2023 Agenda

The 2024 agenda will be announced soon, register your interest to be the first to hear about our new theme!

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9:15am
Keynote

Welcome Remarks

15 mins
  • Track - Keynote
  • Keynote
  • Not To Be Missed

Welcome to Women in Tech Texas 2023! 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.

9:30am
Keynote

Powering Progress Towards A World of Zero

30 mins
  • Track - Keynote
  • Keynote
  • Not To Be Missed
  • Technical

The world faces an urgent challenge. How does it tackle climate change and move to a net-zero emissions energy system while also meeting the growing demand for energy? The next decade will be shaped by 2 megatrends – the Energy Transition and Digitalisation. Both are expected to have a profound impact on the way everyone lives their lives. Innovative new technologies, including digital technologies and AI have a critical role to play in helping the world reduce our carbon footprint and achieve a net-zero emissions future.

In this session, we will explore how Shell, a 116-year-old Energy company, is working towards its target to become a net-zero emissions Energy Business by 2050. Digital technology is already transforming the way we manage the energy system day-to-day by optimizing asset performance, reducing our CO2 footprint, digitizing the customer experience, and making the transition from conventional oil & gas to renewable energy sources.

The Why: Digitalization and Sustainability are imperatives to all companies and require us to think differently and embrace the pace of technology change. While Innovation is key, scaling and replication of solutions across the enterprise is what drives bottom-line business value. Key success factors include creating an inclusive and diverse environment where everyone feels valued, and where continuous learning and experimentation is encouraged.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn how to develop a Net-Zero strategy that is underpinned by Data & Analytics
  • Discover use cases of how Shell is embedding digitalization across all its businesses
  • How to utilize DE&I and Culture to accelerate the energy transition

This session is for… everyone who wants to learn how to embrace digitalization and make it a core part of their Business strategy.

10:00am
Keynote

Leading Fearlessly in the Age of Cyber Threats

30 mins
  • Track - Keynote
  • Keynote
  • Not To Be Missed
  • Security
  • Technical

Cybersecurity has become increasingly complex and has become a topic of importance in the world. Navigating cybersecurity and other technology challenges can be extremely difficult as it is a mix of art and science.

In this talk, we will discuss the evolving threat landscape, balancing risk and innovation, how to build a culture of security, and building a resilient program and workforce. This session will be great for those who want to pursue a career in cybersecurity, those that are currently cybersecurity practitioners, or those that are pursuing a leadership role or are in leadership roles in cybersecurity – the stories and topics will resonate with all.

Key Takeaways:

  • An Update on the Evolving Threat Landscape
  • Balancing Risk and Innovation – Navigating Technical Complexities in Organizations through Leadership and Influence
  • Building a Culture of Security and Resilient Program and Workforce

This session is for… anyone in a cybersecurity role, pursuing a cybersecurity career or a leadership role, as well as those navigating technical complexities that require the art and science of influencing leadership.

11:05am
Presentation

Building Customer Trust By Showcasing Your Security Practices

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Non-Technical
  • Security

Security is the #1 topic around the world and all companies are focused on how to protect their assets, data, locations and people. They expect that same rigor from their vendors. Security is a strategy that enables market access, branding, reputation and ultimately revenue. Having a good security organization is not good enough to maintain your customers’ trust.

The Why: Has your company built a security story that clearly outlines your ethos, accomplishments and path to support revenue creation? If not, you might be at risk of losing your customers’ trust. Come join this discussion to see how to build and maintain your customers’ trust.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn how to win the trust of new and current customers by marketing your security practices
  • Understand how to communicate cyber, physical, supply chain and business resiliency effectively to sales and non-technical people who influence revenue with customers
  • Identify topics that your customer wants to hear more about like vulnerability management, global events and challenges to fulfilling services you offer them

This session is for… you if you thought that all areas of security in your company are just behind-the-scenes protection and an operating expense only. It is actually one of the most valuable areas to showcase as a trust & verify activity, creating revenue and ensuring customer’s trust and loyalty.

11:05am
Presentation

Enabling Business Momentum Through Technology Delivery

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Strategies
  • Digital Transformation
  • Not To Be Missed

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the relationship between business and IT has never been more important. Technology is no longer just a support function but has become a key driver of business success. To remain competitive, organizations must focus on delivering transformative initiatives that enable them to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and customer demands.

During this session, we will explore strategies and best practices for building strong business and IT relationships that drive successful digital transformation initiatives. We will discuss how to align business and IT priorities, establish clear goals and objectives, and foster a culture of collaboration and innovation.

Using real-world examples from large initiatives such as cloud migrations, attendees will learn how to gain velocity and focus on delivering transformative initiatives. We will examine the importance of cross-functional teams, effective communication, and stakeholder engagement in driving successful initiatives.

Additionally, we will discuss how to overcome common challenges and pitfalls that can arise during cloud migration initiatives and share proven techniques for keeping projects on track and delivering results. By the end of this session, attendees will have a better understanding of how to build strong business and IT relationships that enable successful cloud migration initiatives.

Attendees will leave with practical strategies and techniques that can be applied immediately to build stronger business and IT relationships and drive successful digital transformation initiatives.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understanding how to align and accelerate on digital priorities
  • Organizing and energizing teams on collaboration for success
  • Building cross-team momentum to create more impact

This session is for… Technology delivery leaders working toward enabling greater flexibility, resilience, and momentum for business transformation.

11:05am
Workshop

Workshop Delivered by Twilio

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only

Full session details coming soon…

11:05am
Workshop

Product Management in the Age of Innovation: A Hands-On Workshop on How to Build a Roadmap for the Future

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only

Join this workshop to understand how to create a product roadmap that aligns with business goals and drives value for customers. Participants will learn how to prioritize features and initiatives, create a clear product vision, and communicate effectively with stakeholders.

11:05am
Workshop

Implementing an AI Security Framework

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Non-Technical
  • Not To Be Missed
  • Premium Only

Machine Learning and AI have been at the core of many businesses. AI allows businesses to implement powerful solutions that increase productivity and give their customers delightful experiences. But, as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility! When it comes to AI, there are a lot of security considerations that need to be accounted for, such as user data privacy, wrong prediction implications, vulnerability to model manipulation, bias, explainability, and much more.

Does your company have an AI Security framework? Together, we’ll embark on the journey of implementing an AI framework, similar to the one we have at BILL. We’ll examine the security concerns that we faced at every step and the resulting AI security framework that it led to.

The Why: As AI and ML become more prevalent in every business, it’s important to start thinking about the AI security framework now, as opposed to waiting for the first breach or incident.

Key Takeaways:

  • You will learn about BILL’s journey of bringing a core document extraction feature to our customers
  • You will learn about different security challenges we faced along the way
  • You will gain an understanding of the main aspect of creating an AI Security Framework.

This session is for you if… you work in the space of AI or Security.

11:05am
Workshop

Power of the Ask: Breaking Through Imposter Syndrome to Ask for What You Deserve

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Career Development
  • Non-Technical
  • Premium Only

When preparing to make an important ask, such as asking for a raise, requesting an international office transfer, or pitching a bold new idea, imposter syndrome can stop us from asking for what we want, deserve, and believe in.

In this creative workshop, we will dive deeper into understanding the 5 archetypes of imposter syndrome and you will create your own tool to help you overcome the imposter whenever it rears its ugly head.

The Why: Imposter syndrome is one of the key reasons women are not asking for what they want and deserve.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understanding of the archetypes of imposter syndrome and how to identify them.
  • Tools to help you when preparing to make an ask and overcome the imposter, including creating your own “”WINS”” poster that you can take home as a visual reminder.
  • Stories from other women in the room to remind you that you are not alone!

This session is for… YOU if you believe imposter syndrome has at one point held you back, or is currently holding you back, from asking for the things you deserve and living the life you want.

11:05am
Workshop

Leading Your Team Through Turbulent Times

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Leadership
  • Non-Technical
  • Premium Only

The world has experienced its fair share of shared trauma in the last three years. On top of that, individual struggles like health issues or the passing of a loved one mean your employees and colleagues are no strangers to experiencing turbulence in their lives.

While advice on how to react to specific hardships is plentiful, we often look for them because we’re worried about saying or doing the right thing. Truly supporting those who are suffering through a multitude of issues requires us to decenter ourselves to understand different perspectives in terms of communication and support.

Content Warning: Please note that this session may cover topics that some may find uncomfortable to engage in including mental health and health conditions.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to step up as a leader for your employees during challenging times
  • Creating psychological safety in your teams
  • Policies and methods to support your employees through life challenges
11:40am
Presentation

Quantum Computing: Prepare To Be Prepared

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Digital
  • Technical Advanced Tech
  • Transformation

The topic of quantum computing sounds complex unless you are an expert mathematician. Most of us are not, but we can still understand the concepts, follow the evolution and learn what we need to do to be prepared.

The Why: As technology professionals, we need to remain informed on how future technology will impact what we do. Quantum computing promises to deliver results exponentially faster than today’s computers, and that is exciting and frightening at the same time. Come hear why.

Key Takeaways:

  • A high-level understanding of the impact of Quantum Computing
  • Why it threatens our current cryptography methods
  • What you can do before it arrives

This session is for… you if you are curious about the future of technology and want to get ahead of protecting your information and technology assets.

11:40am
Presentation

Innovating For The Future While Winning Customers Today

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Strategies
  • Digital Transformation
  • Leadership
  • Non-Technical

Innovation has always been vital to the survival and the growth of any business, but the need to innovate at a fast pace is crucial now more than ever. Technology companies need to innovate for maintaining competitive advantage today and to also continue growing in the future. Business uncertainties and everyday challenges make investing in innovation a challenge. Different processes and investment models are required for teams to innovate on current products vs creating completely new or disruptive products.

Join this session to learn how to build an organization that can innovate for the future while delivering differentiated value today.

The Why: Innovation is key to the survival of Tech Companies. Innovating while managing uncertainty and innovating for the future while meeting current demands is challenging and needs intentional sponsorship and focus from Tech Leaders.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to focus on future innovation while delivering differentiated customer value today?
  • How to manage uncertainties and create an adaptive innovation strategy?
  • How to build mechanisms and an environment that enables teams to innovate?

This session is for… you if you are a Senior/Director+ Tech Leader who is responsible for innovation and/or delivery of differentiated customer value.

1:15pm
Presentation

Future-Proofing Your Technology Ecosystem

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Digital Transformation
  • Leadership
  • Technical

Imagine a future where your technology ecosystem is resilient, adaptable, and thriving! Sound like a dream? Let’s break it down and embark on a forward-looking journey, delving into flexible architectures, novel technologies, and the central role of culture.

We’ll discuss the art of merging business acumen with tech prowess, aligning your skills with organizational visions, and continuous learning to create a truly robust and innovative tech ecosystem for the ever-evolving future.

Key Takeaways:

  • The importance of business acumen and aligning technology with business goals
  • Strategies for creating an inclusive and innovative culture in software engineering teams
  • Adopting emerging technologies and a flexible architecture for a future-proof ecosystem

This session is for… Technology leaders, engineers, and advocates eager to future-proof their tech ecosystems, enhance business acumen, and embrace inclusivity for a resilient tomorrow.

1:15pm
Presentation

Back to the Future!

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Strategies
  • Not To Be Missed

As we face the ever-increasing pace of change in technology with AI, ML, Cloud, MarTech, and more, we need to be prepared with frameworks to understand where there are true opportunities for competitive advantage. Once we decide to pursue those opportunities, we need to address the basics that we’ve always relied on to launch products safely and securely, with outcomes that create business value.

The Why: Applying tried and true techniques will get real value from emerging technologies.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn the importance of structure and framework
  • Go slow to go fast (and don’t go alone!)
  • Security is Queen

This session is for… IT leaders and decision-makers and anyone looking to bring new technology into their organization.

1:15pm
Workshop

How To Pitch An Idea To Get A ‘Yes’

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Career Development
  • Leadership
  • Premium Only

This masterclass is a game-changer! Too often brilliant technical and scientific minds fail to get their ideas past the decision-makers in their organization because business leaders don’t understand the benefit.

In this session, you will discover the secrets of speaking to the top of any organization. You will walk away with a model that ensures the business listens when you talk tech.

The Why: Too many brilliant ideas fail because decision-makers just don’t ‘get it’. Why? Because the presenter didn’t share the key information in the first 60-seconds. This masterclass changes all that.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand the mindset of business leaders
  • Know the 4 key elements to include in the first minute of your talk
  • Learn a proven model that ensures the business listens

This session is for… Mid to senior managers seeking approval or funding from decision makers.

1:15pm
Workshop

The Fundamentals of Understanding Risk as an Individual

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only
  • Security

As organizations’ budgets go under greater scrutiny, Tech Leaders are increasingly becoming reliant on their team’s ability to make informed decisions and manage uncertainty through their awareness, understanding, and knowledge of risk. Risk management is crucial to New Frontier operations. Organizations must recognize their risks and respond swiftly to changing conditions.

The ability to recognize the potential for loss, make intelligent decisions based on information, and balance the analysis of prospective risks and benefits are two ways to mitigate risk, but both are flawed.

In this workshop, we’ll dive into how individual risks can ultimately impact the organizations we support, gain an understanding of the technical concepts and flexible risk management solutions that firms can use to manage risk and how to lean on technology to pre-emptively predict and provide solutions to areas that could leave you susceptible.

Key Takeaways:

  • Hands on activities to learn how to identify common risks and understand the potential impact on organizations.
  • Gain deeper understanding of the technical concepts in risk management.
  • Develop skills and strategies for managing risk from a personal and organizational perspective.

This session is for… everyone interested in learning more about risk management, has an appreciation for the importance of risk management in different industries and contexts, and how to proactively identify potential risks and develop action plans for resolving the risks.

1:15pm
Workshop

Cracking the Code to Your Leadership Potential

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Career Development
  • Leadership
  • Premium Only

Moving from being an independent contributor to managing people is one of the hardest career shifts you can go through. How do you prepare for it? How do you know if you’re doing a good job? In this hands-on workshop, we will go through key differentiators that make a good manager and a good leader and introduce ways to grow in your role and prepare for the next one.

Key Takeaways:

  • Moving from Individual Contribution to Leadership
  • Identifying the difference between a leader and a manager
  • How to create psychological safety as a Leader during unstable times in your team
1:15pm
Workshop

Creating An AI-Driven Employee Experience

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Leadership
  • Premium Only

Artificial intelligence (AI) workshop focuses on how intelligent automation can empower employees to drive greater value. Participants will learn about how AI can increase employee empowerment, engagement, and productivity.

Through interoperability of systems, enhanced predictive modeling, elimination of manual work to balance workload, and chatbots. We will dive into the practical enterprise use cases of how AI is changing the way we think about work. Participants will also get a firsthand look at some of the leading examples and best practices.

Key Takeaways:

  • AI risks and benefits within an organization
  • Minimizing business disruption with AI
  • Automation journey through an HR lens

This session is for…Business Leaders, Engineers, IT, HR.

1:15pm
Workshop

HoloViz: Visualization and Interactive Dashboards in Python

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • AI
  • Premium Only
  • Technical

Do you use data visualization to understand data and tell stories? Do you need to visualize big data? Are you interested in leveling up your visualization skills and creating dashboards with HoloViz?

This workshop is for you! HoloViz is an open-source high-level Python visualization ecosystem that gives you the superpower to satisfy all your data visualization needs.

In this talk, you will learn how to build visualizations easily even for big and multidimensional data, how to turn nearly any notebook into a deployable dashboard, and how to build interactive drill-down exploratory tools for your data and models without having to run a web-technology software development project. You will also learn how to turn your dashboard into WebAssembly and run your dashboard entirely in the browser with the magic of Pyodide and PyScript.

The Why: This workshop is designed for those seeking guidance on interactive visualization and turning your data analysis code into a polished application with minimal code. Whether you are a novice looking to learn how to create a data app or an experienced data expert seeking to showcase your skills, this workshop is for you.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to get started with interactive visualizations
  • How to work with and visualize big data
  • Best practices to design and deploy a data app

Activity: You will need laptops for the hands-on coding and we will use Anaconda Notebooks. For those who are interested in trying out coding, you will need to either sign up to use Anaconda Notebooks on the cloud or sign in at Google to use Google Colab.

This session is for you if…

  • You’re a data scientist, data analyst, and/or Python developer who is interested in Python visualization and Panel app development
  • You work with dashboards to understand data and models
  • You wish to communicate data insights as effectively as possible
1:50pm
Presentation

Changing the Hospitality Game with Cloud-Based Architecture

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Advanced Tech
  • Cloud
  • Software Development
  • Technical

Hilton is on a modernization journey to create an industry leading guest experience by blending great on-property experiences with modern digital tools to create a differentiated travel experience. At the same time, we are using these technologies to reduce friction in the tools used by our team members to give them more time focus on what’s important: our guests.

Join this session and learn how Hilton is leaning into cloud technologies, mobile and web innovations, and data to redefine the guest experience and create intuitive tools for Team Members.

The Why: Technologies should be leveraged as an extension of our business to drive value to our customers and reduce friction points; leveraging these modern technologies assists with expediting that.

Key Takeaways:

  • Keep your customer at the center of your technology roadmaps.
  • Seek opportunities to innovate and modernize in areas that will allow your employees to focus more on your customers.
  • Meet your customers where they are.

This session is for… you if you would like to better understand how an industry leader is bringing cutting-edge technology innovation to hospitality.

1:50pm
Presentation

Developing a Digital Immune System

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Strategies
  • Digital Transformation
  • Technical

Enterprises face unprecedented challenges in ensuring resilient operating environments, accelerated digital delivery, and reliable end-user experience. A digital immune system combines various practices and technologies from software design, development, automation, operations, and analytics to reduce system failures that impact business performance.

It can reduce business continuity risks created when critical applications and services are severely compromised or stop working altogether. This talk asks, “”What is a digital immune system?”” and explores six prerequisites for a solid digital immune system.

Key Takeaways:

  • Observability: Provides the necessary information to mitigate issues with reliability and resilience
  • AI-augmented testing: Enables organizations to make software testing activities increasingly independent from human intervention
  • Chaos engineering: Leverages experimental testing to uncover vulnerabilities and weaknesses within a complex system
  • Auto remediation: Builds context-sensitive monitoring capabilities and automated remediation functions directly into an application
  • Site reliability engineering: Focuses on improving the user experience and customer retention by leveraging service-level objectives to govern service management
  • Software supply chain security: Addresses the risk of software supply chain attacks
3:00pm
Presentation

Presentation Delivered by SpaceX

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Keynote

Full session details coming soon…

Please note: This session will not be made available on-demand following the event.

3:35pm
Presentation

The Accelerating Pace of Innovation

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Digital Transformation

Technological approaches and tools are evolving at an unprecedented rate, making it faster and more affordable than ever before to create something new. This presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses, as they need to keep up with these innovations to remain relevant and competitive.

In this talk, we will showcase examples of this acceleration in technological innovation and provide insights on strategies for success in this new environment.

The Why: As leaders in technology, we tend to focus on certain aspects of technological evolution and may miss out on the big picture or a significant part of it. This talk is designed to help you evaluate whether you are on the cutting edge of technology, and if not, provide insights on how to get there and stay there.

Key Takeaways:

  • How your technology might become obsolete, even if it’s newly built
  • Constant innovation is no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses to thrive
  • With new advancements in technology, businesses have more opportunities to experiment and explore than ever before

This session is for… you if you are a leader in the technological space or aspire to become one.

3:35pm
Presentation

Sustainable Product Design

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Strategies
  • Digital Transformation
  • Non-Technical

Sustainable product design is the new frontier of design. Resources on the planet are limited, and excessive depletion, pollution and carbon emission are causing global climate change. Proliferation of consumer electronics with technologies like IoT and AI is exacerbating the problem.

Our future survival is dependent on how well we source and use our planet’s limited resources responsibly. Companies that have responsible sustainable designs will be the ones that come out ahead in the next 30 years.

The Why: Many countries will soon implement mandates for companies to operate and care about designing sustainability for a minimal carbon footprint to protect the planet and all species, including us.

Key Takeaways:

  • Why you and your organization should care about sustainable design
  • How your carbon footprint is generated in the life of a consumer electronics
  • How to your reduce carbon footprint when designing next-generation consumer electronics

This session is for… you if you want to learn how to apply sustainable design or work for a socially responsible organization.

3:35pm
Workshop

Metaverse For Good: Unlocking The Opportunities

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Digital Transformation
  • Premium Only
  • Technical

The Metaverse has exploded on scene in various forms over the last few years. While the rise in popularity has been primarily in the gaming and retail industry, there are some impactful use cases in other industries such as Healthcare.

This interactive session will walk you through how industries outside of gaming and retail are leveraging the Metaverse to transform how they operate, achieve better outcomes and harness the power of the emerging technology for social good.

The Why: As companies continue to invest in the Metaverse and find new and innovative use cases, future tech leaders will need to be prepared to navigate the metaverse and acquire the skills needed for this emerging technology.

Key Takeaways:

  • Gain insight into how the healthcare industry is leveraging the metaverse for good.
  • Understand how the metaverse can be applied in other industries outside of gaming and retail.
  • Get a sneak peek into the Metaverse in Healthcare.

This session is for… you if you are a curious learner with a growth mindset excited about learning and being exposed to the latest technologies.

3:35pm
Workshop

How To Enable An Always-On Resilient Cloud Environment

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Advanced Tech
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Premium Only Technical
  • Software Development

The cost of a single hour of downtime can be very high. We all have become accustomed to being always-on, where tolerance to downtimes has changed dramatically in this hyper-connected world. All this has been made possible by the power of Cloud.

Cloud computing is giving organizations unprecedented levels of agility, scalability, reliability, and above all, resilience by leveraging highly automated and scalable computer resources – self-provisioned, metered and on-demand! This is helping drive innovation in areas we have never seen before. Areas that demand always-on across hybrid environments, multi-clouds, supercloud/metacloud and the world of sky computing.

The Why: Per IDC there are 33 Zettabytes of data in the world and expected to grow to 175 Zettabytes by 2025. A lot of this will be newly generated data coming from all sorts of sources and in various forms like videos, documents, images etc. Trillions of IoT sensors generating high volume of high-frequency data that we can apply machine learning and AI to automate (AIOps), drive cost efficiency and provide new revenue opportunities. There is need for this data to be processed near real-time leveraging the power of the Cloud where a single hour of downtime can cost organizations hundreds of millions of dollars. We need to pay attention to the skills required to exercise the true potential of the Cloud and a mindset shift towards building a resilient design to enable availability of data when we want it and where we want it.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand shifts in Infrastructure & Cloud technologies as enablers for always-on services
  • Prepare to enable your enterprise proactively by identifying fit-for-purpose cloud resiliency capabilities
  • Learn about the shift in Infrastructure traditional roles and what organizational capability- Technical competencies and skills will become your competitive advantage; Prepare an action plan for your career in Cloud Resiliency

This session is for… you if you are a seasoned professional or just starting out in the industry, and you are interested in learning about, being an evangelist for, or interesting in developing skills for an always-on world.

3:35pm
Workshop

Designing and Developing Complex Distributed Systems

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only
  • Software Development
  • Technical

Full session details coming soon…

3:35pm
Workshop

Five Tips That Can Make Networking Effortless For Anyone… Even Introverts!

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Career Development
  • Networking
  • Premium Only

You do NOT have to be an extrovert to network. The thought of networking seems to scare a lot of people away.. especially my introverts. The thought of mind-numbing small talk and sleazy selling sounds awful… to ANYONE! What if you could think of networking from a completely different state of mind? What if it felt natural and smooth whether you’re an extrovert or introvert?

Attend this workshop to learn 5 amazing tools that so many people miss that are key to making networking so much easier and more effective!

Key Takeaways:

  • How to calm any nerves you might have networking
  • How to get conversation to flow easily
  • How to build know/like/trust
  • How to quickly and easily share what it is you do
  • The secret to easy follow-up
3:35pm
Workshop

Generative AI: A Technical Deep Dive

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Advanced Tech
  • AI
  • Premium Only
  • Technical

Over the past few years, Generative AI has emerged as a powerful tool for creating new and innovative solutions in a variety of fields, from music and art to natural language processing and computer vision. In this workshop, we’ll explore the fundamentals of Generative AI, including the different types of generative models, their applications, and their limitations.

We’ll begin by providing an overview of the basic concepts of Generative AI, including what it is, how it works, and what makes it different from other forms of artificial intelligence. From there, we’ll dive into the various types of generative models, including Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), and Autoregressive models, and discuss their unique features, strengths, and weaknesses.

The Why: Generative AI is an important topic because it has the potential to revolutionize the way we create and interact with content. It allows machines to generate new, realistic content, such as images, music, and even entire virtual worlds, that is similar to content created by humans. This technology has the potential to transform industries such as entertainment, healthcare, and finance, and can help us solve complex problems, such as developing personalized treatments for medical conditions.

Key Takeaways:

  • Gain an understanding of what generative models are, how they work, and what makes them unique from other types of machine learning models.
  • Become familiar with popular frameworks for generative AI, such as GANs, VAEs, and Transformers, and have a basic understanding of their architectures and applications.
  • Learn how generative AI is being used in various industries, from creating realistic simulations and virtual worlds to generating personalized recommendations and improving medical diagnoses.
  • Learn the potential ethical considerations of generative AI, such as the risk of bias and the responsibility of creators to use the technology responsibly.
  • Gain insight into where the field of generative AI is headed and what new innovations and breakthroughs are on the horizon.

This session is for… you if you are curious about Generative AI and want to learn more about it, this session is for you. It is designed for Creative Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Strategic Leaders in both Technology and Business Domains, and Researchers who are interested in exploring the potential of this exciting field.

4:10pm
Presentation

Tomorrow’s Tech Company: Inclusivity & Support in the Digital Age

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Not To Be Missed

The tech industry has been male-dominated for decades, but the tide is turning. Women in tech are making strides toward equal representation and recognition in the field. Women are breaking down barriers and proving that gender should not be a factor in determining one’s ability to excel in technology.

France and the USA are two countries with significant tech sectors, but they have different approaches to achieving gender parity in this field. However, by studying each other’s approaches and sharing best practices, we can work towards a more equitable and inclusive tech industry worldwide.

The Why: With years of experience working in the industry and advocating for diversity and inclusivity, I have seen firsthand the benefits that come from achieving parity in tech. Through my talk, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of why this issue matters and what steps can be taken to promote greater equality in the workplace.

Key Takeaways:

  • Achieving parity in tech not only promotes fairness and equality, but also leads to better business outcomes and innovation, leading to greater creativity and problem solving.
  • Achieving parity in tech requires a commitment to change. Through education and awareness initiatives, organizations can create a more inclusive culture and empower their employees to be advocates for change.
  • Despite their different approaches, both France and The USA can learn from each other’s successes and challenges.

This session is for you if…

  • You care about promoting inclusivity and inclusivity in the industry
  • You believe achieving parity in tech can have broad societal impacts
  • You want to know more about the French Tech Industry
4:10pm
Presentation

How to Build a Sustainable Pipeline where Diverse Talent Thrives

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Strategies
  • Diversity Equity & Inclusion
  • Non-Technical

Despite a heightened focus on DEI+B, particularly in the wake of the recent Black Lives Matter protests around the world, more talks around corporate social responsibility and an increase in underserved women founders in STEM/Tech industries, there still remains significant gaps between talk and action at many companies.

LinkedIn data shows that while 69% of talent professionals agree their organizations are committed to more diverse hiring, only 47% feel their hiring managers are held accountable for interviewing a diverse slate of candidates so this equates to prepared diverse talent not having access for equitable hiring practices, recruitment or advancement in the workplace.

In this session we’ll explore and dig into ways recruiters, managers and team leads can not only recruit qualified diverse talent but prepare the company culture for their arrival and advancement in leadership roles.

9:15am
Keynote

Welcome Remarks

15 mins
  • Track - Keynote
  • Keynote
  • Not To Be Missed

Join us for the day two 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.

9:30am
Keynote

Powering Innovation Through Inclusion

30 mins
  • Track - Keynote
  • Diversity Equity & Inclusion
  • Keynote
  • Not To Be Missed

How do you power innovation through inclusion? Dr. Virnitia Dixon will share perspectives and future-leaning practices that can help organizations and individuals use inclusion to drive innovation.

She will challenge participants to move beyond traditional DE&I approaches and foster innovation through people-centered strategies. You will be encouraged to revolutionize your current way of thinking and ‘unlearn’ some concepts that hinder intellectual curiosity and creativity.

This session will catapult your DE&I thinking and ignite breakthrough innovations through the power of human connections. Dr. Dixon will share how a strategic investment in inclusion can be a differentiator in technology and create pathways for women.

The Why:

  • The next-generation of women in technology deserve the next-generation of DE&I thought leadership.
  • Discover how a focus on psychological safety is powering innovation through inclusion.
  • It is critical for women in technology to stay knowledgeable on contemporary methods of building better teams.

Key Takeaways:

  • The new age of technology must leverage evolving and adapting DE&I strategies that build human connections.
  • Innovation starts with inclusion and is powered by data.
  • A renewed sense of resilience is a natural consequence of inclusive work environments.

This session is for…

  • You if you are interested in learning how inclusion can fuel innovation and create pathways for women.
  • You if you want to challenge traditional DE&I norms and embrace the new age of DE&I.
  • You if you are curious about how a focus on human connection can ignite breakthrough innovations.
10:00am
Keynote

Shattering The Glass Ceiling

30 mins
  • Track - Keynote
  • Career Development
  • Diversity Equity & Inclusion
  • Keynote
  • Not To Be Missed

Featuring trailblazing women in tech, you’ll hear the stories of highly successful women and their advice for breaking through invisible barriers to progress in the workplace. In this session, we’ll explore the barriers that prevent individuals from advancing in their careers, particularly women, and identify strategies for breaking down these barriers.

The Why: This panel discussion aims to explore the complexities of gender issues, and tech leadership, and provide insights into how we can create more equitable and just societies. By bringing together executives who champion women in tech, we hope to generate ideas and inspire action toward breaking the glass ceiling.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn from accomplished women in tech on getting ahead in your career
  • Overcome stereotypes and biased associated with being a woman in the tech field
  • Expand your network and search for the right mentor
11:40am
Presentation

Using Automation To Relieve Your Engineers

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Advanced Tech
  • Digital Transformation
  • Technical Software Development

What comes to mind when you hear the word Automation? Some may think of a factory where robots are assembling items. Others may think about their own smart home where the lights automatically come on at a certain hour, or the hot coffee that is magically waiting for you in the morning.

Automation delivers an outcome while minimizing human input. Automation can be leveraged in different ways from completing repetitive and simple tasks to using Artificial Intelligence which can “”learn”” as it goes. We’ll dive into how to develop richer automation solutions so you can focus on the interesting work.

The Why: At a time when engineer’s priorities are stretched, leveraging Automation to cover some of the more menial tasks will free up time for you and your engineers to focus on more interesting work and spark further innovation.

Key Takeaways:

  • Utilizing automation to fill in gaps in the workforce and empower the current workforce
  • How AI and ML are modernizing and transforming businesses for the future
  • Creating an automation center of excellence

This session is for… you if you are interested in the future of Automation and want to learn more about how it can support your business.

11:40am
Presentation

Navigating Complexity in Uncertain Times

30 mins
  • Track - frontier-leadership
  • Leadership
  • Non-Technical

As leaders and managers, we have moments when a curveball strikes, seemingly out of nowhere. We find ourselves faced with making a strategic decision with incomplete information and a high degree of uncertainty. If ever there was a moment to pause and think intentionally about leading through complexity and uncertainty, that time is now.

We have experienced the most disruptive healthcare and economic crisis in modern times. This session will build on lessons learned to look at shaping our mindset and practices now to set the tone for our response next time the charted path no longer meets needs.

Key Takeaways:

  • Know your true north: Be intentional and transparent with your business and people strategy so everyone is facing the same direction
  • Foster an open and supportive people culture – visibly celebrate your people and encourage them to celebrate each other
  • Arm yourself with supportive peers and trusted advisors, staying true to your values and implementing a ‘gut check’ cadence

This session is for… leadership with strategic decision-making responsibilities and for anyone in a supervisory role with the authority to make decisions that impact others.

11:40am
Workshop

Not-So-Risky Innovation: Creating and Maintaining an Adaptable Risk and Control Framework

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Digital Transformation
  • Not To Be Missed
  • Premium Only
  • Technical

With technology changing so quickly, organizations need a measured solution that will safeguard customers, but won’t stop innovation in its tracks. Change is hard, but it is also vital to the health and growth of any organization. Promoting change while controlling risk is a challenge many face in an ever-shifting corporate landscape. In this workshop, learn from two accomplished technology risk leaders, who will walk you through the steps of creating a scalable framework supportive of your organization’s ongoing innovation journey.

The Why: Every firm today has risk and we often hear mention of the importance of a “healthy risk appetite.” One of the best and most tangible ways to stay aware of and help control organizational risk, while also supporting growth, is through a reliable risk and control framework.

Key Takeaways:

  • Risk management doesn’t have to stifle innovation; on the contrary, in smart organizations, the two go hand in hand.
  • Developing a scalable and adaptable risk and control framework will enable organizations to proactively understand and manage risks associated with transformational change.
  • Participants will leave armed with a number of supports and resources to create, manage, and measure their own risk and control frameworks.

This session is for… you if you are interested in risk management tools that will successfully lead your company through any upcoming, transformational changes, particularly in fields that are highly regulated.

11:40am
Workshop

Showing Up as the Confident Leader You Are

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Career Development
  • Leadership
  • Premium Only

Full session details coming soon…

11:40am
Workshop

Cracking the Code: Empowering Women to Transition into Cybersecurity

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Not To Be Missed
  • Premium Only

This workshop is designed to empower women who are considering making the transition into a cyber career. The workshop will also provide hands-on activities and exercises to help participants build practical skills and confidence. Participants will leave the workshop with a better understanding of the cybersecurity field, the skills and knowledge required for a successful cyber career, and the resources available to support their journey.

Cybersecurity is a rapidly growing field, and there is a significant demand for cybersecurity professionals. However, women are underrepresented in this field. This workshop aims to provide women with the necessary skills and knowledge to think outside the box of their current path and translate those skills into needed cyber opportunities.

The goal of this workshop is to create a supportive and empowering environment for women who are transitioning into a cyber career. Participants will leave the workshop feeling inspired and motivated to pursue their career goals in cybersecurity.

Key Takeaways:

  • Expanding your skill set in Cyber and making the transition
  • Learn the key functions and skills that you already possess that you can highlight as comparable to needed cyber skills
  • Identifying your best allies and support network

This session is for… YOU! Are you interested in learning more about cybersecurity as an industry? Are you interested in how your career to date can help you to be ready now for a move into cybersecurity? Then stop by and discover a world of opportunities within you already, and in the cyberverse!

11:40am
Workshop

Mitigating Crisis Management Workshop

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only

Full session details coming soon…

11:40am
Workshop

Reacting in Real-Time: The Advantages of an Event-Driven Microservices Architecture

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Advanced Tech
  • Premium Only
  • Software Development

Event-driven microservices architecture is a software design approach that emphasizes the use of small, independent, and loosely-coupled services that communicate with each other via events. In this architecture, services are responsible for processing specific business events, and they communicate with each other asynchronously through event streams.

The event-driven architecture is based on the idea of an event, which is a significant occurrence in the system that other services can act on. Events can be generated by user actions, system events, or other services. Services can subscribe to specific types of events and perform actions based on them. This approach promotes decoupling and enables each service to operate independently and in isolation. In the market, there are event-driven services in the cloud: AWS Event Bridge, Azure Event Grid, and Google EventArc that provide intelligent routing and filtering capabilities to every event scenario and ensure that applications focus on core business logic rather than worrying about event routing.

Key Takeaways:

  • Scalability: The architecture allows for horizontal scaling of services and enables the addition or removal of services without impacting the system’s overall functionality.
  • Flexibility: Each service can be developed, deployed, and maintained independently, which provides flexibility to update and modify services without impacting the entire system.
  • Resilience: Since services are decoupled, failures in one service do not impact the entire system, making the system more resilient.
  • Agility: The architecture enables faster development and deployment cycles due to the decoupling of services and the flexibility to make changes independently. However, implementing an event-driven microservices architecture also has some challenges.

This session is for… IT professionals, developers, software architects, or anyone interested in learning more about managing batch workflows with serverless technology. This presentation could be beneficial for individuals who are responsible for designing, building, or managing batch workflows, data pipelines, or machine learning training jobs, as well as those who are interested in leveraging the benefits of serverless architecture.

12:15pm
Presentation

A Strategic Approach from Tech Pilot to a Full Rollout

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Technical

So, your pilot project was successful… Now what? How can you increase awareness and adoption in your organization? How can you position emerging technology as an enterprise solution and not just a flashy idea? In this session, the speaker will discuss the strategy for tech deployment from pilot to enterprise launch.

We will identify best practices for how to involve others in the organization to ensure a successful enterprise-wide launch. You will leave with a Pilot to Enterprise Launch checklist to help you organize and execute a successful enterprise launch.

The Why: Attendees need to know how to launch emerging technology in the enterprise for several reasons, including gaining a competitive advantage, reducing costs, improving the customer experience, encouraging innovation, and future-proofing the business. By being able to adopt new technologies, organizations can stay ahead of the curve, adapt more quickly, and remain relevant in a rapidly evolving market.

Key Takeaways:

  • Clearly define the goals and expectations for the emerging technology rollout
  • Identify all stakeholders involved in the rollout, including those who will be directly impacted by the technology
  • Stay up to date with emerging trends and technologies to ensure the organization remains innovative and competitive

This session is for… anyone interested in emerging technologies – how to pilot and implement them in their organization.

12:15pm
Presentation

Navigating The Modern Challenges of Entrepreneurship

30 mins
  • Track - frontier-leadership
  • Leadership
  • Non-Technical

Full session details coming soon…

1:50pm
Presentation

Managing Technical Debt and Creating Highly-Optimized IT Environments

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Digital Transformation
  • Software Development
  • Technical

As IT resources become strained, the accumulation of technical debt over time can create chaos and lead to your developers having to focus on resolving technical debt than focusing on the current priorities of the business. From poor quality of code to insufficient software testing, the longer that tech leaders wait to address it, the more costly it can become to resolve. As IT budgets go under greater scrutiny, it’s critical that stakeholders prioritize and understand development requirements before diving into any project.

Key Takeaways:

  • Mapping the technical debt of the business, prioritizing, and developing solutions
  • The importance of testing code, particularly when developing using new tools or languages
  • How implementing DevOps principals could help to minimize technical debt
1:50pm
Presentation

How To Shape and Lead Multi-Generational Workforces

30 mins
  • Track - frontier-leadership
  • Diversity Equity & Inclusion
  • Non-Technical Leadership

Session details coming soon…

Key Takeaways:

  • How to upskill and reskill seasoned workers into modern technical employees
  • How to communicate and resolve cultural clashes with multi-generational workforces
  • Planning ahead for the skills of the future
1:50pm
Workshop

Debut Your Champion Workshop

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only

You dream of being comfortable in your own skin. You dream of more influence, impact, income, and success. But your fear and self-doubt of what could go wrong are holding you captive.

Imposter syndrome often surfaces as feeling like a phony. You sometimes feel as though at any moment you will be found out as a fraud—like you don’t belong where you are. A recent study found that 75% of women identified as having experienced imposter syndrome at various points during their careers. Time to ditch the doubt and empower your inner voice champion!

Why attend this session – During this active and engaging workshop you will confront your feelings of doubt, discover how to crush your critic, and develop a plan to become unstoppably confident!

Key Takeaways:

  • Discover ways to increase confidence and self-belief!
  • Acquire tools to help you embrace your strengths!
  • Develop methods to unleash your inner champion!

This session is for… everyone who wants to identify what triggers their feelings of imposter and self-criticism. And discover how to establish empowered responses and inspired self-talk and debut your champion!

1:50pm
Workshop

How To Protect Your Career Growth Amid Growing Layoffs

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Career Development
  • Premium Only

Tech workers in the US are currently facing extreme stress from the growing layoffs in the face of an uncertain economy. While you may not be able to make yourself 100% layoff-proof, as one door closes, many will still be open.

In this workshop, we’ll explore the various methods that you can leverage to bounce back and protect yourself from layoffs including exploring alternative growth industries and how to pitch yourself within them as well as the importance of deepening and widening the depth of your skillsets.

Key Takeaways:

  • Identifying cross-transferable skills to pivot industries and functions
  • How to utilise networks to identify new opportunities
  • How to kick start opportunities to carve out your own ventures
1:50pm
Workshop

Software Testing in Hardware-in-the-Loop Environments

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Advanced Tech
  • Premium Only
  • Software Development
  • Technical

Control software is becoming a larger component of nearly all systems – it is vitally important to put safety-critical software through its paces by testing it in the most real-world environment available. Enter Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing! HIL testing entails simulating and environmental inputs for the system under test, causing it to believe that it is reacting to real-world conditions.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the aspects of Hardware-in-the-Loop testing including an example of one of the most challenging human endeavors – building a space station!

Workshop activity: We will do an activity today that matches software systems with the hardware needed to create a Hardware-in-the-Loop test. Your team will oversee testing a software system, such as life support or navigation.

The Why: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing is key to reducing risk, and solving challenging situations such as humans living and working in space.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn how to use Hardware-in-the-Loop testing techniques in the development and testing of complex real-time embedded systems
  • How to use HIL testing to minimise risk to human life
  • Learn how to build a HIL testing system by matching control software with the hardware components it is designed to monitor and control.

This session is for… you if you are curious about how safe and reliable control software is developed and tested for spacecraft, airplanes, or even automobile’s collision avoidance systems while reducing the risk to human lives.

1:50pm
Workshop

Using Data to Strengthen Your Customer Experience Strategy

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only
  • Technical

Join this session to learn the importance of a first-party data strategy to maximize your personalized customer experience strategy. Kelly and Courtney will share details to prioritize identity resolution, how to build a first-party data asset, align your organization, and focus on your use case.

Attendees will take away insights on the significance of accurate customer profiles, how a standardized data model enables enterprise business intelligence, the need for organizational alignment, and identifying holistic business goals.

Key Takeaways:

  • The importance of prioritizing identity resolution
  • Building a first-party data asset
  • How to take a use case-driven approach
1:50pm
Workshop

Breaking Silos: Building a Mindset and Culture of Quality

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Leadership
  • Premium Only

Join this dynamic workshop designed for leaders and employees who want to improve collaboration and communication within their organization. During this engaging and interactive session, participants will explore the root causes of silos and learn practical strategies for overcoming them.

Through a mix of group discussions, case studies, and hands-on experiential exercises, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the impact of silos on productivity, innovation, and morale. You will also learn techniques for breaking down barriers, fostering cross-functional teamwork, and building a culture of openness and trust. Participants will leave the seminar with a clear action plan for implementing the strategies they have learned and the confidence and skills to drive change in their organization.

Key Takeaways:

  • Identifying silos in your organization, their negative effects and the importance of communication and collaboration
  • Developing a common language and shared purpose
  • Creating a culture of transparency and accountability
  • Leveraging technology to support teamwork and knowledge sharing

This session is for… Leaders looking to improve team dynamics, or those seeking to be more effective in a collaborative environment.

2:25pm
Presentation

Unlocking Supply Chain Efficiency through Data and Decision Trees

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Advanced Tech
  • Digital Transformation
  • Technical

With constrained supply chains and logistic networks, it has become increasingly difficult to plan operations that are efficient and profitable. In a multimodal transportation process, wide variability in impelling factors leads to long tails in the arrival times’ distributions making it harder to predict. Traditionally prevalent machine learning approaches that provide a single-point prediction of arrival time fall short on accuracy and equally pivotal – stability of estimation.

The solution presented in this talk demonstrates that a more practical estimation of arrival times can be provided by exploiting the leaf nodes on tree-based models combined with a network model. The talk will also cover how to prepare training and test data to minimize data leak. It will demonstrate the details of quantifying the stability metric and optimizing the algorithm for the appropriate ratio of accuracy and window. This approach led to a gain in accuracy and proven efficiency in stable planning.

The Why: A novel machine learning approach to predict arrival times for unusual events, and how to quantify its effectiveness for stable planning.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to use real-time feature engineering and handle its challenges.
  • Unconventional integration of machine learning and network models
  • Designing right metrics and KPIs for arrival time predictions

This session is for… Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Product managers, Business Analysts.

2:25pm
Presentation

Getting & Staying Ahead in Technology: Lead with Purpose

30 mins
  • Track - frontier-leadership
  • Career Development
  • Leadership
  • Non-Technical

For any woman currently in a technology position or for those looking to explore a career in tech, it is important for them to consider how to succeed in the field today. Sarah Martin has worked in the tech space for nearly two decades and has successfully risen through the ranks of a traditionally and heavily male-dominated field.

For any woman currently in a technology position or for those looking to explore a career in tech, it is important for them to consider how to succeed in the field today. Sarah Martin has worked in the tech space for nearly two decades and has successfully risen through the ranks of a traditionally and heavily male-dominated field.

Part of the secret to her success has been finding new opportunities to stretch herself and build new skills, ultimately becoming what she calls “”an operator”” and not just a great technology professional. Most important to Sarah’s own career trajectory has been her ability to connect her work to a deep societal purpose.

In this presentation, Sarah will offer advice for women looking to learn how to get and stay ahead in technology. Sarah’s guidance will help you learn how to connect to your own purpose as THE greatest source of your professional growth and success.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to get and stay ahead in technology today by challenging yourself to build your business, and not just your technology, acumen
  • How to find a deeper purpose in your work, including how to think about the application of technology as a powerful source of good
  • How applying your purpose can help guide new transformational technologies, inspire greater team engagement, and become the best source of good decision-making and leadership
3:00pm
Presentation

Pivoting Towards The Next Frontier in Cloud

30 mins
  • Track - Frontier Tech
  • Advanced Tech
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Technical

In the current macroeconomic uncertainty, organizations are shifting from moving workloads on cloud to optimizing spend on cloud. While focussing on improving spend in the cloud, there is a need to start innovating in cloud to fuel growth and maximize cloud ROI.

Organizations have to pivot to:

  • Optimize Cloud Spend through better financial management techniques.
  • Becoming a Data Driven Organization by utilizing AI/ML for better business decision making.
  • Innovating in Cloud through Industry Clouds

The Why: Most of the organizations are not able to profile the benefits of cloud and at the same need to accelerate their journey on cloud transformations. In this session, the attendees would learn ways and mechanism on how to better optimize cloud spend and learn on how to innovate in cloud i.e. Industry Cloud to drive better business decision making.

Key Takeaways:

  • Key tenets of the next frontier in Cloud
  • Learn about pitfalls leading to increased spend in the cloud and mechanisms to optimize spend
  • Learn about Industry Cloud and how to create one for your organization
3:00pm
Presentation

Building a Diverse Data Analytics Team in Your Journey To Becoming a Data-Led Organization

30 mins
  • Track - frontier-leadership
  • Diversity Equity & Inclusion
  • Leadership
  • Non-Technical

The demand for data is only increasing, bringing data analytics teams front and center with opportunities to help propel their business. In this session, we will discuss how to scale build diverse data teams, the key roles to hire for, how to drive data-enabled business growth, and what data analytics with cybersecurity looks like today and as the industry continues to evolve.

The Why: High-growth companies are becoming increasingly reliant on data and data analytics teams to analyze and inform their business. As this reliance on data grows, the demand for data experts skyrockets. With this in mind, it is crucial that organizations are able to optimize for strategic hires with diverse perspectives.

Key Takeaways:

  • Defining your tech and organizational strategy to prioritize strategic hires
  • How to approach diversity and inclusion when building these teams
  • How to drive data-enabled business growth and the right data-driven culture within the company by leveraging analytics, data science, and machine learning

This session is for… you if you are interested in the future of data analytics and how to hire a well-rounded, diverse data team.

3:00pm
Workshop

Social Engineering: How To Protect Yourself and Your Customers From Cyber Hacks

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Premium Only
  • Security
  • Technical

Social engineering is now one of the most common attack vectors in cybersecurity, with everyone from individuals to organizations being targets. Without proper awareness and practices, even the most seemingly minor information available online can lead to a shattering exploit by a skilled attacker. With the growing number of romance scam, business email compromises (BEC) and other hacks that influence people into giving their information that leads to financial and emotional consequences.

Our security posture must be strong especially operating in Cyberspace. Our business and personal lives are documented via all platforms to increase awareness of our business and to share our lives with friends and family. Unfortunately, hackers use our information to appeal to our emotions and manipulate people. Ready to learn how to social engineer work in your business and personal live and how to identify and report the potential scam.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to protect secure yourself and your business from Social Engineering attacks.
  • Identifying Social Engineering Principles and Framework and how to reduce the risk of an a
  • How security awareness can help protect their customers and employees.

This session is for… everyone who is interested in learning more about social engineering and its tactics. How to identify a scam and best practices to help you as an individual, family and organization better secure yourself.

3:00pm
Workshop

Portable Kubernetes: Leveraging Open-Source for Consistency Across Clouds

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Advanced Tech
  • Premium Only
  • Software Development

Want to avoid cloud vendor Kubernetes lock-in? Need to deploy to multiple cloud environments? Looking to improve deployment speed, manage cloud infrastructure more efficiently, and increase application resource-sharing?

This deep dive details design patterns, automation strategies, and open-source tooling enabling a relatively small infrastructure team at SLB to deploy and manage shared Kubernetes clusters in multiple cloud environments for over a dozen app teams. The team also operates shared portable services such as observability, service mesh, backups, secrets management, security monitoring, and cost tracking, allowing app teams to focus on feature delivery as well as streamlining and standardizing operational support.

The Why: Avoid cloud vendor lock-in, deploy more easily to multiple cloud vendor Kubernetes environments, improve efficiency and maintainability through comprehensive automation.

Key Takeaways:

  • Reduce cloud vendor lock-in by using open-source portable tools and Kubernetes as a standard
  • Automate – for deployment, but also upgrades, security, documentation and more — to make complex infrastructure sustainable for a smaller team
  • Modularize to increase flexibility: separate cloud-specific elements from cloud-agnostic ones, and leverage abstraction layers

This session is for… Engineers and architects familiar with Kubernetes, who contribute to cloud infrastructure either full or part-time: e.g., cloud software engineers, cloud infrastructure engineers, DevOps engineers, and SREs.

3:00pm
Workshop

Creating A Culture Where Your People Belong

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Diversity Equity & Inclusion
  • Leadership
  • Premium Only

A critical ingredient of high-performance in any organization is a culture of psychological safety. Belonging is essential to humans. In times of social unrest, anxiety, post-pandemic fear and overall life stress, it’s vital that organizations create a way to galvanize support and manage complex change to create a culture where every employee, regardless of their background, feels that they belong.

Because the need to belong is universal and fundamental, focusing on it has the power to draw in the entire workforce, even those who might feel excluded from — or threatened by — current DE&I directives.

Psychological safety at work doesn’t mean that everybody is nice to each other all the time. It means that people feel free to “”brainstorm out loud,”” voice half-finished thoughts, openly challenge the status quo, share feedback, and work through disagreements together — knowing that leaders value honesty, candor, and truth-telling, and that team members will have one another’s backs. It is an atmosphere in which people fearlessly engage, question, experiment, and deliver value rather than fearing, blaming, and spending time protecting themselves. In this workshop, you’ll develop skills for growing psychological safety in yourself, your teams, and your organization.

The Why: Organizations that focus on creating environments centered around promoting psychological safety see increased employee retention, improved productivity and performance, greater creativity and innovation and an elevated employee experience.

So, who is responsible for creating such safety? All of us! When we model and cultivate psychological safety, we enable greater transparency, closer relationships, improved collaboration, and better outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

  • Creating psychological safety in your teams during uncertain times
  • How to lean into your authenticity as a leader
  • Providing your team with the tools to show up in strength and confidence
3:00pm
Workshop

Protecting Innovation In A Rapid Development Environment And Building Value

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Not To Be Missed
  • Premium Only

Tech organizations understand the importance of harnessing innovation to capture growth opportunities and maximize success. This mean tech providers must evolve their product portfolio, apply innovative technology to their operations, and adopt new go-to-market strategies that yield consistent results.

This workshop provides a detailed look into how such companies can devise strategies, plan effectively, and protect their innovation in order to succeed and stay ahead in today’s rapidly changing market. Join in as we dive in to how they can seize growth opportunities by uncovering methods to capture and protect innovation in a rapid development environment and explore best practices that can help you create value in their portfolio!

The Why: Attendees of the workshop will get the tools they need to create value from innovation efforts within their own organizations. They’ll learn how to shift from traditional linear models into quick cycles of experimentation so they can quickly integrate IP strategy into their product development with higher quality and expected ROI outcomes. They will leave feeling confident about their next steps towards creating high impact projects that innovate efficiently without sacrificing viability or intellectual property protection.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand the common challenges facing tech organizations when innovating in a rapid development landscape (Agile or DevOps)
  • Learn best practices to adopt that integrate IP strategies into your product development and go-to-market strategies
  • Gain tips on how to use agility and data-driven decision-making to generate value in your product and IP portfolios that helps you
  • Capitalize on the growth potential, get stakeholder buy-in, or attract investment

This session is for…Technology leaders, Startup Leaders, Product Leaders, Scrum Masters.

3:00pm
Workshop

Embarking on a Data Transformation

60 mins
  • Track - Workshop
  • Digital Transformation
  • Premium Only

Embarking on a data transformation is like renovating your house while living in it – it’s challenging, but possible! In this engaging 60-minute workshop, you’ll learn why data transformations often fail, explore a practical framework that minimizes risks and delivers consistent business results, and discover tactics for navigating out of failures.

Whether you’re responsible for delivering data projects or a stakeholder who relies on data, this session will provide you with a pragmatic blueprint for success. You’ll walk away with practical, actionable strategies that will help you transform your data and enable your team to win with data.

The Why: Data is an essential asset for organizations, and data transformations are critical to unlocking its value. However, data transformations are complex and challenging, and many organizations struggle with failures and setbacks along the way. By attending this session, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the common pitfalls of data transformations and how to overcome them. They will also learn a practical framework that will help them minimize risks, deliver consistent business results, and navigate through failures, enabling them to succeed in their data transformation initiatives.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn about the common reasons why data transformations fail and how to overcome them
  • Discover a practical framework and strategy that minimizes risks and delivers consistent business results
  • Failures happen, explore tactics for navigating out of them, ensuring that you can successfully complete your data transformation projects

This session is for… anyone who is responsible for delivering data projects, stakeholders who rely on data, or users of data. Sample profiles could include data analysts, data scientists, data engineers, business analysts, product owners, IT managers, and executives who oversee data initiatives. Regardless of your role or experience level, this workshop will provide you with practical, actionable strategies that will help you transform your data and enable your team to win with data.

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Events in the Women In Technology Series

Women in Tech DC

May 15 - 16, 2024Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, MD

European Women In Technology

June 26 - 27, 2024RAI Amsterdam

Women Of Silicon Roundabout

Nov 27 - 28, 2024ExCeL London

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