Sessions: WomenTech Global Conference

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Session	Speaker	Share to Vote
Kelly Chen Software Engineer at Bloomberg	When Doing Everything Right Stops Working: Building Career Leverage as an Emerging Engineer Are you doing everything “right” but still struggling to stand out in your career? In today’s competitive tech and fintech landscape, traditional career signals—grades, internships, networking—are increasingly inflated, making it harder to differentiate yourself. In this session, Kelly Chen reframes the early-career journey by focusing on leverage over visibility. You’ll learn why networking alone isn’t enough, and how quiet, compounding actions, like removing friction, owning ambiguity, and translating across teams, create real career leverage. Using… read more
Maria Cassano Journalist at Bustle, HuffPost, CNN, NBC, The Daily Beast, YourTango, Food & Wine	Why Women Have More To Gain From Remote Work Studies show that women earn 20% more money when they wear makeup to work. One gender rolls out of bed, bare-faced and respected, while the other needs to paint, pluck, powder, and preen before they’re considered qualified. Remote work allows women to bypass gender discrimination in the office and be judged for our competence, expertise, and intelligence. It also allows us autonomy, improved work-life balance, and more flexible childcare options, which have the potential to boost work satisfaction and close the gender pay gap. Did you like this session? Share to vote… read more
Pearl Jindal Founder & CEO at Echolingo.ai	AI-Powered Language Learning: Democratizing Fluency for Global Students In an increasingly global and digital world, language fluency opens doors to opportunity — yet traditional methods lag behind learner needs. In this demo, I’ll share how Echolingo.ai uses advanced AI tutoring, conversational clones, and personalized learning pathways to help learners master languages such as French for IB, DELF/TCF, and professional contexts. This session will explore bridging AI, education, and human-centric language mastery, with insights for educators, founders, and technologists eager to scale learning outcomes worldwide. Did you like this session? Share to vote… read more
Meredith Jolly Chair at Vistage Worldwide	Too Nice to Lead? Why Kindness is a Leadership Weapon For most of my career, I was told I was “too nice,” “too soft,” or “too empathetic” to lead at the highest levels. Translation? I didn’t fit the outdated, masculine mold of leadership. Then I became a tech CEO. Then I sold companies. Then I got sober. Then I rebuilt my career from the inside out. And here’s what I know for sure: Kindness is not weakness. It is strategic strength. In this talk, I challenge the myth that women must harden themselves to succeed in tech. I’ll share real leadership stories from the C-suite,… read more
Priya Royal Managing Attorney at Royal Law Firm PLLC	AI Decisions Under Scrutiny: How Leaders Defend Value, Risk, and Responsibility Across Borders Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in executive decision-making, from valuation and capital allocation to IP strategy, cybersecurity posture, and cross-border operations. Yet the consequences of AI-informed decisions rarely surface at the moment they are made. They surface later, during audits, disputes, transactions, regulatory review, or moments of transition. This session examines how AI-driven decisions are evaluated under real-world scrutiny and why leadership today requires an integrated lens that connects technology, governance, legal structure, and… read more
Mou Rakshit Data, Analytics and AI Lead, Microsoft Fabric and Databricks SME and Champion at Accenture / Avanade	From Dashboards to Decisions: Building Real-Time, Agent-Driven Analytics Platforms Most organizations already have dashboards, reports, and models. The real challenge is turning data into systems that actively influence decisions as things happen. This session shares how modern data platforms are evolving from passive analytics into real-time, agent-driven systems that support operational and strategic decision-making. The talk walks through practical architecture patterns for combining streaming data, governed metrics, and AI-assisted logic to create platforms that can detect signals, generate recommendations, and trigger actions. Rather than focusing on… read more
Tiffany Kennedy Director of Risk Mitigation (Commercial HVAC Americas) at Trane Technologies	Audacity is a Habit - Building Confidence Through Daily Proof Most people don’t stall because they lack talent. They stall because they keep waiting to feel ready. This session challenges the idea that confidence comes first and offers a practical alternative: build confidence through daily proof. Drawing from my experience growing up in the Bronx, joining the U.S. Army when college wasn’t financially possible, and completing my degree while deployed with limited resources, I’ll share what actually helped me move forward when motivation wasn’t available. Attendees will leave with a repeatable approach for moving with… read more
Rachel Anderson Leadership Trainer and Fractional CMO at Pivot Studios	The 57% Problem: The Antidote to Employees Leaving and Culture Plummeting (And What Executives Can Do About It) The biggest threat to your company culture isn't market disruption or talent scarcity, it's the untrained manager three desks down making decisions that drive away 57% of your employees. In 82% of hiring decisions, companies miss the opportunity to hire high-talent managers. And 85% of new managers receive zero formal training before promotion. These aren't minor gaps - they're cultural killers. As an executive, you set strategy and vision. But culture lives or dies in the daily decisions of middle management. If your managers don't know how to lead human-… read more
Dania Dobosz CoFounder at CultureAdd	The "Hidden Job Market" 80% of the most coveted roles at Series A and B startups are filled before a job description is ever written. If you are waiting for a posting to appear on a job board, you may be too late. I will reveal how the "stealth" hiring circuit works and show you how to build a "passive pipeline" for yourself by turning recruiters, founders, and VCs into your personal talent scouts. Did you like this session? Share to vote.
Magali Mendez CPO at Tintte	From Lab to Industry: Building Climate Tech Solutions That Scale Climate solutions won’t change the world unless they scale. In this talk, I’ll share the journey of building a science-based climate tech startup—from early lab research to industrial pilots and global partnerships—focused on replacing petrochemical dyes in the textile industry with bio-based alternatives. I’ll unpack the real challenges of translating deep tech into manufacturable products: aligning R&D with industry constraints, working with legacy supply chains, securing pilots, and building credibility as a woman founder in a highly technical and industrial space… read more
Shalini Sunkara Engineering Project Leader at Lutron Electronics	Why High-Performing Women Don’t Get Promoted and How to Position Yourself for the Next Level Many of the most capable, hardworking women in tech do everything right, they deliver results, take ownership, and consistently exceed expectations, yet still find themselves overlooked for promotions. This talk challenges the deeply ingrained belief that excellence alone leads to advancement. Drawing from real-world leadership experience and patterns observed across high-performing technical teams, this session explores the hidden dynamics behind promotion decisions, what actually happens in rooms you’re not in, long before roles are posted or decisions are announced. … read more
Channi Greenwall Founder & CEO at Olympix	Agentic Security: Why the Future Will Be Unforgiving Autonomous agents are about to run core infrastructure: money, markets, supply chains, custody, governance, and high-stakes decision loops. But the security model for this “agentic era” is fundamentally different from traditional cybersecurity. Agents don’t sleep, don’t forget, don’t get tired — and they fail at the speed of execution. The future of agentic security is unforgiving. Did you like this session? Share to vote.
Sumaiya Noor Chief Product Officer at Mpowa	Developing Ethical, Inclusive and Accountable Artificial Intelligence Agents for a Human-Centered Society As Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents increasingly permeate every facet of modern society from healthcare and education to finance and governance, the imperative to develop ethical, inclusive, and accountable AI agents has never been more urgent. In this talk, we will explore contemporary methodologies and frameworks for developing AI agents that prioritize ethical practices, social good, and global equity. Drawing upon cross disciplinary research and real world case studies, I will share a practical approach to embedding ethical reasoning, transparency, and accountability within the core… read more
Kendra Edwards Chief Marketing Officer at Terri Eagle Group	Stop Waiting to Be Chosen: Building Your Own C-Suite Break the rule that you have to wait to be chosen. Instead of waiting for a formal title or promotion, I built my own lane through K.Consults, taking C-suite-level ownership of strategy and outcomes long before my role said “executive.” Did you like this session? Share to vote.
Marissa Palmer Head of Security & Compliance at TrueCar	English Major to Cybersecurity Leader One woman’s unusual journey from publishing to cybersecurity. The talk will detail her start in publishing and how she found her way into the technology field. It will describe the scary leaps of faith, necessary side-steps and unfortunate failures. But following her interest and curiosity leads her to new opportunities and helps her discover her strength and place in the world of cybersecurity. Did you like this session? Share to vote.
Janina Peterek Global Executive Sponsor Program Lead at Google Cloud	AI: Great First Date, Terrible Marriage. Why Pilot Projects Fail to Scale The promise of Generative AI has moved rapidly from executive curiosity to a mandate for growth. Yet, a significant gap has emerged: while technical capabilities are advancing exponentially, organizational readiness is lagging. With over 80% of GenAI initiatives failing to impact the bottom line, the challenge for the C-Suite is no longer only about selecting the right technology—it is about architecting the right organization. Drawing from a decade of leadership at the intersection of Google Ads and Google Cloud, this session outlines the executive playbook for driving transformation… read more
Ingrid Curtis CEO at Sparq	The Hot-Shot Rule 2.0: How to lead in the age of AI As organizations grow, leaders often become further removed from the work that actually delivers results. The distance is subtle, but the impact is not. Decisions slow down because teams are hesitating, while progress stalls because leadership direction is no longer anchored in how work really gets done. In this session, Ingrid Curtis, CEO of Sparq, makes the case that proximity to everyday work is a core leadership discipline, especially at scale. Leaders do not need to do every job, but they do need to understand how decisions land on the ground if they want work to move with… read more
Kerry Brown Lead Evangelist at Celonis	Change Driven by AI Must Be Built from the Bottom Up Despite unprecedented investment in AI and system transformation, many organizations struggle to achieve meaningful results. Decades of digital transformation efforts show that technology alone doesn’t drive change - people do. In this session, Kerry Brown explores why traditional, top-down change management approaches are increasingly falling short and how organizations can unlock greater impact by engaging employees in shaping transformation from the ground up. Drawing on real-world examples and research, Kerry will demonstrate how employee involvement reduces resistance,… read more
Misty Mastracco Sr Advisor @ Splunk/Cisco; Founder of Stacked	Get Promoted, Get Paid: A System for Building Your Case and Negotiating What You're Worth This is not another "Lean In" session. And you don't need another pep talk telling you to "speak up more" while also, somehow, being "less aggressive." Here's the real issue: women underestimate their performance by 33%, and when we do negotiate, we're 30% more likely to be labeled "aggressive." So we wait. We hope good work speaks for itself. And by the time the promotion conversation or salary review comes around, we've forgotten half of what we accomplished; and the half we remember, we can't quantify. That… read more
Sharda Caro Del Castillo Chief Legal & Business Officer at Catena Labs	The Third Path: Innovating Ahead of Regulation Without Losing Trust Across the last two decades, many of the most consequential technologies in finance and commerce -- from digital wallets and instant payments to global marketplaces and, now, AI agents -- have launched well before clear regulatory frameworks existed. In these moments, leaders are often told they face a binary choice: slow innovation until rules catch up, or move fast and risk eroding trust. Sharda Caro Del Castillo argues there is a third path. Drawing on her experience shaping payments and compliance strategies at PayPal, Square (now Block), Airbnb, and Affirm -- and now… read more