What to Expect?
With 3 formats to pick from, take a seat in your preferred slot
⚡ Flash Talks: get insights and best practices from an expert
👥 Roundtables: a moderated panel discussion with industry experts on stage with a Q&A session
🛠 Workshops: (limited slots available) sign up and deep dive on a topic guided by specialists
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
Track One
Engineering & Technical Leadership
Track Two
Product Development & Beyond
Track Three
Inclusive Investment & Funding
Track Four
Diverse Hiring & Equitable Workplaces
14:20
Practical Steps for Change
Anna McDougall, Bhuvana Vijayan, Sérgio Laranjeira & Oleksii Ishchenko
Decription:Explore actionable strategies from seasoned experts on leading the change towards inclusive and diverse tech teams.
Inclusive Product Management From The Start
Catherine Basset
Description: Customers love products that make their lives easier – starting with inclusivity can make your product even more loveble.
From Impact Entrepreneur To Impact Investor
Alina Bassi
Description: In this talk, Alina shares her experience going from being an entrepreneur with an impact startup, supporting women of colour entrepreneurs, and transitioning to becoming an investor at the impact fund, Ananda Impact Ventures.
Widening the Talent Pool
Anne Kjær & Amjad Adam Oudeh
Description: Can’t find enough tech talent? Then this session is for you. ReDI School of Digital Integration will share their practical experience re-skilling refugees and migrants in tech. They will also share their secret to how they reached 65% female participants in their programs.
14:50
Taming The Beast Of Complexity: Tech leadership In Large-Scale Projects
Elena Kovalenko
Description: Being a Tech Lead is challenging. Taking on the role in a project that spans across dozens of teams in multiple time zones requires breaking the boundaries of what was learned as an individual contributor and embracing the necessity of wearing many hats simultaneously. Join me on this journey to discover how to stay calm in the eye of the storm and lead tech projects to successful outcomes without being overwhelmed by complexity or compromising on who you are.
Inclusive By Default
Sarah Wachs, Armin Krahl, Katia Cassano & Zahra Beigi
The AI Career Wave
Valérie Bures-Bönström
Description: Do we invision a world where a CAO (Chief AI Officer) is needed? In this talk we will find out which roles will be shaped by AI in the future.
Equality Monitoring: Using Data To Drive Your DE&I Strategy
Eileen Barnard
Description: Learn why equality monitoring is the foundation of a good DE&I strategy, what data to collect – and why, how you can collect the data, and what pitfalls you might face (and how to overcome them!)
15:20
Unblocking Personal Growth
Maria von Watzdorf
Description: Have you ever had the wish to be promoted but didn’t find a way to progress to that next level? Do you have friends, employees or mentees that are suffering from this? Then it might be time to look at your career scratch map and unblock that path.
Inclusive Roadmap Start With Your Team
Dr Viktoria Korzhova
Description: Inclusive is more than just a buzzword – it’s the key to creating a diverse and satisfied user base, maximizing your product’s potential. In this talk, we’ll focus on the foundation of success: your team. We’ll cover inclusive hiring practices, ongoing training, and the secrets to assembling a team that reflects your diverse user base. We’ll also explore user research with diverse groups, accessibility considerations, cultural sensitivity, and the importance of a collaborative team dynamic. The talk will feature real-world best practices, showcasing successful examples and emphasizing the value of learning from failures.
The Evolution Of Investor Criteria
Carla Schell, Julian Riedlbauer, Melina Sanchez & Patricia Russ
Description: Experts will discuss the impact of diversity on investment strategies, offering insights into fostering inclusivity and innovation in the tech industry.
Tailoring Hiring Practices for Diversity Success
Leonardo Senra
Description: Have you felt that even after increasing your sourcing with diverse candidates, your results in getting a more gender-balanced team are still below the expected? Let’s discuss how we can identify and address hidden biases in our hiring process that might be privileging non-diverse candidates.
15:50
Generative AI: Beyond Stochastic Parrots
Stephen Ballot
Description: A positive outlook on where Generative AI fits as a solution to software challenges.
Build. Learn. Iterate.
Chiedza Muguti
Description: Applying the product development process to building thriving teams.
In product management, we love working with the iterative process. Get a Minimum Loveable Product out there; test it; take note of the lessons we learn and iterate always with a goal to reach our targets and succeed. This same mindset can be applied to product teams. We as leaders can repurpose this process for our teams and get them even more involved in building an amazing team environment we can all thrive in.
Opening Doors From Inside
Anna Ott
Description: Join me for a straight-talking, no-nonsense session where we’ll dive into making every hire count towards a more inclusive and diverse workplace. I’m going to show you how to cast wider nets and make smarter and fairer hiring decisions with your team. I will give you 10 practical, proven hacks to tweak your hiring process you can apply tomorrow. You will then hopefully have less FoMO on having overlooked an amazing talent for your next hire!
Building A Culture Of Belonging
Kimberly Schmitt
Description: Recruiting and hiring a diverse team is just the beginning. Emphasis also must be placed on moving onward through the creation of positive team interactions, building confidence, and creating communities for these team members.
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
Growing Teams in Lean Times
Shauna Griffin
Description: With a year of layoffs, reduced hiring budgets and flattened verticals many teams and leaders are being asked to do more with less. Let’s explore some lessons learned and strategies for keeping engineering teams motivated and finding room to keep growing in a lean tech landscape.
Navigating Inclusive User Research Challenges
Kateryna Martynova
Description: Discover the vital role of D&I in EdTech through engaging insights drawn from user research. Katya will show how diverse perspectives, reflected in demographics and varying opinions, can fuel innovation and effectiveness and present solutions to common challenges such as limited budgets and small teams, including inclusive incentives and multilingual empathetic interviewing techniques.
Workshop: Mastering Privacy and Gender Debiasing in LLM Products
Spoke.ai
Description: Join our workshop to learn about anonymization techniques and understand how to address privacy concerns as well as gender bias in LLM products, through practical discussions on both technical and product perspectives
A Beginners Guide To Diversity Hiring
David Bowen
Description: Based on a recent use case, I want to highlight the practical steps anyone can take (now) to improve the diversity of their team through the hiring process. I will take through a use case, and outline the specific actions (a how-to guide) hiring managers should take.
17:15
Empowering Junior Developers for Technical Leaders
Anna McDougall
Description:Most leaders want to be hiring and building the skills of junior developers, but see them as a net loss to a team’s value. In this talk, Anna McDougall discusses how and why junior developers provide value, using her experience training over 30 juniors and working students, in combination with a case study of a proof-of-concept AI team which includes five working students. In it, she covers how to rethink junior skills, and gives practical steps on how best to support fast skills growth.
DEI At The Crossroads: Navigating Tough Decisions
Rohit Agarwal
Description: Description: Interview with SoundCloud’s CPO – Discover how can tech companies strike a balance between achieving profitability and prioritising DEI, without compromising on either aspect.
Workshop: Key Ingredients for Raising Series B.
Pauline Paquet
Description: Transitioning to Series B requires grit, strategy, insight, and a clear understanding of your startup’s direction. Discover alongside Pauline Paquet, Head of Startup Success at XAnge how to go from potential to proven traction by answering these two questions: What are the key KPIs to achieve for the Series B round?What defines effective leadership?
Attracting Diversity
Mark Ivan Serunjogi, Mozamel Amad, Manjuri Sinha & Andreea Lungulescu
Description: All you need to know about proactive inclusive talent acquisition. Discover best practices for sourcing and attracting diverse candidates with our expert panel.
17:45
Building A Learning Organisation
Simana Paul, Elisabeth Kant
Description: In this talk, we will talk about why we need to be a learning organisation and how to foster a culture of learning.
Gathering Inclusive Product Feedback; A Case Study From Clue
Rhiannon White
Description: Billions of people have the shared experience of having periods. And yet each of us also has our own unique experience and unique biology. In this case study we share how user insight drives inclusive product development at Clue.
Workshop: Crossing from Mentee to Mentor
StartSteps
Description: The importance of diversity goes beyond initial recruitment efforts. To truly harness the benefits of a diverse workforce, organizations must extend their focus to fostering inclusivity at every level, particularly within leadership roles.
This workshop is designed to equip leaders, managers, and HR professionals with the knowledge and tools necessary to build and sustain a diverse leadership culture.
Navigating The 5 Stages Towards DEI Maturity In Global Organisations
Oana Iordachescu
Description: Step into the transformative journey of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) with our keynote talk, we will explore the evolution from awareness to sustainability, guiding leadership teams through pivotal questions at each stage. We’re excited to introduce this session that intertwines top-down strategy with bottom-up initiatives, fostering a culture of inclusion and equity.
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
Track One
Engineering & Technical Leadership
14:20
Practical Steps for Change
Anna McDougall, Bhuvana Vijayan, Sérgio Laranjeira & Oleksii Ishchenko
Decription:Explore actionable strategies from seasoned experts on leading the change towards inclusive and diverse tech teams.
14:50
Taming The Beast Of Complexity: Tech leadership In Large-Scale Projects
Elena Kovalenko
Description: Being a Tech Lead is challenging. Taking on the role in a project that spans across dozens of teams in multiple time zones requires breaking the boundaries of what was learned as an individual contributor and embracing the necessity of wearing many hats simultaneously. Join me on this journey to discover how to stay calm in the eye of the storm and lead tech projects to successful outcomes without being overwhelmed by complexity or compromising on who you are.
15:20
Unblocking Personal Growth
Maria von Watzdorf
Description: Have you ever had the wish to be promoted but didn’t find a way to progress to that next level? Do you have friends, employees or mentees that are suffering from this? Then it might be time to look at your career scratch map and unblock that path.
15:50
Generative AI: Beyond Stochastic Parrots
Stephen Ballot
Description: A positive outlook on where Generative AI fits as a solution to software challenges.
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
Growing Teams in Lean Times
Shauna Griffin
Description: With a year of layoffs, reduced hiring budgets and flattened verticals many teams and leaders are being asked to do more with less. Let’s explore some lessons learned and strategies for keeping engineering teams motivated and finding room to keep growing in a lean tech landscape.
17:15
Empowering Junior Developers for Technical Leaders
Anna McDougall
Description:Most leaders want to be hiring and building the skills of junior developers, but see them as a net loss to a team’s value. In this talk, Anna McDougall discusses how and why junior developers provide value, using her experience training over 30 juniors and working students, in combination with a case study of a proof-of-concept AI team which includes five working students. In it, she covers how to rethink junior skills, and gives practical steps on how best to support fast skills growth.
17:45
Building A Learning Organisation
Simana Paul, Elisabeth Kant
Description: In this talk, we will talk about why we need to be a learning organisation and how to foster a culture of learning.
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
Track Two
Product Development & Beyond
14:20
Inclusive Product Management From The Start
Catherine Basset
Description: Customers love products that make their lives easier – starting with inclusivity can make your product even more loveble.
14:50
Inclusive By Default
Sarah Wachs, Armin Krahl, Katia Cassano & Zahra Beigi
15:20
Inclusive Roadmap Start With Your Team
Dr Viktoria Korzhova
Description: Inclusive is more than just a buzzword – it’s the key to creating a diverse and satisfied user base, maximizing your product’s potential. In this talk, we’ll focus on the foundation of success: your team. We’ll cover inclusive hiring practices, ongoing training, and the secrets to assembling a team that reflects your diverse user base. We’ll also explore user research with diverse groups, accessibility considerations, cultural sensitivity, and the importance of a collaborative team dynamic. The talk will feature real-world best practices, showcasing successful examples and emphasizing the value of learning from failures.
15:50
Build. Learn. Iterate.
Chiedza Muguti
Description: Applying the product development process to building thriving teams.
In product management, we love working with the iterative process. Get a Minimum Loveable Product out there; test it; take note of the lessons we learn and iterate always with a goal to reach our targets and succeed. This same mindset can be applied to product teams. We as leaders can repurpose this process for our teams and get them even more involved in building an amazing team environment we can all thrive in.
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
Navigating Inclusive User Research Challenges
Kateryna Martynova
Description: Discover the vital role of D&I in EdTech through engaging insights drawn from user research. Katya will show how diverse perspectives, reflected in demographics and varying opinions, can fuel innovation and effectiveness and present solutions to common challenges such as limited budgets and small teams, including inclusive incentives and multilingual empathetic interviewing techniques.
17:15
DEI At The Crossroads: Navigating Tough Decisions
Rohit Agarwal
Description: Description: Interview with SoundCloud’s CPO – Discover how can tech companies strike a balance between achieving profitability and prioritising DEI, without compromising on either aspect.
17:45
Gathering Inclusive Product Feedback; A Case Study From Clue
Rhiannon White
Description: Billions of people have the shared experience of having periods. And yet each of us also has our own unique experience and unique biology. In this case study we share how user insight drives inclusive product development at Clue.
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
Track Three
Inclusive Investment & Funding
14:20
From Impact Entrepreneur To Impact Investor
Alina Bassi
Description: In this talk, Alina shares her experience going from being an entrepreneur with an impact startup, supporting women of colour entrepreneurs, and transitioning to becoming an investor at the impact fund, Ananda Impact Ventures.
14:50
The AI Career Wave
Valérie Bures-Bönström
Description: Do we invision a world where a CAO (Chief AI Officer) is needed? In this talk we will find out which roles will be shaped by AI in the future.
15:20
The Evolution Of Investor Criteria
Carla Schell, Julian Riedlbauer, Melina Sanchez & Patricia Russ
Description: Experts will discuss the impact of diversity on investment strategies, offering insights into fostering inclusivity and innovation in the tech industry.
15:50
Opening Doors From Inside
Anna Ott
Description: Join me for a straight-talking, no-nonsense session where we’ll dive into making every hire count towards a more inclusive and diverse workplace. I’m going to show you how to cast wider nets and make smarter and fairer hiring decisions with your team. I will give you 10 practical, proven hacks to tweak your hiring process you can apply tomorrow. You will then hopefully have less FoMO on having overlooked an amazing talent for your next hire!
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
Workshop: Mastering Privacy and Gender Debiasing in LLM Products
Spoke.ai
Description: Join our workshop to learn about anonymization techniques and understand how to address privacy concerns as well as gender bias in LLM products, through practical discussions on both technical and product perspectives
17:15
Workshop: Key Ingredients for Raising Series B.
Pauline Paquet
Description: Transitioning to Series B requires grit, strategy, insight, and a clear understanding of your startup’s direction. Discover alongside Pauline Paquet, Head of Startup Success at XAnge how to go from potential to proven traction by answering these two questions: What are the key KPIs to achieve for the Series B round?What defines effective leadership?
17:45
Workshop: Crossing from Mentee to Mentor
StartSteps
Description: The importance of diversity goes beyond initial recruitment efforts. To truly harness the benefits of a diverse workforce, organizations must extend their focus to fostering inclusivity at every level, particularly within leadership roles.
This workshop is designed to equip leaders, managers, and HR professionals with the knowledge and tools necessary to build and sustain a diverse leadership culture.
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
Track Four
Diverse Hiring & Equitable Workplaces
14:20
Widening the Talent Pool
Anne Kjær & Amjad Adam Oudeh
Description: Can’t find enough tech talent? Then this session is for you. ReDI School of Digital Integration will share their practical experience re-skilling refugees and migrants in tech. They will also share their secret to how they reached 65% female participants in their programs.
14:50
Equality Monitoring: Using Data To Drive Your DE&I Strategy
Eileen Barnard
Description: Learn why equality monitoring is the foundation of a good DE&I strategy, what data to collect – and why, how you can collect the data, and what pitfalls you might face (and how to overcome them!)
15:20
Tailoring Hiring Practices for Diversity Success
Leonardo Senra
Description: Have you felt that even after increasing your sourcing with diverse candidates, your results in getting a more gender-balanced team are still below the expected? Let’s discuss how we can identify and address hidden biases in our hiring process that might be privileging non-diverse candidates.
15:50
Building A Culture Of Belonging
Kimberly Schmitt
Description: Recruiting and hiring a diverse team is just the beginning. Emphasis also must be placed on moving onward through the creation of positive team interactions, building confidence, and creating communities for these team members.
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
A Beginners Guide To Diversity Hiring
David Bowen
Description: Based on a recent use case, I want to highlight the practical steps anyone can take (now) to improve the diversity of their team through the hiring process. I will take through a use case, and outline the specific actions (a how-to guide) hiring managers should take.
17:15
Attracting Diversity
Mark Ivan Serunjogi, Mozamel Amad, Manjuri Sinha & Andreea Lungulescu
Description: All you need to know about proactive inclusive talent acquisition. Discover best practices for sourcing and attracting diverse candidates with our expert panel.
17:45
Navigating The 5 Stages Towards DEI Maturity In Global Organisations
Oana Iordachescu
Description: Step into the transformative journey of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) with our keynote talk, we will explore the evolution from awareness to sustainability, guiding leadership teams through pivotal questions at each stage. We’re excited to introduce this session that intertwines top-down strategy with bottom-up initiatives, fostering a culture of inclusion and equity.
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
14:20
14:50
15:20
15:50
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
17:15
17:45
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
14:20
14:50
15:20
15:50
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
17:15
17:45
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
14:20
14:50
15:20
15:50
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
17:15
17:45
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50
Networking Drinks
14:00
Kick-off
Xena Team
14:00
Welcome Keynote
Rija Javed, Seasoned CTO - Engineering Leader at Facebook
14:20
14:50
15:20
15:50
Coffee break / Networking
16:45
17:15
17:45
18:15
Final Keynote
Rosemary Hitchcock, Director of Engineering at Bumble Inc
18:45
Closing Remarks
Xena Team
18:50