Everyone acknowledges the importance of having relatable role models for our career and personal development but unfortunately, we live in a society that lacks diversity in positions of power and influence making it harder to find good examples we can look up to.

As Marian Wright Edelman once put it “you can’t be what you can’t see”. It’s all too easy to get lost when you don’t know where you want to get to.
In this talk, I share the tools and techniques I've used in order to figure out my own career path in the absence of relatable role models and that helped me stay inspired to this day.

Key Takeaways:

• How inspiration can come from many places, not just role models
• You don’t need to be in Leadership in order to help other women rise above
• How not having a plan is the best way to get nowhere

Who says you have to be the smartest person in the room? Who says authority and power needs to come with a command and control type culture?

This deep-dive masterclass will explore effective leadership methods that inspire and bring out the best in your people. You will learn how to lead with your heart and humility to create psychological safety amongst your team that is instrumental to the well being and culture of your organisation.

Key Takeaways:

• Explore the theory of servant leadership and the ethics required
• Strategies to inspire future leaders within your team, not more followers
• How to create the right culture and support mechanisms that allow your team to feel safe
• Hands on coaching tips that are inspired by the trillion dollar coach.

Target Audience: All those in leadership positions.

It’s hard to picture what next week will be like never mind next year but from a data perspective there are clear trajectories. In this presentation on what the dataverse will look like in 2030, WPP’s Global Head of Data & AI will talk through some key trends including sustainability, insights, data ownership and humanising data.

Key Takeaways:

• How data ownership will be going out of fashion
• How the role of data ethics and responsible AI
• What new skills will be required to navigate the dataverse

Target Audience: Anyone who is interested in future proofing their data strategy

It's no secret that many software companies have embarked on projects that ended up taking months or even years to get to users. In most cases, this could and should have been prevented. This talk will explore the surprising amount of power each individual has to impact the speed at which our companies move.

Key Takeaways:

• How crucial it is to ship user value quickly and safely
• What you can do to influence a shipping culture
• Tools that you can implement to get your code to users faster

Session details coming soon...

Engineers are high in demand and expensive, so naturally there have been attempts to short-circuit this business need in the form of low-code/no-code technology. Will these products put engineers out of business or can they actually benefit engineering teams? You will leave this talk armed with potential use cases for these products as well as warnings of things to consider when you use them. I hope you will give them a try for your next side hustle!

Key Takeaways:

• Regardless of your technical background, learn the tools that can enable you to build tech, be it websites, mobile apps or APIs.
• The benefits such tools offer developer teams by making experimenting cheaper and saving time on boring, repetitive tasks.
• Understand the limitations these tools have in scalability and customisation.

Wondering if you’ll ever feel like you’re good enough to do your job? Sick of feeling like others are better than you? Want to rid yourself of the feeling you’re going to get found out? In this session we will explore the three key secrets that you need to arm yourself if you’re working and living with feelings of imposter syndrome.

Key Takeaways:

• How your brain gets in the way and what you can do to get back in the driving seat
• How to tame your inner critic and bust through your limiting beliefs
• How to crank up your confidence and finally break free of the limitations of imposter syndrome

Workshop Activities: We will be following a 5 step strategy for you to build your self-belief so you can achieve your innate potential.

While there is no “I” in team, there is a “you” in your career. How many times do you struggle to get the promotion or the role opportunity because you don’t want to take credit for the work the team does? How do you make sure senior leaders know who you are and what you contribute in a way that feels natural and easy?

It can often jar with our natural instincts and can feel a little bit fake when you need to make sure leaders in your organisation see & importantly know your name & the skills you bring. The purpose of this session is to have an open discussion and opportunity to “practice” those conversations demonstrating the value you add to a team and an organisation in a way that is natural and honest – giving you the tools to take an active part in shaping your career.

Key Takeaways:

• What do we mean by authenticity & what does it mean for you
• How to create the conversations you want to have to share the stories of your achievements confidently and authentically
• What you can do to drive change in your career in the way you want

Target Audience: This session is for those who don’t yet feel ready to ask for that 121 with your CTO/ leadership team but want to. This is for anyone in junior-middle management roles who are looking for ways to take their career to the next level in technology.

There are lots of talks and theories about how to create great teams and increase their performance, but how difficult is it sometimes is to relate to those scenarios or to take actionable items away from those?

This talk aims to give some real life insights that can be applied to any team at any maturity stage on how you can make a team out of a group of people and encourage them to work at their best.

Key Takeaways:

• How to set up a successful team
• How to make them self sufficient
• Driving business value

As technology serves to tackle complex problems around the globe, the COVID pandemic has challenged government organisations and innovators alike to find new ways to quickly address its disastrous effects on society. Hear why meeting that challenge head-on by delivering advanced technology ecosystems that assist in solving large-scale, human centric problems for end users was key, the progression that has been made and where we go from here.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn about the science behind the solution through quantum-inspired technology
• How the Digital Annealer technology speeds up that important early stage drug design and optimisation of targeted drug-like compounds
• Hear how the same technology also helped with supply chain challenges for PPE delivering a theoretical optimisation model in a fair and efficient manner
• Discover how technology that is solving one problem is going on to solve others across industries.

Depending on what reports you read, anywhere from 70% to 99% of the web does not meet accessibility guidelines, yet there are millions of people worldwide who require accessibility considerations. Accessibility is a vast area, but there are some considerations and quick wins that can help improve the sites we build. This talk will go into those, and leave you in a good place to start thinking about how to make your online presence a more inclusive place.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the different types of accessibility needs
• Learn some quick wins 
• Build a clean roadmap for your next steps

Target Audience: Anyone involved in the creation of products for the web: Engineers, product managers, tech leads, D&I leads, or anyone interested in learning more about accessibility.

Campfire Sessions are closed-group discussions for those looking to participate in facilitated networking sessions where they are engage in debate on pivotal issues facing technology professionals.

Denise will deep dive into the real-life lessons learned when planning for and delivering large-scale Cloud migrations. 

Key Takeaways:

• Planning is everything
• Prepping for Cloud is all about other non-IT areas playing their part
• Financial monitoring and control of Cloud resources reduces the need for perfection!

Target Audience: For those who are planning a migration to Cloud and would like to understand the key building blocks that need to be in place in order to deliver a successful outcome

Product people and analysts are often tasked with creating compelling cases for strategic decisions. However, this ability doesn’t always translate to selling themselves in CV’s and cover letters as part of the job search process. Seri will run through how to create a CV that stands out from others in a similar role and give a few tips on how you can add something special to your cover letters.

There’s no one way to make a great CV, but with a few tried and true tools, you’ll be more confident that you’re presenting real evidence for why you’re the right candidate.

18 months into one of Europe’s largest digital transformations, what have we learned?

During the presentation, I will share insights and reflections coming from Stitch Fix to help lead H&M Group’s journey into our new Business Tech organization including: building a new culture virtually, establishing & empowering product teams, becoming customer-centric at the core, and shifting from waterfall to agile development.

Key Takeaways:

• Building a new culture virtually
• Establishing and empowering product teams
• Becoming customer-centric at the core
• Shifting from waterfall to agile development

Target Audience: Product and technology leaders looking to increase efficiency and impact of their teams, especially those who are considering or are on a digital transformation journey

Session details coming soon....

Session details coming soon....

Patsy will share her experiences of 3 career changes and how to move closer to your ultimate goal, without settling into one. Expect insight on how to build transferable skills and make them visible to your future employers and/or clients.

Key Takeaways:

• How to present your transferable skills and achieve career changes
• Tactics to talk to people from different industries and backgrounds
• How to manage relocation, for yourselves and your team

Target Audience: If you are tired of what you are doing and find it increasingly hard to wake up to work. 

In this session, we look at the challenges of translating your culture to new hybrid ways of working and how to overcome these challenges without losing your identity and your best people.

AI has been called “the new electricity”, so significant are its potential transformative effects on societies and economies. But very real risks exist, including around security, accountability, privacy, bias and exclusion. Every data point represents something about someone’s life or business, something that really happened; and automated decisions can, and will, have a very real impact on our lives. Many companies are just beginning to face the complexities of tackling these risks and there are no “right answers”.

How can organisations implement strong governance and ethical, responsible approaches to data and AI? What does the journey to get there really look like in practice?

Key Takeaways:

• Realising the benefits of AI depends on building consumer trust
• Understanding consumer attitudes to data and AI through research is a critical part of the journey.
• How to consider your company's ethics and culture, as well technology, governance and processes.
• Going beyond the legal requirements and establishing organisational values can be a turning point in the journey.

Target Audience: Geared towards any business seeking to leverage the power of data responsibly; regulatory policy or governmental audiences seeking insights about how businesses are trying to achieve best practice in this space; or anyone interested in privacy, technology, and ethics.

Session details coming soon....

McKinsey's latest research shows we have made progress with regards to women on FTSE 350 boards but very little progress has been made below the board (executive level). The research is now clear - to make progress we need to start earlier, supporting and enabling younger women, within companies.

During this talk I will share how to get women interested and actively involved in the boardroom, with knowledge of committees and why the role of the board, is absolutely vital. I'll share inspiration on why you are NEVER TOO YOUNG to know about the boardroom because it matters. Taking on small boards earlier in your career is not only a CV differentiator but also puts you at the top of organisations, way before you might get the opportunity within your firm.

Key Takeaways:

• Benefits of the boardroom
• Introduction to the VC industry and how to get involved
• The affect of AI has and how it will change everything

Edge Computing is one of the most transformative technologies to emerge in recent years, with organisations building innovative applications using distributed multi-access edge computing (MEC) combined with 5G mobile connectivity. If you’re an innovator at heart, and you imagine creating a better future, there’s never been a better time. Listen to Elizabeth Rumsey, from Vodafone Business, talk through how she’s been working to harness the power of Edge and deliver new use cases that can transform businesses.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover the game changing nature of MEC and why milliseconds do matter.
• Understand which verticals are currently finding competitive advantage through MEC and what the current state is of Edge in the market today.
• Explore examples of use cases that Vodafone has delivered on MEC and how these are enabling innovation right now.

Session details coming soon....

The COVID pandemic has unravelled a harsh reality of lot's of lives and business. Digital is not an option, it's a necessity and the future of our world. This digital imperative has caused an explosion of digital transformation programs in each industry hence creating job opportunities in technology like never before. The gap between skills and demand is huge and this is the right time to pivot careers and move into the technology industry.

In this session I will try to simplify some common concepts, debunk some myths and discuss some options on how to get started or accelerate your career in the technology industry.

Over the last decade, we have seen an increased focus on inclusion and diversity in the technology industry. We all understand the value of diverse teams and are working to build our pipeline of future generations’ talent, attract and retain talent in our industry, and connect our communities. The topic of inclusion and diversity is spoken about at almost every event we attend, yet we need to pick up the pace and find more tangible, practical ways to make an impact together so we can truly make a difference.

Join Nish Parkar, Global Cybersecurity Communications Leader and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead at Cisco Secure to gain some practical tips to help you create a more inclusive future for all.

Key Takeaways:

• Know that we all play a role in driving a more inclusive future
• Feel empowered to take actions at an individual level and how each action will make a significant impact on others in the industry and on our world
• Be able to action the concepts such as Allyship, Advocacy, Intersectionality, Sponsorship and Proximity

Target Audience: Leaders and individual contributors alike who have a passion for driving diversity, equity and inclusion in technology and want to build a more inclusive culture at their own organisations.