WEARETECHWOMEN AGENDA

08:00 – Registration and networking

08:50 – Welcome with Vanessa Vallely OBE, Managing Director, WeAreTechWomen & WeAreTheCity

08:55 – Welcome from conference facilitator and host with Kate Russell, Journalist, Tech Reporter & Author, BBC Click

09:00 – Headline keynote – Corinna Fechner, Regional Sales Manager – Media, Entertainment & Gaming, Dell Technologies

09:10 – Let’s create a movement, TechSheCan with Sheridan Ash, Technology and Investments Director and Women in Technology Leader, PwC

Working together we can inspire more females to get into tech subjects and careers at an earlier stage of their lives. Sheridan Ash founded The Tech She Can Charter in 2018 and its now a collaboration of over 125 organisations. The Charter signatories have produced ‘Tech We Can’ lessons and successfully piloted these with teachers and over 700 students between 10-13 years old. Next stage is to make the lessons available to all schools. Hear from Sheridan to find out more about how you and your organisation can support this fantastic initiative.

AM Session 1

09:20 – Technology is not a “thing”, it’s a way of thinking – it’s dramatically changing how we think with Dr Pippa Malmgren, Co-Founder, H Robotics

09:35 – The Post Digital Era: tech innovation and what it means for business, people and society with Emma Kendrew, Intelligent Engineering Services Lead, Accenture Technology UKI

Businesses have spent the last ten years becoming ‘digital’ – acquiring technology and applying it to their business. Today Emma will talk about how the focus of that technology now needs to shift more towards people. Using new business models and ways of working, designing technology to help people in every element of life – from social to economic good – will help the world, as well as businesses themselves.

09:55 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of AI with Rob McCargow, Director of AI, PwC

2019 has seen extraordinary progress in the field of artificial intelligence with positive breakthroughs occurring on a weekly basis. However, for all the positive development, there continues to be a proliferation in harmful AI use cases.

Bringing the year to life, Rob will highlight the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of AI and look ahead to 2020 and beyond to assess the opportunities this presents for designing a career path that is fit for the future.

10:15 – Tech innovation and AI Q&A panel with Dr Pippa Malmgren; Emma Kendrew; Rob McCargow; Meri Williams, CTO, Monzo Bank and Anna Keren, Director of Engineering, Babylon Health

AM Session 2

11:20 – Invisible women – exposing data bias in a world designed for men with Caroline Criado Perez OBE, Writer, Broadcaster and award-winning feminist campaigner, author of Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you’re a woman. In this talk, Caroline Criado Perez will show how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population.

11:35 – Preventing Big Data Anarchy in the UK with Deborah O’Neill, Head of UK Digital, Partner, Oliver Wyman

Big data has made big, positive changes to both businesses and society, but the line between ethical and unethical data usage continues to be crossed. In the UK, our data and privacy should be protected by the GDPR, but recent media headlines from around the world suggest that legislation alone may not be enough to stop our personal data from being stored, processed, and used in ways we would not knowingly consent to. Against this backdrop, we’ll look at what needs to be done by governments, corporates, and the public to prevent big data anarchy in the UK.

11:55 – Cyber security – Making it a habit, not a hassle with Lopa Ghosh, Associate Partner, UKI Cyber Leader, People and Culture Lead, EY

Cybersecurity isn’t all about 1 & 0’s. Where technology affects all aspects of corporate and human life, being cyber secure and maintaining personal identity isn’t just the computer’s job.  We all have a part to play in keeping us, and organisations secure.  When technology isn’t enough, what else can be done?  This talk is around understanding the human and cultural aspect of cybersecurity and information protection.  How a culture of working is as important as the tech to keeping you secure.

12:15 – Big data and cyber security Q&A panel hosted by Kate Russell, BBC Click with Caroline Criado Perez OBE; Deborah O’Neill; Lopa Ghosh; Dr Ian Levy, Technical Director, National Cyber Security and Holly Armitage, Head of Data Services, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence

14:00 – Elective Session 1

(delegates can chose one elective session)

The future of payments with Jana Mackintosh, Public Policy Director, Worldpay

Jana will talk about her experience working in payments, during what is, and has been, a very exciting and challenging time. She will provide you with some insights on what it is like working for a global payments firm, and how the UK is shaping the agenda. She will discuss how payments affect our everyday lives. Innovation and what real disruption looks like, and what the future might hold.

Meet the disruptors – How entrepreneurs and start-ups are disrupting the industry in the tech landscape Q+A panel hosted by Kate Russell, BBC Click with Jess Wade MBE, Physicist, Imperial College London; Claudine Adeyemi, Founder & CEO, Career Ear; Ben Towers, Multi-Award Winning Young Tech Entrepreneur; Ben Brabyn, Head, Level39; Tim Dinsdale, CTO Europe, OpenFin; Cheryl Laidlaw, Founder, London Web Girl and June Angelides, VC at Samos Investments, Entrepreneur, Advisor, Speaker, Writer, sponsored by OpenFin Inc

How a purposeful organisation leverages scale and technology for good, with Gary Lapthorn, Head of Sustainability & Responsible Business, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking; Annabel Finlay, Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Large Corporates, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking and Hannah Munro, Head of Inclusion & Diversity, Group Transformation, Lloyds Banking Group

Under its mission to help Britain prosper, Lloyds Banking Group believes they have a responsibility to address some of challenges that the UK faces today. This includes championing diversity, tackling social disadvantage as well as building capability and digital skills. They’re also supporting businesses to start up and scale up, and leading the way in the transition to a low carbon economy. Hear more about how Lloyds Bank is investing in tech sector clients, and how the Group is using its scale and technology for good, helping customers and communities, and learn how you and your organisation might do the same.

“Alexa, who built you?” The importance of cultivating diversity to build the future with Lauren Kisser, Director, Alexa International Q&A, Amazon

For a company like Amazon, innovation is crucial to its success. Cultivating a diverse workforce provides a better understanding of customers’ needs and is key to unlocking ideas. Lauren Kisser – an Amazon veteran who has worked on a range of innovations: from Amazon Web Services S3 and the drone delivery service Prime Air; through to the cloud-based voice assistant Alexa – will talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion to drive innovation, and how it is put into practice with the Alexa team in Cambridge.

14:50 – Elective Session 2

(delegates can chose one elective session)

The evolution of cloud technology, with Marnie McCormack, Software Engineering Director; and Julie Fraulo, Software Engineering Director, J.P. Morgan

The cloud space has evolved significantly over the last few years. Not only has it helped enable innovation and agility, but it has fundamentally changed the way we develop software. Come hear about the evolving cloud capabilities transforming technology products and changing how we deliver solutions to key business problems – as well as what’s coming next! We’ll cover some interesting uses of cloud services alongside an action-packed demo of how to get up to speed quickly and safeguard your skills for the future. We look forward to seeing you at our Evolution of Cloud Technology talk!

Ready for tomorrow? Transforming technology leadership and systems engineering, with Mivy James, Head of Consulting, BAE Systems

As organisations jostle for competitive advantage through digital transformation and Agile working, achieving impact in this era of digital disruption is easier said than done. As business models of each industry transform and new technologies enable almost anyone to invent new products quickly and cheaply, organisations have to adapt to rapidly changing systems of production, management and governance. How can they do this? Mivy James, Head of Consulting at BAE Systems, will draw on her 25 years-plus experience on the frontline of digital transformations to explain why businesses to think beyond their IT development teams in order to reap the all the benefits of digital transformations and Agile. Find out why agile technology leadership and systems engineering hold the key to positive results today – and tomorrow.

How to accelerate your career – Top tips from senior tech leaders Q+A panel hosted by Kate Russell, BBC Click with Gary Delooze, CTO, Nationwide; Kaijia Gu, Partner, Oliver Wyman; Piyali Mitra, Managing Director, Group Technology, Barclays; Lucy Quist, Head of Change Leadership, Morgan Stanley and Elaine Bucknor, Group Chief Information Security Officer, Sky Plc, sponsored by Nationwide

Building a software engineering culture for the future with Ildefonso Olmedo, Director of Innovation, Santander

Since our chairwoman announced that Santander was going to invest 20 billion into the bank’s digitalisation, we realised that we required a workforce with a very specific skillset if we wanted to achieve our goals. Looking at all industries we could see there was a strong disruption of technology, and as a powerful example we have BMW CEO who announced that in no many years, more than half their workforce would consist of software engineers.

Understanding all these and taking into account where we come from as a traditional bank, it was made clear that we needed Skill UP, an engineering growth framework created to support us in our journey, while also helping us to set the foundations to change the engineering culture in the organisation.

 

15:40 – Elective Session 3

(delegates can chose one elective session)

How the world of digital is evolving and what is disrupting the digital landscape with Megan Caywood, Global Head of Digital Strategy, Barclays

Learn to code in Python (beginners session, no experience needed) with Carrie Ann Philbin, Director, Raspberry Pi; sponsored by Morgan Stanley

Learn how to code Python perhaps for the first time in this session with with Carrie Anne Philbin, teacher, author and a YouTuber, Raspberry Pi Foundation. You’ll create your own virtual pixel pet, and animate it with code!

One womans journey – From ambulance dispatcher to Security Chief with Emma Griffin, Deputy Group CISO, Sky

Life as a Data Scientist at Spotify, with Ruth Garcia and Yuna Lee, Data Scientists, Spotify

In this talk, Ruth and Yuna will narrate their journeys into becoming data scientists at Spotify, covering the challenges involved, common pitfalls as well as some practical lessons from the field as women in Tech. They will also talk about the different ways of doing Data Science at Spotify and the projects they are currently involved in. Borrowing from their own experiences, they will share stories of how they contributed to the business to make decisions.

PM Session 4

16:40 – Tomorrow’s tech will put your health in your control, with Christina Hu, AI Product Manager, Babylon Health

There’s no doubt that Health is huge for everyone. But for something so central to our lives, if we really think about it, we don’t actually have that much control over our health. Technologies that are currently – and soon to be – disrupting healthcare as we know it could be the key to shifting that control into our own hands. But to what extent? Could they give us control over how quickly we get better when we’re sick? How about whether we even get sick in the first place? Is it too far-fetched to hope that healthtech could even give us control over whether we live or die?

16:55 – Hall of fame Q&A panel hosted by Ortis Deley, Host and Presenter, The Gadget Show with Professor Sue Black OBE, Professor of Computer Science & Technology Evangelist, UK Government Advisor, Women’s Equality Party candidate for London Mayor 2020, Professional Speaker & Author; Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, Founder, Stemettes; Dorothee Schobert-Sargent, Managing Director, Credit Suisse and Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, President, techUK