Sessions: WomenTech Global Conference

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Session	Speaker	Share to Vote
Leslie Grandy Author, Lead Executive in Residence at University of Washington Foster School of Business Executive Education	Your Culture may be AI Ready, but is it AI Native? Most organizations train people to prompt, automate, and optimize, but they leave the underlying thinking habits untouched. So they stall because they stop at readiness. Work stays structured around speed, efficiency, and known problems. Being AI-native goes further. It means redesigning how people think, challenge assumptions, manage risks, and solve problems when answers are cheap and always available. In an AI-native culture, the differentiator is no longer access to intelligence, but the ability to frame better questions, exercise judgment, and navigate ambiguity without… read more
Shalini Thyagaraja Director at Microsoft	Thrive, Don’t Just Survive: Sustainable Wellbeing & Work-Life Integration Women in technology are navigating unprecedented demands, high-performance cultures, constant change, caregiving responsibilities, and the invisible pressure to “do it all.” Burnout is no longer an exception; it has become the norm. In this talk, Shalini draws from over 20 years of corporate leadership at Fortune 500 companies, her work as a wellness coach, and her lived experience as a first-generation immigrant and working mother to reframe wellbeing not as self-care, but as a leadership strategy. This session introduces a practical, sustainable approach to… read more
Nadeja Adams Sr. Workforce Programs Specialist at San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development	Funding Your Future: How Employers Use Public Dollars to Build Tech Apprenticeship Pipelines This session addresses innovative career pathway development through registered apprenticeships, demonstrating how public-private partnerships create accessible entry points into tech careers. It explores emerging workforce funding strategies that enable employers to build sustainable talent pipelines while reducing barriers for underrepresented populations seeking tech roles. Did you like this session? Share to vote.
Madhuri Adettiwar VP - Product, Strategy & Transformation at Fluence Energy	Never Give Up: Resilience as the Leadership Skill for Constant Change In today’s technology-driven world, change is no longer episodic—it is continuous. Organizational restructures, shifting priorities, layoffs, personal setbacks, and unexpected life events can challenge even the most accomplished professionals. This talk explores resilience not as a motivational concept, but as a practical leadership capability essential for sustained growth and impact. Did you like this session? Share to vote.
AmyJune Hineline Certification Community Architect at The Linux Foundation	Certify Your Curiosity: How to Keep Learning in Open Source The open source landscape never stands still, and neither should your curiosity. In this talk, we’ll explore how to build a sustainable learning habit that keeps pace with evolving technologies. Learn how to use certifications as checkpoints for growth, how community engagement fuels real-world learning, and how small, consistent efforts lead to big breakthroughs. Whether you’re just starting your technical journey or expanding your expertise, this session will help you stay curious, confident, and ready for whatever the open source world brings next. Did you like this session? Share… read more
Sri Ramaswamy CEO at Charlee.ai Inc	The Boardroom Reality Check for AI 1. Why Most AI Programs Don’t Scale Key insight: AI fails after pilots, not before. • Tools ≠ intelligence • Data volume ≠ decision clarity • Accuracy ≠ business confidence 2. Risk Is the Missing Link Between AI and ROI Reframe risk from “cost center” to early-signal intelligence layer. • Lagging metrics vs leading risk signals • Why regulated industries expose AI weaknesses faster • Risk visibility = speed, confidence, and capital efficiency 3. Lessons From Building AI Where Failure Is Expensive … read more
Dionne Mejer Founder at Revenue by Design	The 3 Saboteurs Blocking GTM Success Startup founders know execution is the difference between brilliant ideas and scalable impact—but execution rarely fails from lack of ambition. It fails from three hidden leadership saboteurs: ambiguity, inconsistency, and misaligned accountability. These barriers quietly erode team velocity, product focus, and founder alignment, especially in fast-moving early ventures. In this 30-minute session, Dionne Mejer, Founder & CEO of Revenue by Design and creator of the Lead With Soul™ framework, shows founders how these saboteurs affect not just strategy—but how teams think and… read more
Sarika Mittal Software Engineer at Meta	AI as Your Career Mentor: Accelerating Growth for Women in Tech What if you could have a personal career mentor, available 24/7, to guide your skills, projects, and growth? In this session, we’ll explore how AI can act as that mentor, helping you fill mentorship gaps, accelerate learning, and build impactful projects that showcase your abilities. You’ll learn actionable strategies to leverage AI for mastering new technologies, automating repetitive tasks, and receiving real-time feedback on coding, design, and career decisions. Through real-world examples and practical frameworks, this talk demonstrates how women in tech can use AI to gain visibility,… read more
Ruheene Jaura Founder at Brandpod	Build a Deeply Personal Brand with Deep Research AI Agents Search volume for "personal branding" has grown over 400% in two years, yet most founders still don't have one that works. The research, brand assets, and media connections required have traditionally been reserved for those with agency budgets and existing networks. Deep research AI agents change that. In this session, you'll see a live walkthrough of how deep research agents help founders find their brand-market fit, build their core messaging, create brand assets like keynotes… read more
JULIA Kraft Founder at Speak To Inspire	From Nerves to Ease: An Introduction to Confident Speaking Speaking nerves are not a personal flaw—they’re a physiological response. In this introductory workshop, you’ll learn how to work with your body instead of fighting it, so you can speak with more ease, clarity, and confidence—especially in high-visibility moments. This interactive session offers practical, immediately usable tools to calm anxiety before and during speaking situations, from leading meetings and sharing ideas to presenting in front of a room. You’ll explore why nerves show up, how they affect your voice and presence, and how to stay grounded and clear when the spotlight… read more
Julia Stefani Founder and Principal at SWolta Ventures	Designing Work That Works: Work-Life Integration in a Portfolio Career World Success looks different in a world where work and life no longer live in separate boxes. In this intimate talk and interactive reflection session, Julia Stefani shares how motherhood and entrepreneurship reshaped her definition of achievement. She’ll explore how to intentionally design a portfolio career that balances ambition with alignment—so your work supports your life, not the other way around. Did you like this session? Share to vote.
Rachel Guanwei Tao Board of Advisor at Oculogyx.ai	Innovation Is Easy. Adoption Is Hard: Why Product–Market Fit Is the Real AI Advantage Artificial intelligence has dramatically lowered the barrier to building products. With today’s tools, it is easier than ever to create something technically impressive. Yet paradoxically, it has never been harder to achieve true product–market fit, sustained adoption, and successful commercialization. In this talk, I explore the growing gap between innovation and adoption—and why adoption, not invention, has become the real competitive advantage in the AI era. Drawing from my perspective as a Board Advisor to Oculogyx and years of product and commercialization experience, I… read more
Banani Mohapatra Senior Manager, AI/ML & Data Science, at Walmart	Architecting AI-Driven Personalized Discovery with Generative Models Modern search and recommendation systems must interpret ambiguous user intent and translate it into structured, actionable signals at scale. This talk explores how Generative AI and ML are used to power personalized discovery in large-scale consumer platforms. We will examine how high-level queries are decomposed into semantic tokens through LLM-driven intent modeling, normalization, and enrichment, and how these signals are integrated into retrieval, ranking, and diversification pipelines. The session covers system design considerations across token generation, feature fusion, ranking models… read more
Nandita Giri Senior Software Engineer	When AI Stops Asking and Starts Acting AI has evolved rapidly from rule-based automation to conversational assistants but a new shift is quietly redefining software engineering: AI systems that act autonomously. In this talk, we explore the transition from prompt-driven AI to agentic AI systems—systems that can plan, reason, execute actions, recover from failures, and collaborate with other agents without constant human intervention. Drawing from real-world enterprise use cases, this session breaks down what actually changes when AI stops “asking” and starts “acting.” We will cover how autonomous… read more
Sarbani Paul Technical Program Manager at Amazon	Making the Leap: My Journey from Consulting to FAANG Moving from consulting to FAANG requires more than interview preparation—it demands a fundamental shift in mindset, ownership, and execution. In this session, I share my transition from consulting to Amazon and the lessons learned along the way. The talk will cover how to position consulting experience for FAANG roles, what hiring managers actually look for, and how to prepare for the cultural and operational differences once inside. I’ll also discuss challenges I faced, mistakes I made, and strategies that helped me succeed as a Technical Program Manager at scale. This session… read more
Lori Edwards Director of Product at Niche	Just a LINK Away: How Product Leaders Build Thriving Teams As mid-career product managers, we’re often caught between execution and strategy, individual contribution and people leadership. Whether you manage a team directly or influence one cross-functionally, the ability to build trust and foster a strong team culture is critical to success. In this energizing and actionable session, Lori shares her LINK framework—Listen, Initiate, Nurture, and Kudos—as a guide for becoming the kind of leader teams want to follow. You’ll learn how to strengthen collaboration, increase motivation, and create a sense of belonging that drives results—whether your team… read more
Jahnavi Anilkumar Kachhia Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Accompany Health	AI as a Medical Co-Pilot: LLMs in Clinical Decision Support Systems Large Language Models (LLMs) are rapidly transforming healthcare, moving beyond automation toward becoming intelligent medical co-pilots that support clinicians in real-time decision-making. This session explores how LLM-powered Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) can enhance diagnostic accuracy, reduce cognitive burden, and improve patient outcomes while maintaining safety, explainability, and regulatory compliance. Attendees will gain insights into real-world use cases of LLMs in clinical workflows, including triage support, differential diagnosis, care recommendations,… read more
Angela Byers Senior Director, GTM, Microsoft Security	Reimagining Success Through a Portfolio Career For senior women in tech, the traditional career ladder often stops delivering what it promises. Advancement becomes less about merit and more about politics, timing, and factors outside our control—while the personal cost keeps rising. This session reframes success from a single climb to a constellation of impact, inspired by Portfolio Life. Rather than tying identity, influence, and fulfillment to one role or title, a portfolio career distributes purpose across multiple arenas—inside and beyond the day job. Angela will share experiences of her own and her peer network:… read more
Mankirat Kaur Bajwa Senior Product Manager at Microsoft	How AI Is Changing the Way Enterpises Work AI is becoming part of everyday work inside large organizations, not as a replacement for people, but as a partner in decision making and execution. This talk explores how enterprises are integrating AI into real workflows, what changes when AI moves from experiments to production, and why trust, governance, and human judgment matter more than the technology itself. Did you like this session? Share to vote.
Kimberly Washington Co-Founder & CEO at Deep Space Biology	From Orbit to Impact: Building the Next Frontier in Healthcare R&D This session will explore how space is rapidly transitioning from a government-led frontier into a commercially driven industrial ecosystem, through the lens of space-enabled life sciences. Drawing on my work as Co-Founder and CEO of Deep Space Biology (DSB), I will share how advances in microgravity research, AI, and orbital infrastructure are unlocking entirely new pathways for understanding human health, disease, and drug discovery. The discussion will highlight what it truly takes to build sustainable, investable space ventures, from translating decades of government-funded… read more