
How to Build a Personal Brand For Your Tech Career
Carolyn will be exploring the ways in which you can utilise personal branding, taking instant action to show up authentically and with confidence in a male dominated industry. The session will deep dive into the importance of authenticity and active cultivation of your personal brand to help you to stop holding back.
Full session details coming soon…
How To Design Digital Solutions For A Sustainable Future
We would like to welcome you to our hands-on and informative workshop, tailored for technologists and product experts, where we offer you insights in how we work from ideation phase to solutions.
We help our clients to accelerate sustainable inclusive growth. The type of growth that provides opportunities for the people that need them and leaves a lasting, positive impact on the world around us.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Practical use of the Leap methodology to show how we bring different technology and strategic expertise together to build and scale new businesses
- Experience the value of working in diverse teams, learn how we work together and get a flavor of the kind of work we do at McKinsey Digital
- You will work on a real client case and get tips and support of McKinsey experts on site. You get an understanding of the meaningful technology work we do for clients and how we achieve impact
Session Activities:
- Just like in our day-to-day work, we will bring together a diverse and cross-functional team of event attendees, to work on a challenging and real-life client case
- We give you the context to work on this challenge, and you will receive valuable tips and coaching along the way
- We will bring your suggestions and conclusions back to the group and you will have the learnings and outcomes of the session available to you
This session is for you if…you are interested to learn more about how McKinsey Digital works, and you are curious about building and scaling new and sustainable businesses with the McKinsey Leap methodology.
Unlocking The Power Of Citizen Developers: A Blueprint For Successful Intelligent Automation
The future of work is now and automation has become a critical component of the enterprise digital transformation strategies. All organisations are placing ‘automation first’ initiatives on their lists of strategic imperatives. Why not get a head start into this new innovation era and future-proof your workforce or yourself?
We are at the start of a new era, the Automation Citizen Developers era. This turning point came as a natural consequence due to limited resources in IT or data science which led to limited scope and pace for Intelligent Automation opportunities. Gartner is predicting that by 2025 the number of citizen developers across large enterprises will be at least four times higher than the professional developers.
This workshop will take a deep dive into key components to consider to run across your organisation a successful Citizen Development program aligned to your automation objectives and to your business strategy: innovation as a culture, change management, digital literacy, process improvement, technology stack, governance model and overall organisation.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Come away with a Citizen Automation Governance model focused on people, process and technology
- A Master plan for up-skilling yourself or your employees or to reduce the learning curve and time-to-value
- An Automation First Mindset roadmap to shrink digital skills gap, scale with confidence and maximize success
This session is for you if…
- You are interested in how to build a digital mindset
- For all people who are passionate about innovation and who wants to understand how to practically implement an automation-first approach and to become/to train citizen developers within their organisation
The Hackers Guide To Kubernetes
Do you want to see live Kubernetes hacking? Within this interactive demo, you’ll experience your newly registered accounts in a k8s application get hijacked.
Within this session you’ll walk through various security risk of Kubernetes, focusing on OWASP Kubernetes Top 10 list, highlighting how to exploit a range of vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in your k8s clusters, attacking containers, pods, network, or k8s components, leading to an ultimate compromise of user accounts in an exemplary web application.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understand the how to avoid common mistakes and vulnerabilities
- Discover best practices for hardening your Kubernetes system
- Discover how to navigate container security
How To Deploy Big Data Driven Decision Making In Large Organisations
As the capabilities of big data and machine learning expand, effectively deploying data insights within large organizations demands a strategic approach that seamlessly combines technical expertise with people skills. The challenge lies in fostering the adoption of insights generated by advanced data models among non-technical individuals.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Mastering the art of translating commercial questions into data-driven inquiries is essential
- Identifying the most suitable deployment strategy for diverse audiences is crucial
- Restoring lost trust in data can be an arduous task, emphasizing the importance of accuracy and reliability
This session is for you if…you are looking to successfully deploy data models across various teams within your organisation.
Responsible AI: Get Inspired To Use Digital Ethics By Design
Technology may seem neutral, but this is far from the truth. When technology like AI is used for decision making, this could be problematic since, as we know, AI systems can contain bias and generate discriminatory output. For successful deployment of AI, it is key to maintain trust from stakeholders like consumers, regulators and society as a whole.
In this session we will discuss the risks of decision making AI and how to integrate digital ethics by design for ensuring responsible AI.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Keeping human bias out of AI is not easy, but it is essential and possible
- Digital ethics by design is a key method for responsible deployment of AI
- Embedding digital ethics in your business processes increases both the value of the deployed AI as the trust in your organisation
This session is for you if…
- Your company is developing or using AI
- You are interested in responsible AI and digital ethics by design
Life After Layoffs: Reenergising After Large Scale Lay Offs
Last year, almost 100,000 people across the tech industry got laid off, amounting to the highest number of job cuts since the dot-com crash in 1995.
The personal impact of being laid off cannot be underestimated. Equally, large-scale layoffs also have a profound impact on organisations. From rebuilding one’s self-esteem and a finding a new job in an overcrowded and fractured industry, to the morale and productivity of remaining employees or the best ways to attract top talent, there is much that individuals and organisations can learn from the so-called layoff contagion.
In this workshop, we will hear from an ex-tech employee who was laid off, someone who had the burden of laying off staff, as well as experts who understand the intricacies of organisational restructuring. Our panel will share their personal experiences and lessons learnt and explore strategies those that have been laid off can use to thrive, as well as practical strategies to unlock the untapped potential within the organisation post-layoff, providing recommendations for rebuilding trust, boosting morale, and enhancing brand value. Because all our experts believe that, which ever perspective you take: there is life after lay-offs.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to regain your self-confidence and thrive again after being laid off
- The impact of large-scale layoffs on remaining employees and the organisation
- Strategies to boost morale and refocus an organisation after large-scale layoffs
- Brand and reputation management communicate and engage with employees during and post-layoff
This session is for you if…
- You have been laid off and want to hear from someone who has been through it
- Your organisation has made cuts and you want to discuss how to reenergise employees or reshape your EVP to remain relevant and authentic
Cloud Skills: Demystifying Google BigQuery
For non-practitioners, understanding BigQuery from a practitioners standpoint will help you understand the possibilities of, and the potential requirements you may need when selecting a DWH solution and a future proof data strategy. It also helps you find your way when you want to start using MachineLearning in your company in an easy and accessible manner. If you would have to pick only one Google Cloud tool to learn more about, then BigQuery should be it
BigQuery is at the heart of Google Cloud’s Data solutions. If you are looking to understand what Google Cloud’s data solutions are all about, starting to understand BigQuery is a key skill to set you up for success. BigQuery a data warehouse solution which you can use for the analysis of (both small and big) data, but also to set up Machine Learning models quickly and easily. It is suitable for any user, no matter if your business is small or big. This is a foundational level workshop for BigQuery, and includes a hands-on lab that sets you up for using BigQuery and move to using BigQuery ML afterwards.
Prerequisites: for the practical part of this session you need a laptop and an active Google account you can sign in with.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Why BigQuery is key in your data strategy
- How to use BigQuery
- What BQML helps you do and how to get started
This session is for you if…
- You want to know more about Google Cloud
- You want to understand the strategic importance of BigQuery
- You are looking for a data warehouse solution that is secure, fast, accessible and cost-efficient
- You are looking to become a practitioner in BigQuery
- If you want to get started with Machine Learning in an easy way
Mastering Public Speaking In Tech
Public speaking is much like being the gazelle being watched by a group of hungry lions. Many women avoid it or dismiss it as a career out of an understandable fear of being eaten! We struggle with thoughts of sharing our knowledge and experiences in public forums because we think we’re not technical enough, or smart enough, or that our thoughts and experiences are not interesting enough.
Public speaking brings us great career benefits and helps us stand out as experts in a field where women remain underrepresented. In this session, we’ll work together to share our experiences and debunk the many fears we have about public speaking and the myths associated with presenter style, particularly within the tech industry. You will also have the opportunity to build your own plan and resource guide to improve your public speaking skills and build the courage to take to the stage to share the emerging technologies used in this radically changing world.
Women and minorities remain underrepresented in the speaker lineups for many of the tech conferences and meetups we attend as professionals. This lack of visible role models impacts the composition of the sector that we want to make equal. The ideas and experiences conveyed in these conferences also impact the future technologies we build in this ever-changing world. Voicing the experiences and knowledge of underrepresented groups increases the diversity of thought in building inclusive technology that represents and supports everyone in society.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Debunking the myths surrounding public speaking, including that it is a character attribute you naturally have rather than a practised skill that you too can learn, enjoy and benefit from in your career
- Personal techniques to handle the fear of speaking
- Construction of your own resources and plan to build on your public speaking skills
This session is for you if…you are anxious or fearful when undertaking public speaking today, or believes that public speaking is not relevant or beneficial to their current career path.
How To Prepare Yourself For Big Career Decisions
You’ve reached a career inflection point, now what? It could be a promotion opportunity or a career pivot, we have all faced situations that create shifts in our careers and lives but how do we take the fear out of big decisions?
As we move through our career trajectory, linear or not we experience feelings of ambivalence and feel torn over decisons. Within this session we’ll discuss how to embrace those feelings, prepare ourselves for tough decisions and ultimately gain the ability to point ourselves in the right direction.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to embrace ambivalence when managing career inflections points
- How to manage decison making to achieve a more authentic career
- How to approach situations with the possibility of development and opportunity
Enabling A Better Map For Location Services: Overture And The TomTom Maps Platform
We all use maps in our cars, on our apps and more. Imagine what would be possible if map developers had access to the highest-quality open data? Learn how, through an open-data foundation called Overture and its fully integrated solution TomTom Maps Platform, is setting the new industry standard for mapmaking.
Maps are everywhere. We see them when we get in our car, or when we find a new place to eat. We also experience their impact in the cities we visit, the roads we drive down to avoid traffic and more. With the ever-increasing demand, the geolocation industry is on a steep growth path over the next decade. To keep up with this progress, we need to step up our map quality.
The issue is that there are so many map options out there and none of them are interoperable. You may like the search functionality from one map provider but prefer the real-time traffic information from another. Combining the two is a headache, if it’s even possible.
The dream is to have an open-data ecosystem that brings together the best features of different maps for developers to use. This is Overture. Formed by TomTom, AWS, Meta, Microsoft and ESRI, the Overture Maps Foundation is a non-profit open map data project that ensures mapmaking is easy, collaborative and of the highest quality.
But every customer has specific needs. The TomTom Maps Platform will meet these. Forming an open base map built from Overture data, the platform will build layers upon this, enabling customization and configurability of maps so any solution is possible.
Session Key Takeaways:
- What is Overture and how TomTom, Meta, AWS, Microsoft and ESRI are changing the mapmaking game
- How developers can simplify the work needed to build location-based solutions by using open data and platforms like TomTom’s
- Learn how TomTom addressed the challenges it faced in developing its Maps Platform
This session is for you if…
- You’re a map developer who faces challenges with the interoperability of map data and services
- You’re excited about the possibility of open data
- You’re actively developing location-based solutions
Don’t Dream It, Be It: How To Be Truly Diverse And Inclusive In Tech
Sometimes tech is too much about doing techie things and not enough about being human. Same goes for Diversity & Inclusion, where we often we fall in the trap of doing diverse and inclusive things, rather than being diverse and inclusive. This presentation gives you concrete steps on how to build a better, more authentic, and inclusive company culture in tech.
As a global digital hub, Miele X is here to support the Miele Group in creating and growing their digital heritage. Founded as a start-up within a large organisation, Miele X quickly grew to a large, gender-balanced team of diverse experts, with over 40 nationalities on board. HR Director Tanja Antonijevic was there from the start and will explain why her mantra ‘Don’t dream it, be it’ was crucial for building this truly diverse and inclusive team. She will do this through sharing successes, failures, and concrete actions that can help you create a better, more diverse, and inclusive tech culture.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understand the impact of a diverse and inclusive culture on team performance and the creation of solutions fit for all
- Recognise that fostering a truly diverse and inclusive culture transcends mere activities, emphasising the essence of being diverse and inclusive.
- Gain insights into ten practical strategies to incorporate greater diversity and inclusivity within your organisation.
This session is for you if…you are interested or involved in building and leading tech teams and/or creating an innovative culture within scale-ups and larger organisations.
Delivering World Class Products With Limited Resources
In today’s economic climate, consumers are expecting more from less, and reassessing their relationship with products that don’t add significant value to their lives. It’s never been more important to make the resources you have go further to create and maintain world-class digital products. Lisa Pickett, Head of App at Deliciously Ella, shares her 5 top pieces of advice for creating world-class products with finite resources.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Get familiar with failure: When used correctly, failure can help you reach the right solution quickly for maximum growth
- Speak up: Connect with your network and community as much as possible to uncover key insights and plug knowledge gaps
- Grow smartly: Know when and where to streamline resources while still maintaining product excellence
- Sweat the small stuff: How percentage point differences really can add up to big changes
- Swot up: How to look to other industries to grow your knowledge and expertise, fast
Speak With Intent: Communication In The New Era
We are in a new era of communication, from operating on a hybrid model to further integrating technology into our daily work lives, to the greater value placed on leading from a place of empathy, understanding, and trust.
As female leaders in business, how do we navigate these changes within our local organisation and cross-culturally? How does this impact the ways we communicate? Examining our evolving ways of communicating is now more important than ever to address the new frontier of work life, manage cross-cultural teams, and nurture true equality in our organisations
Told from the perspective of a business leader to other executives, aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs, Frédérique will address the value of the soft skills that are needed for clear, concise, creative communication in a cross-cultural organisation, and align how we can nurture these soft skills to collaborate best with modern technology and ways of working. Ultimately, elevating our voice as women in business and technology, and exemplifying what communications means in the modern business world.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to nurture soft communications skills is just as important to effective leadership and collaboration, as knowledge of new technology and industry
- Communication does not look or sound the same in every culture: cross-cultural understanding is critical when working at a global level
- Technology is here to support the ways we work and increase collaboration, not to replace tried and tested ways of communicating
This session is for you if… you are looking at new ways to maintain attention and concisely convey your messages in day-to-day communications in our increasingly digital world.
Tackling Humanity’s Toughest Challenges With Frontier Technologies
Sustainability has never been more important to our collective future. Whether we look at environmental or social sustainability, the challenges we face affect everyone’s personal and professional lives. Marieke will share some of her experiences and her passion for driving environmental and social sustainability and provide her insights into how individuals and teams can make a lasting and positive impact.
There are many levers that can help solve some of societies toughest challenges. Digital technologies are among the most important tools available to help society make progress. Innovation offers a great opportunity to drive sustainable growth. Sustainability is top of mind for most organisations in our industry, but there is still a gap between ambitions and what is actually done. We as organisation, teams and individuals have an opportunity and an obligation to close this gap. Closing this gap can often feel daunting. But every one of us can have a positive impact on an environmental and social level, in whatever we do. That’s the new reality, our new frontier and we can all make a difference.
Marieke will use her own experience and invite a colleague to join the discussion to discuss how we as individuals can have a lasting, positive impact on organisations, regardless of one’s title or job grade.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Innovation offers a great opportunity to drive sustainable growth.
- We all have an opportunity to make a positive impact, regardless of title or job grade
- There are concrete things I can do to make a difference personally and professionally
This session is for you if…you want to make a difference in your organisation in order to support and drive environmental and social sustainability.
Building For Two Audiences: Artists & Fans
TIDAL is a global music platform that helps artists and fans fully immerse themselves in their love of music. Join TIDAL’s Global Head of Product, Agustina Sacerdote, to learn about how she navigates the challenges of leading innovative product development for two distinct audiences within a single platform.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Learn how to build products for two different audiences at the same time and within a single platform
- Understand the complexities of introducing new technologies into an existing platform
- Learn how to embed the customer’s voice at every step of building new products from the ground up
This session is for you if...you are interested in product development and how to navigate successfully building products for two distinct audiences within one platform.
Seamless & Automated Migration From Any Integration Tool To SnapLogic
If your business has an appetite for change and a desire to do things differently on a modern infrastructure, it doesn’t have to be the nightmare you might have conjured up in your head. But, equally, transforming a supportive function into a business enabler that drives the company forward and helps you meet the increasing expectations of your customers should not be a pipe dream.
But in a digital world where every business is challenged to accelerate the pace of digital innovation, businesses need something that is hardware and software agnostic. Software has become the backbone of every company. It requires a modern infrastructure that is more flexible and agile when engineers want to change things.
By moving outdated assets to a modern infrastructure of their choice, businesses can finally free themselves from the spaghetti architecture. Of course, business enablement is not a journey you should rush and proper plan and base is a must.
Enterprises, regardless of their size, make constant efforts to speed up processes as a critical driver to their market delivery. Today, most of these enterprises strive to replace their outdated integration tools with more efficient technology. Having that in mind, employing a semi-automated migration process to a new tool is a must-have asset made possible with our accelerators for automated migration projects to the new integration tool that they bought or plan to buy.
In this session you’ll discuss the key benefits of utilising migration accelerators by explaining their architecture and the approach to the methodology of the migration process.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to approach an integration migration project
- Explore migration accelerators as a boost of any migration project
- Explore the business values behind all this (speed, cost, reduced dev effort)
This session is for you if…
- You have an integration system that you want to replace
- You are afraid of taking a migration project under your umbrella
- You want to go away from legacy
- You are planning or have a ongoing digital transformation journey
- You want to learn more about automation and integration
- You have limited budget for replacing a bottleneck integration system
Using Security Standards And Best Practices To Reinforce Your Data Security Posture
How secure are your organisation’s data and systems? Given the increasing number of cyber threats circulating today, it’s essential that you strengthen your security posture to more effectively guard against ransomware, data breaches, and other types of unwanted events.
Information security standards and best practices are all headed toward the same goal: solid and scalable systems that protect IT assets and privacy. The GDPR require you to implement measures to ensure a level of personal data security that’s “appropriate”, taking into account the risks presented by the data processing activities you are involved in.
An important step that will lead to the growing importance of privacy on an international level is about to take place this year. The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) will adopt ISO 31700 on privacy by design, a new worldwide privacy standard for consumer goods and services. The new standard provides guidelines for organisations to take into account a consumer’s privacy throughout the design, development and the rest of the product lifecycle.
There is no question then that an organisation with ISO 27001 or both ISO 27001/27701 certifications certainly has a distinct advantage when complying with the GDPR. The drawback is that many ISO 27001/27701 implementation projects take time, money, blood, sweat and tears. As with many aspects of GDPR compliance, it is ultimately a decision as to whether the long-term benefits can justify the sometimes arduous process of getting the certification based on the context and data processed by the organisation.
The Why:
- How secure are your organisation’s data and systems? Given the increasing number of cyber threats circulating today, it’s essential that you strengthen your security posture to more effectively guard against ransomware, data breaches, and other types of unwanted events
- How can international standards support your organisation’s data protection compliance requirements?
- How can we prepare practical audit checklists according to the best global standards and regulations?
Session Key Takeaways:
- Supporting your compliance obligations, such as ISO standards and GDPR
- Improving your information security and data protection posture and raising awareness throughout your organisation
- Reducing your security risks and operational costs and encouraging continuous improvement
- Boost your credibility abroad, as the ISO standard is internationally known
This session is for you if… you are a CTO, DPO, CISO, Information Security manager, Cyber Security manager, Data Protection manager, Privacy manager, GRC manager, IT Auditor, Risk Practioner.
The Modern Mom’s Guide To Career Growth And Work-Life Balance
Returning to work after parental leave can be a challenging transition for any mother. It’s a time of mixed emotions: excitement, uncertainty, and a sense of feeling like an imposter in the workplace. But as one mother’s experience shows, this journey can also be an opportunity to gain new skills and perspectives.
In this session, we’ll explore how to navigate the transition back to work as a mother. Drawing on personal experience, we’ll discuss the challenges and opportunities that come with balancing motherhood and a career. We’ll also delve into the skills that mothers acquire through their experiences, and how to leverage those skills to succeed professionally.
Join us for this inspiring workshop and discover how to turn the challenges of motherhood and career growth into opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Takeaways from my experience that you can incorporate in your career
- Personal stories from YOU about your motherhood and career journey
- An interactive session where we highlight the accomplishments from our journeys
The Art Of Failing Successfully
When you’re not afraid to fail, you become brave enough to step out of your comfort zone and go after big goals. Ultimately, mastering the art of failing successfully gives you the skills and mindset to tackle challenges in a rapidly changing world, solve problems like a boss, and achieve long-term success.
Delve into the untapped potential of failure and how it can become a catalyst for personal and professional development. Through a series of stories, hands-on exercises, and group discussions, we’ll explore strategies for reframing failure, building resilience, and leveraging lessons learned from outside experiences for workplace success.
During the workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to share your own stories of failure and learn from others in a supportive environment. We’ll discuss techniques to help you navigate through setbacks, overcome challenges, and turn failures into stepping-stones towards achieving your goals. Whether you’re a team leader, an aspiring entrepreneur, or an individual seeking personal growth, this workshop is designed to empower you with the mindset and skills necessary to fail successfully.
Walk away from this workshop equipped with a fresh perspective on failure, a newfound sense of resilience, and a plan to use your past experiences to fuel future success. Join us and unlock the power of embracing failure as a transformative force on your journey to personal and professional excellence.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Reframe failure as a learning opportunity.
- Build resilience and embrace challenges.
- Leverage personal experiences for professional growth.
This session is for you if…you are a tech industry professional, a manager or team leader, an entrepreneur or founder, or an individual seeking personal growth and development.
How To Build More Adaptable Organisations By Leading With Authenticity
We need to smash down the idea that being a leader only equates to being strong all the time and having all the answers: there are many ways to lead, and we’ll tap into our collective intelligence to help you find your own authentic expression.
If Brené Brown and Spiderman had a brainchild, that kid would probably say “with great power comes great vulnerability”. Well, to be honest, we believe it’s the other way around. Becoming aware of your vulnerability takes courage, and harnessing it is so rewarding. Embark with us on this journey to leadership and more connected teams through empathy, authenticity and efficiency.
(Yes, admittedly, we sound like your friendly Instagram self-appointed thought leaders, but we swear we are not.)
Session Key Takeaways:
- A newly-found support group you can nurture to help you grow
- Practical, actionable tips to support you as an authentic leader
- Proven tools to practice vulnerability
This session is for you if…you’re a people manager (whether seasoned or newly-minted) and struggling with the idea of being vulnerable at work, not having all the answers, fighting impostor syndrome…
Networking Break
Connect with attendees and share your thoughts on your top sessions so far and discuss your biggest takeaway from the day!
Low Code Development: Develop, Test & Innovate Quicker
Low-code No-code platforms are on the rise and at a time when an Engineer’s time is stretched, allowing engineers to develop, test and innovate quicker, reducing strain on resources. We’ll explore the undeniable benefits of adoption including, speed, code quality and security.
The growing demand for low-code no-code platforms is apparent but what is driving the demand? The digitation of processes and operations has created a surge in the need for new software applications, which outpaces the capacity of developers. Writing code is time-consuming, Discover how organisations are empowering and upskilling teams to boost workforce productivity.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Explore different types of low-code development platforms
- Learn how to create and empower agile teams with low-code development platforms
- Discover how to maximise workflows
Why Do Most AI Models Fail?
In this session, we will cut through the noise and hyperbole surrounding AI to explore its practical applications and limitations. With AI seemingly omnipresent, why do so many implementations fail, and why are countless models left unused? By sharing best practices, lessons learned, and examples of failure, attendees will gain valuable insights into the world of AI development and deployment.
The Importance: Attend this session to develop a deeper understanding of what it truly means to create and deploy AI models in a corporate environment. Learn to identify the criteria for success and recognize the most challenging aspects of the process.
Key Takeaways:
- Recognize that proof-of-concepts, while valuable, do not guarantee a successful, scalable AI solution in the real world
- Be mindful of the time and cost involved in developing high-quality AI solutions, and avoid underestimating the importance of quality data
- Stay vigilant against the hype: If an AI solution seems too good to be true, it likely is
This session is for you if… you work with data or are intrigued by the world of data and its enigmatic elements. Join us to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities and challenges in AI development and deployment.
Understanding HR To Land Your Dream Job In Tech
Are you ready to land your dream tech job? In this session, you’ll gain the insights you need to stand out in a competitive field and catch the attention of hiring managers. From crafting the perfect CV to impressing key stakeholders throughout the interview process, we’ll cover all the steps you need to take to succeed.
Lisa Brauner, brings over 15 years of HR experience to the table, and she’ll share her insider knowledge on how to truly make an impact on your potential employers. You’ll learn about the hidden stakeholders and their individual perspectives, and discover the best ways to present yourself in each stage of the application process.
So if you’re ready to take your tech career to the next level, join us for this deep dive into the secrets of landing your dream job. With Lisa’s expertise and your dedication, you’ll be on your way to success in no time!
Registration & Networking
Welcome to Day Two of European Women in Tech 2023!
We have another day filled with inspirational content and networking aimed at providing you with the tools you need to increase your technical know-how and elevate in your career!
Product Led Transformation
As a professional we read, listen and watch a lot of content that deepens our knowledge about innovation, in depth (tech) solutions and development. But how do you turn knowledge into action? Into actually executing new business opportunities and implementing exhilarating improvement while making sure you are using the power of the technology by the people implementing and engineering on it. Discover the meaning and impactful parameters that are essential to be able to make a difference.
Maite Zubiaurre will share a story about our latest big challenge to change the way we think and use technology in advertising on our platform. It is a story about being brave, the importance of female leadership, an enabling culture and developing strong, resilient teams in combination with elevating the power of tech to truly do a little better every day and make more impact.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Prove that curiosity, humbleness and diversity are essential when it comes to executing the power of tech
- Embrace that culture is the one thing that binds you as colleagues and unifies and empowers us
- Understand that Tech is about so much more then the bits and bites of the technology
This session is for you if…
- You are curious to learn about the major role that tech plays in the bol.com retail platform.
- You are passionate to learn and be inspired about how you can make a difference by being you
- You want to be inspired by the journey of a young female leader and you are curious to learn how she leads Product, now from a board position
Entrepreneurship At The Heart Of Disruptive Innovation
As IKEA celebrates its 80th birthday, we will highlight our digital journey as a furnishing retailer and explore the customer needs of the future, including the importance of Equality Diversity & Inclusion in every decision we take and meeting and fulfilling the needs and desires of our customers.
Session Key Takeaways:
- An entrepreneur mindset is the base of disruption.
- Retail future will continue to be an omnichannel future.
- Leadership is about doing the right thing, authentically, for the benefit of people and society
This session is for you if…you are an entrepreneur at heart, and you want to learn more about IKEA’s humble beginnings, and how our values continue to guide us in everything we do.
Networking Break
Connect with attendees and share your thoughts on the first sessions of the day!
How To Build A Personal Brand For Your Tech Career
Carolyn will be exploring the ways in which you can utilise personal branding, taking instant action to show up authentically and with confidence in a male dominated industry. The session will deep dive into the importance of authenticity and active cultivation of your personal brand to help you to stop holding back.
Full session details coming soon…
Enjoy Data Responsibly: Building A Cyber Resilient Organisation
Consumers want to have peace of mind about how companies manage their data. It is important that security & data privacy is well embedded in the entire company value chain.
In our workshop we will present several real-life scenarios for our audience to engage with in a fun and interactive way. They demonstrate how we build cyber security resilience within HEINEKEN and our partners. It will enable participants to see how HEINEKEN trains its employees to safeguard data and its IT (Information Technology) environment.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Importance of data with consumer in mind
- Critical data security and privacy considerations when building resilience
- Fun pressure cooker exercise that demonstrates what is it like to be in the middle of a Cyber Attack
The session is for you if…you work in Marketing, Tech, Data, Security and deal with consumer and customer data on a regular basis.
Become A Chaos Pilot & Bring Meaningful Change
Bringing transformative change in any business requires a radically different mindset, chaos pilots have that mindset and you can become one too.
Immerse yourself in a hands-on workshop on chaos piloting. Become one yourself and bring meaningful change anywhere – your business, work, and life! Learn from technology start-up founders and engineers at bp who are transforming front-line operations to make them safer and more efficient.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Who are chaos pilots, and why are they essential in any organisation?
- How can you become a chaos pilot?
- Discover the pitfalls to avoid
This session is for you if...you are starting your business, or you are looking to start a business, and/or are working on solving big, complex problems that are ambiguous and challenge the status quo.
Choose To Be Successful At Managing Change: Management Of Change De-Mystified
Research shows that approximately 69% of projects fall short of their objectives, frequently due to inadequate management of change dynamics. This calls for proactive action, and indeed, it is possible to take such action! In this session, you’ll acquire the skills to master change management, steering your projects towards enduring and impactful transformations.
More often than not, management of change is considered some sort of intangible “magic”, delivering dubious value. In other cases management of change is used interchangeably with “training plan”, leading to pre-announced adoption failure. In this session you will be introduced to a few very practical tools that can be used to drive change and manage resistance successfully.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Learn how Management of change is systemic approach, that goes beyond trainings
- Learn that resistance is a natural reaction to change and that it can and should be planned with and managed accordingly
This session is for you if…
- You are or have been struggling with the adoption of a great tool or process
- If your team is consistently not doing what you ask them to do
- You think management of change is fluffy, hot air.
- You think management of change = trainings calendar
- You want a career in IT and you have no IT background
Let’s Talk About The Energy Trilemma
Ever found yourself grappling with intricate problems, or in a position where you must collaborate with individuals you don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye with? Are you curious about the leadership traits required to facilitate transformative collaboration and generate unique outcomes?
Our world’s most urgent challenges demand a paradigm shift in our approach to collaborative thinking. But how can we pave the path for improved future outcomes when stakeholders have a lack of understanding, trust, or rapport with each other?
In this dynamic session, we’ll use the energy transition scenario as a business case, examining how transformative collaboration among diverse stakeholders can lead to groundbreaking solutions. This is an opportunity to explore the potential of collaborative strategies in overcoming barriers and fostering innovation.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understanding why collaboration is both difficult and necessary to solve complex challenges
- Understanding the leadership qualities required to enable transformative collaboration
- Engage in dialogue on business case “energy transition” what it takes to move forward and the role each and every one of us can play?
This session is for you if…
- You are curious about collaboration and building bridges
- You are keen to break down barriers for collaboration
- You are prepared to get active and lean into the dialogue. And learn about energy transition at same time
Demystifying Generative AI On AWS
In this session, you can explore the exciting world of generative AI and how it has the potential to revolutionize many industries. In this session the speakers start by reviewing the basic concepts of generative AI. It then explores how generative AI models can be used for various modalities, highlighting the AWS AI/ML tools and infrastructure available to those interested in generative AI. Explore the potential of generative AI and what AWS tools are available to build and deploy these models in production.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understand and be able to articulate the differences between traditional Machine Learning models and Generative AI Foundation models
Discover the common use cases Generative AI can help you and your business with - Know the limitations of Generative AI and things to keep in mind when working with it
- Learn about how AWS services can support you to get started building successful Generative AI applications
This session is for you if…you are new to Generative AI, want to know more about Machine Learning, and are keen to see how it can support your business and technology goals.
Technology Vision 2023: When Atoms Meet Bits: The Foundations Of Our New Reality
The foundations of our new reality are the path to taking action. Mounting challenges on the global stage are forcing enterprises to reorient their business objectives and imagine how they can best contribute to solving these collective problems. Some of today’s problems might have been considered unsolvable before – but as the convergence of atoms and bits continues to grow, the bounds of possibility expand.
Over the years, enterprises and individuals have taken many steps to create their presence in the digital space, consciously moving back and forth between physical reality and the digital ones they created. The time has come to change that. The next wave of business transformation will erase the demarcation between those worlds to fuse them into a new shared reality– one where our physical and digital lives are one and the same. In this talk we’ll explore the concept of this new shared reality and four emerging technology trends that identify steps enterprises will need to take to build and thrive in this new world.
Session Key Takeaways:
- You will learn how Digital Identity is quietly becoming the key to enterprises’ technology aspirations, and efforts to reimagine it are underway, not just for people but for all things.
- You will learn why Data Transparency will become your most precious resource. Data ecosystems are being reshaped by radical transparency as enterprises leverage their troves of data to offer unprecedented insight into their business.
- You will learn about Generalising AI: the radical edges and possibilities of intelligence. Foundation models are driving one of the biggest step changes in AI history. Now enterprise leaders can shift from building their own AI to building with AI.
- You will learn about our Forever Frontier: the big bang of computing and science. After decades of hyperfocus on digital technology, science is leaping back to the top of enterprises’ agendas.
This session is for you if… you want to learn about the key technology trends for 2023 including digital identity, generative AI, data, and more.
Building The Future – Delivering A Digital Evolution
Innovations in software development, digital transformations, data and analytic applications are accelerating at an unprecedented speed and have huge potential to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. Explore how to continually deliver at the cutting-edge of technological progress.
Software plays a pivotal role within transformation, from the embedded software inside our systems to machine learning and analytic applications. Over the past decade, we’ve been managing the technology evolution in our scanner software. We’ve learned how to shape and implement our strategies for adopting emerging technologies to enhance capabilities, while also dealing with aging technology to create more value for our customers. And we’re also looking beyond our past and current success, to envision the future of our software development and establish our strategy of digital transformation, building up a common digital platform in collaboration with our suppliers and customers.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Explore strategis for adopting emerging technologies to enhance system capabilities and to create more value for your customers
- Learn how to shape and implement software development strategies
- Discover how to establish true collaboration from various perspectives to work smarter and faster
This session is for you if…you want to be inspired by how our technology leaders work, think and gain valuable knowledge for your own development journeys.
Security In The Hybrid/Multi Cloud Era
As the Cloud Computing industry advances, Cloud based applications are becoming the norm for the software industry. The session will enable participants to understand the basics of Cloud Computing and dive deep into the Hybrid Cloud network security patterns.
Cloud customers have now started embracing hybrid architectures to leverage the benefits of cloud computing while running critical applications/data on-premises in their own data centres. With the adoption of Hybrid and Multi Cloud deployments, emphasis on security and networking is becoming more important. This session will cover advanced topics in networking and security for Hybrid cloud implementation based on the learnings from the enterprise customers.
How Can Gender Equity Drive Growth In Technology
Gender equity is an ongoing concern for companies across all industries. Companies are striving to create an inclusive and diverse work environment that values and empowers all employees regardless of their gender. However, the question is how can a company help you build gender equity, and how can you grow gender equity within a company?
In this panel discussion, we will explore three key points related to building and growing gender equity in the workplace. Attendees will leave with actionable insights and strategies that they can apply to their own workplaces to help build and grow gender equity.
Session Key Takeaways:
- What are the initiatives a company can take towards gender equity
- What you do within a company to make it grow and to be part of the change
- Discover how to share your knowledge and influence for the women in your organisation
Debunking Myths On Software Quality Engineering
Software testing is an essential part of the software development process, but there are many myths about testing that can create confusion and hinder progress. Whether you are looking to learn more about Quality Engineering or want to be involved in an unfiltered group therapy session about the topic, then this session is for you!
This talk will explore and challenge the misconceptions around being a Software Quality Engineer and more importantly, I aim to debunk these myths using examples from my personal experience. I will focus on some common stereotypes as well as some more challenging concepts on automation.
The Why: Anything that has a consumer, will have been tested in one way or another. The question is, was it done in the most effective and efficient way? This talk gives you an opportunity to do things differently at your organisation and understand why Quality Engineering is so powerful.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Reimagine and challenge your views and assumptions on what it means to work in the Software Quality Engineering field
- You will walk away with an insight into the life of a Software Quality Engineer and Manager as well as understand some of the challenges faced
- Learn about unconventional routes to enter the technology industry and why it could benefit yourself or your team
- Have a great understanding of the difference between ‘Testing’ and ‘Quality Engineering’ and why this is important
This session is for you if…you are interested in what Quality Engineering means in practice or to gauge what skills are required to enter this field or even if you are looking to assemble a team of QE superheroes, then look no further!
Did I Just Make Myself Obsolete?!
Process automation to the point of self reliance. This is often our goal when we code. So how do we do this AND still remain essential to our company?
The Why: Software is ever-evolving, duh. This means we get to be more efficient in our work, resulting in projects going live faster. As great as this is, it also sparks a fear in many of us that we are actively working towards making ourselves and our coworkers unnecessary to the job. The goal is to figure out how to remain relevant, while still having fun.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Automation benefits all who keep up
- Make yourself indispensable
- Don’t fret about the unknown
This session is for you if…
- You are a dev and want to hear about Adyen and get some insights into how we work/think
- You are not a dev but you worry occasionally about whether dev’s might automate your job
How To Scale A Data Driven Organisation
As organisations become increasingly reliant on data and predictive analytics you may find yourself getting lost in big data unable to make sense of it all. Time spent identifying value and analysing is actually spent cleaning data. In this session, we’ll take you through the critical fundamentals of data governance and storage on your journey to transforming to a data-led organisation.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Taking your organisation on the transformational journey to becoming a data-led organisation
- Move for Open Data in Energy Market as Scalability & Efficiency Mechanisms and leaning into predictive analytics to create more accurate decisions and mitigate risk
Comprehensive Testing Strategies For Modern Microservice Architectures
It’s not finished until it’s tested and monitored. Experienced developers know that a comprehensive testing strategy is vital to a healthy microservice architecture. However, as the system grows and changes without any central oversight, the complexity of our test scenarios dramatically increase as well.
This session will explore strategies for adding testing to the product development process, making it easy to verify the integrations between services and communicate expected behaviours between engineering teams.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Discover the challenges of testing distributed architectures (event driven, HTTP based)
- Learn the fundamentals of TDD and the different types of tests (unit, integration, contract, E2E, performance)
- How to write efficient tests at every level of the application
- Discover the importance of code robustness and error detection strategies (monitoring & alerting best practices)
This session is for you if…you are a Software Engineer and QA Professional.
Please note all of the concepts included in this talk will be demonstrated with a Go example application, but pre-existing knowledge of Go is not required.
Empowering Agency & Community Through Web3 And NFTs
Web3 and NFTs are often misunderstood as silly jpegs or in association with the so-called metaverse. This session aims to demystify the concepts of web3 and NFTs, particularly within the context of how web3 can enable a true democratisation of technology, and empower both organisations and individuals to engage in society on their own terms. For the first time in history, we have a viable infrastructure from which we can set the terms and conditions of how we’d like to interact with each other, and within which we can have total ownership over our own data.
What are web3 and NFTs exactly and why should I care? How do we reclaim technology to serve the needs of society? How do we break out of a world that’s been determined by only a handful of corporations or institutions? Although Web3 and NFTs are commonly associated with the crypto industry, which has primarily been exclusive to women and other marginalised identities, web3 ultimately opens up the possibilities for empowering individuals and organisers alike to determine their own terms of engagement with the world.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understand the basics of web3 and NFTs, along with other key concepts such as decentralisation and blockchain technology
- Why web3 and NFTs can be empowering to individuals, communities and organisations alike
- Real world examples of applications of web3 and NFTs, how you can get started on thinking about how the technology can be applied in your situation, why it’s beneficial to everyone
This session is for you if…
- You’re simply curious about the hype around web3 and NFTs
- You want to understand how blockchain technology can be applied in the real world in a variety of contexts
- You’re looking for alternatives to social media to engage with others that speak to your values and interests
- You’re a creator, artist, or builder looking to create a loyal and involved fanbase without the interference of third parties
- You’re a brand or organisation looking to have a more intimate connection with your community
- You’re an activist looking for alternative ways to move your cause forward
Building An Enterprise Platform
Nowadays businesses need to be able to analyse their data effectively to be at the forefront. It is essential to have a strong, cost-optimised analytical setup with data access to enable data domain experts to focus on doing what they are best at, namely to bring value out of data.
Learn about Novo Nordisk’s analytical platform and how it is used to bring value out of data efficiently to cater to our business needs. Our data persons can on-demand spin up collaborative analytical compute environments in preferred region, with selected compute power that integrates seamlessly with their in-house data sources. This enables them to focus on their business cases without having to worry about configuring, managing, and setting up their computing environment. Our platform has been used to develop a deep learning algorithm in our inspection lines, proactive monitoring solutions on types of machinery that enable increased throughput in our production lines, etc.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Discover to AWS to to build an on-demand analytical compute environment in the cloud
- Learn how the cloud can be used to speed up analytics and save costs simultaneously?
- How Novo Nordisk’s enterprise analytics platform has acted as an enabler for different business cases
This session is for you if…you have a growing business and you want to use data to drive the business decisions. With a growing number of employees and stakeholders it becomes more critical to have centralised teams focusing on building re-usable customised environment that can be spun up on-demand integrating data for cost savings. It prevents repetitive work across different areas and reduces additional complexity for people working with data, enabling management to act quickly to business needs.
Powerful Storytelling: Presenting Technical Ideas In A Highly Relatable Way
Stories are a game changer in business! Often people fail to understand technical concepts and proposals because they can’t relate to them. Stories can breathe life into abstract ideas and create real change in attitudes and behaviour.
In this workshop you will find out why stories are so powerful and how they work their magic. And you will create a compelling story of your own that can be put to immediate use in a business setting.
All you need is an open mind, a creative imagination and a willingness to experiment with new ways to communicate your ideas.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understanding of how stories work and the ingredients of an effective story
- A flexible framework to give your story structure and shape
- An opportunity to create and practise delivering your own story
Maximising The Power Of Data Using Artificial Intelligence
In the modern world, data is everywhere. Being able to understand that data through the process of analytics has also become increasingly important – for individuals and for businesses. Understanding data can help shape our understanding of innovation potential, new trends, finances, or business target audiences. Data coupled with the power of artificial intelligence can help with better businesses decisioning in both the short and long term. But how much do we really understand about that data we put out into and take from the world? And how does artificial intelligence play a role in the credit risk journey?
Discover the value of data in today’s world from the leadership, sales and analytics perspectives – focusing specifically on consumer impact and the benefits of knowledge about how and why data is used. The session will also cover the importance of understanding what your data says about you from a credit management perspective – empowering attendees to manage their data with confidence.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Data is a key factor in the modern world and understanding how to interpret data is already critical
- AI is the future in data and analytics, and a useful tool for managing credit risk
- An understanding of how and why data is used to benefit businesses and consumers in credit management
- A unique and well-rounded female leader perspective in the use of AI in data and analytics
This sessions is for you if…
- You are a Business leader who is managing their personal and professional finances
- Attendees who work closely with data and analytics in their current roles
- Those looking for a deeper understanding of the value of data of data interpretation from the raw collection to the end consumer
Carbon Consciousness: Reducing Carbon And Cost For Enterprise IT
Datacentres are estimated to use 3% of global energy provision, and this is likely to grow. So what IT does around power consumption and CO2 is vital for the planet. Yet the latest IT products are more powerful and often consume even more electricity.
Whether your company uses IT on premise or as a service from cloud providers, regulations are being tightened for reporting of Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions, and Net Zero plans are being audited. Without active Carbon Reduction plans in place, we cannot realistically achieve Net Zero.
So learning how to optimise IT power usage and design solutions to critical for all enterprises. Help your company become Carbon Conscious and start an initiative for reduction which actually will save money as well.
Ruth will discuss techniques to design and implement solutions from a carbon reduction perspective. This includes practical hints to apply to currently running environments.
She estimates that around 20% savings can be gained for current datacentre and cloud environments, which can not only reduce tonnes of CO2 emitted but also reduce power costs by over €100k per year per datacentre. Greater savings are possible when designing IT systems.
So come, learn and participate. Save the planet and get your company to start saving for a head start on Net Zero plans.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How you can optimise existing IT infrastructures to reduce power and CO2
- How you can transform new IT services using CO2 optimisation as a focus
- How you can build a business case to save your company significant money whilst also saving CO2 and become Carbon Conscious
This session is for you if…
- You are wishing to transform your business to save money and save carbon
- You design or consume IT services
- You have budgetary control over IT services
- You have to handle the increased CO2 reporting regulations
Responsible AI Or Ethical Leadership?
Ethical leadership is the foundation that is needed to develop and use responsible AI. So what kind of leadership is needed to respond to the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence and big data, and what role might character play in guiding leaders?
AI is dominating news headlines and hallway conversations everywhere right now. And while what it can do to help businesses streamline operations and improve leadership decision-making is impressive, there are some things it can’t do. It can’t demonstrate character. It can’t show courage or empathy, at least not authentically. AI can’t make values-based decisions.
Few insights will be more valuable to your success as leader than knowing who you are and what you stand for.
Session Key Takeaways:
- What is ethical leadership and how does it affect your career, team and your organisation?
- How can you define your own unique leadership North Star?
- How can you demonstrate ethical leadership in decision-making related to AI topics?
This session is for you if…
- You are interested in developing your own leadership north star!
- You lead projects or people and want to be able to speak from a strong sense of purpose
- You have an interest in AI and the role that leaders play in ensuring it is used responsibly
Harnessing The Power Of AI: A Deep Dive Into Opportunities And Challenges For Businesses
This talk will delve into the exciting realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its role in catalysing business innovation, with a particular focus on the alliance between Microsoft and OpenAI. As an emerging technology, generative AI holds significant potential to revolutionise various sectors, yet its practical deployment remains an area of exploration for many businesses.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understanding the concept of generative AI and acknowledging its limitations
- Identifying significant use-cases where generative AI can boost corporate performance and competitiveness
- Debunking common myths and discussing challenges associated with generative AI
- Participants can expect valuable insights on leading the corporate world in the AI era, practical applications of generative AI, and inspiring instances from other businesses
This session is for you if.. you are a Business Decision Maker, Technical Decision Maker, and anyone seeking to infuse their business operations with the power of AI. Sponsorship opportunities are available.
Future Proofing Architecture: Ensuring Technical Success
Fast decisions were made through a period of COVID-driven accelerated digital transformation but were they smart or have we set ourselves up with brittle architectures that could fail? As we drive towards the future and organisations prioritise upgrading IT foundations that enable speed, security and resiliency, it’s time for a technical reset.
What does your technical landscape look like based on that digital transformation? Are you setting yourself up for technical success in the future? With the rise of cloud and shared environments, technology landscapes are more complex than ever and it’s important to understand where you are and where you need to be. Join this session to explore future technology landscapes and architecture.
From Legacy To Unified: Streamlining Data Operations For Modern Business
As data becomes increasingly important for businesses, it’s essential to have a flexible and efficient platform for managing it. Join us for an informative session where we’ll share our experience of creating a unified data platform to streamline operations and improve data quality.
Instead of relying on multiple legacy data platforms, we created one platform to rule them all. Our platform provides standardized protocols for data ingestion, transformation, and aggregation, making it a product-as-a-service that’s fast, self-service, and cost-effective. By taking this approach, we allow data engineers to focus on making data available and improving data quality, which is essential for any business.
During this session, you’ll gain insights into our self-sufficient approach to deploying a data platform, and the importance of speed and cost-effectiveness when working with streaming data sets. This talk is designed to provide a thought leadership perspective on how to create a unified data platform that meets the needs of modern businesses.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to remove Remove bottlenecks by enabling the data engineers to make data available faster with a self-service data platform.
- Discover new approaches to deploying a data platform and pipelines using solely data configurations.
- The speed and cost-effectiveness when working with streaming data sets.
This session is for you if…
- You experience a bottleneck in making data available or trying to get access to data
- Attendees who work closely with data
Lessons For Cultivating Successful New Teams
As companies grow or shift, effectively shaping new teams is key to the success of the entire organisation. Whether they are new hires or internal transfers, experienced or entry-level employees, individual contributors or aspiring leads, they all need support to grow in their careers while seamlessly collaborating with teammates.
To build strong teams from the ground-up, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind: navigating different backgrounds and experiences, establishing positive relationships within the group and with stakeholders, and creating a team culture that motivates members towards common goals.
In this talk, we’ll explore best practices for cultivating efficient teams and cover potential challenges you may encounter. Whether you’re a current or aspiring people manager, or just a member of a growing organisation, this presentation will provide valuable lessons and ideas that will help set your team up for long-term success.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Lessons you can apply to build new teams in an established organisation
- How to leverage the unique strengths, skills and workflows of engineers from all backgrounds
- How to develop and mentor future leaders
This session is for you if…
- You are a current or aspiring manager or lead at a growing organisation
- You are an individual contributor looking to learn how to support your team’s growth and success
How To Tackle Current Challenges In Agriculture With Digital Tools
Curious to learn what the term New Frontiers means for mankind’s oldest industry – Agriculture? Want to change your perspective on modern farming? Learn about Agriculture’s diverse faces across the globe and how science, technology and digital products connect to enable a sustainable future.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Learn about the evolved industry, Agriculture is not how it used to be
- Learn more about the problem we’re trying to solve
- Technology with a purpose is the best job in the world
This session is for you if…you want to understand how technology advancements are empowering our customers, and if you are open broaden your perspective on modern farming. Learn about an industry that probably does not come to your mind immediately when thinking about technology and how it makes a difference.
Self-Compassion: The Step To Building Truly Inclusive Workplaces Part 2
Although the world is rapidly changing, the big radical change is still to come. Current work structures evolved from outdated, low-tech, exploitative systems, and simply do not meet the needs of today’s workplaces nor take us where we want to go. The coming change is radical, yet is a return to a more natural and humane way of working together to produce greatness. Let’s tap into our collective intelligence, let’s build and co-create, instead of exploit. And it all starts with self-compassion.
Does it still feel like no matter what you and your organisation do to be more inclusive and to benefit more from diversity, nothing really changes? The change we are dreaming about is RADICAL, and it requires adequate actions/solutions. In this fully interactive and experiential workshop, you will learn and explore the new possibilities that are accessible when you communicate and connect with others from the place of self-compassion. It’s transformative, fun and your name will be spoken a lot.
Session Key Takeaways:
- The change you are longing for starts in you. This technique makes it easy not to forget about it
- The way you communicate and connect with others has an impact on the whole team dynamic. With this self-compassion technique you can reduce stress, performance anxiety, and burnouts, making your team/s holistically healthier
- The technique to stay connected with your team/s and navigate with ease through the rapid changes
This session is for you if…
- You are a leader, manager or HR-professional looking for better tools to support your people
- You are a change maker, an advocate for equity and diversity looking to create greater impact
- You want to transform your business and stay ahead of the competition
- You believe in the workplace that is built on talents, respecting boundaries instead of exploiting individuals.
Minihack: TechRace
In this TechRace event, you’ll receive a large pool of challenges to solve, ranging from programming puzzles to design problems, from easy to hard. The winning team, or “the techiest of them all”, is chosen based on the total points all team members earned during this TechRace event. So get ready to race!
This TechRace is two-hours long. All participants need to have a laptop to be able to participate. Teams can consists of up to 5 members. You will be put into teams when you arrive in the room.
Neurodiversity In The Workplace: Building Inclusive Teams Beyond Noise Cancelling Headphones
Each brain is unique and everyone has different ways to process and think, yet, roughly 20% of our population qualifies as neurodiverse. This means, chances are high that our teams are also built of people who battle diagnoses like ADHD, Autism, or Dyslexia. Especially women often go through life undiagnosed, in numbers – 75% of women with ADHD are unaware – having developed coping mechanisms without ever knowing. In this workshop we want to explore strategies to build environments for your teams or yourself that allow for “Neuro-Spiciness” to be the fuel of innovation, discuss what it takes for us and our colleagues to feel accepted and how to meet the needs of “unaware” neurodiverse colleagues.
Within DI&E departments, the awareness for mental health topics, including Neurodiversity, has luckily been increasing over the past decade. Yet, building habits that go beyond individual behaviour or offering access to helpful tools is something that most teams still have to learn. Most companies, most tech teams, and most organisations are structured, following neurotypical concepts, making it challenging for employees with ADHD, Autism or Dyslexia (amongst others) to navigate. A work culture that is accessible for neurodiverse people also always benefits those whose brains qualify as “neurotypical”, so why wait?
Session Key Takeaways:
- Learn about the challenges and strengths of neurodiverse people in the workplace and how to use or combat them successfully
- Discover how we can move beyond neurotypical standards and build a team that works for every brain
- Connect with your own neuro-spiciness, celebrate the magic of “being the odd one” and explore how you can inspire the people around you
This session is for you if…
- You are neuro-spicey. Join us and share your experience, connect with others to learn from them and build a foundation to bring back into your own team.
- You lead teams. Neurodiversity is a topic that most people still don’t feel comfortable being very upfront about. The stigma and discrimination that comes with being openly autistic or dyslexic, etc. hold people back and increases their risk of burning out due to having to mask or suffering from related anxiety and depression. This also accounts for team members that are unaware or undiagnosed. Creating a neuro-inclusive environment as Lead can change your employees’ life and set you up for success.
- You are curious about this buzzword, flying around more and more these days 😉
Building Effective Mentoring Practices For Companies
Corporate mentorship programs have been implemented by many companies to enhance recruitment efforts, improve employee engagement, foster leadership development, promote diversity and increase loyalty and retention rates. However, the effectiveness of such programs depends on the quality of their implementation. Creating a successful mentoring program can be much more challenging that it appears, and many programs fail to meet their objectives.
This workshop will represent insights and principles from interviews with companies of varying sizes that have effectively implemented mentoring programs. Participants will learn practical strategies to launch their own successful mentoring program within their organisations.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Discover best practices for launching and promoting a mentoring program
- Learn how to pair mentees effectively
- Learn what resources to provide to mentors and mentees and how to measure success of each relationship during the program
Is My Algorithm Fair? An Introduction To Algorithmic Fairness & Ethics
AI systems are becoming an increasingly integral part of our daily lives. While they have the power to reach millions of users, there are concerns about their potential to replicate or even amplify existing social biases, as well as cause harm. Despite the declaration of ethical AI principles by private and public organisations, practitioners often struggle to bridge the gap between abstract concepts and practical decisions in the development cycle of AI.
In this talk, we’ll delve into the importance of AI ethics and why everyone involved in the development of these systems should share accountability. We’ll explore why implementing ethical principles in AI is crucial, and how to detect bias and evaluate fairness in ML models. Our aim is to provide a global perspective on this topic and specific guidelines for practical implementation.
In the session we will discuss with the audience the different challenges of bringing AI ethics into practice and open a debate about why we need AI ethics integrated in the development cycle of AI now more than ever after the recently released large language models like ChatGPT.
This session is for you if...you are interested in or working in AI, including data scientists, data engineers, designers, product managers, and business leaders. While those with some knowledge of AI will benefit more from the last part on algorithmic fairness, the overall talk is designed to address a wide audience. Join us for an eye-opening discussion on the importance of AI ethics and how to implement ethical principles in your work.
Unlocking The Power Of Purpose Led Transformation
Why does purpose matter so much? Within a competative tech and hiring landscape, organisations that embed purpose at the heart of their organisations will stand out from the crowd. So how do you connect purpose into everything you do, from leadership, vision, to processes and cultural change.
We’ll explore how being driven by a core purpose can help you accelerate and over deliver on goals such as sustainability but also benefit commercial value and consumer perspective.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understand the value purpose-led businesses can create for organisations, consumers and society
- How do you maintain that purpose as your grow as an organisation
- How can you ensure new initiatives, partnerships and products have purpose at the very heart of it
Scalable Teams For Security And Velocity
As an industry, we are always looking for the latest and greatest to lower cost and risk and increase velocity. For every new threat, vulnerability, technology challenge, there is a new tool. But new tools mean higher cost, more complexity, and ultimately, more attack vectors. So how do we address these issues?
People and processes are the key. We’ll address how to build scalable teams which will simultaneously improve your IT landscape and your cyber security posture.
Cyber security is an increasingly important topic, but we also know that the speed of iteration is key to the productivity of a team. The way we are looking at both of these things isn’t working, and we need to take a more holistic approach by zooming out and looking at more variables.
Session Key Takeaways:
- The unpredictability of humans can be an asset, especially when threat modelling
- The misperception of risk can be mitigated by diversity
- The composition of your teams can ultimately help you scale your organisation
Embracing Platform Engineering
Platform Engineering is the discipline of designing and building toolchains and workflows that enable self-service capabilities for software engineering organisations.
In this session, attendees can expect to learn about Platform Engineering, how to get started with Platform Engineering and how to improve the productivity of the development teams by providing tool and services that accelerate development and deployment cycles.
Session Key Takeaways:
- How to get started with platform engineering
- How to improve developer experience in your organisation
- Discover why you should treat your platform as a product
This session is for you if…you are a devops engineer / platform engineer/ a developer / engineering manager
The Power Of Ikigai (生き甲斐) In IT Business
What is important today, when disruption and innovation are the result of
fostering an environment where individuals can come together, is the inspirational leadership and leading by purpose. Ikigai (生き甲斐,) is a Japanese term for “a reason for being” and having a sense of purpose in life, as well as being motivated.
We’ll talk about Ikigai in the IT area, and the feeling of accomplishment and fulfilment that follows when people pursue their passions working in the IT area.
The Why: To become a true leader in IT business nowadays you should have an inner drive and a deep hunger to create change. Inspirational leaders display earnest conviction in their beliefs and won’t bend to outside pressures no matter how difficult the road becomes.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Meaning of Ikigai for your life and career in IT business
- How to lead by purpose and with a passion
- How to feel accomplishment and fulfilment every day
This session is for you if…
- You want to discover and embrace the the feeling of accomplishment and fulfilment
- Every day in your job, to understand what makes you feel good about your work and how to lead by purpose
Powerful Storytelling: Presenting Technical Ideas In A Highly Relatable Way
Stories are a game changer in business! Often people fail to understand technical concepts and proposals because they can’t relate to them. Stories can breathe life into abstract ideas and create real change in attitudes and behaviour.
In this workshop you will find out why stories are so powerful and how they work their magic. And you will create a compelling story of your own that can be put to immediate use in a business setting.
All you need is an open mind, a creative imagination and a willingness to experiment with new ways to communicate your ideas.
Session Key Takeaways:
- Understanding of how stories work and the ingredients of an effective story
- A flexible framework to give your story structure and shape
- An opportunity to create and practise delivering your own story
Becoming More Intentional Dealing When Dealing With Stress And Burnout
A recent Deloitte survey showed that 53% of women are more stressed this year than they were a year ago, and 46% feel burned out. Having the right strategies to effectively manage stress and deal with burnout in healthy and effective ways can help with achieving work/life balance, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and continuing to be productive and engaged at work.
Managing stress and addressing burnout is not only about having the right tools or a list of things to do to cope. It requires being aware of your triggers for stress and how you perceive and respond to them, as well as being intentional about the strategies you use. This session will focus on the INTENT Framework for Stress and Burnout
- How stress manifests itself and impacts your work, relationships, and behaviours
- How you can align your actions with your values to manage stress in ways that prevent burnout and foster resilience
- How to turn stress into an opportunity for growth
- How to identify and implement realistic and easy-to-maintain strategies for managing stress, addressing burnout, and learning to adapt better to unforeseen changes
Session Key Takeaways:
- Learn how to effectively manage stress requires becoming aware of how stress affects you, how you perceive it, and how you respond to it
- Discover when to use problem-focused coping or emotion-focused coping can help prevent chronic stress, which can lead to burnout
- Discover ways to deal with stress and address burnout. The strategies you choose should make sense for you and fit into your life. They shouldn’t just be based on what’s trending
This session is for you if…you have a basic understanding of stress and how to manage it, but are looking for ways to make stress management a habit and not an afterthought.
