On the 1st and 2nd of October 2021 we organized for the 3rd time the #wetechtogether conference. This is the biggest conference to bring diversity into tech in Switzerland. Above all, the attendees got inspired and empowered everyone with amazing leaders in tech.

Have you missed it? No matter if you were part of the conference or not, here we share our experience with you!

The Hidden Figures Award Night

The conference kicked off with the Hidden Figures Award night. In advanced, we received over 30 applications of empowering and inspiring women in STEM. The award categories were Empowered Women Startup / Innovation and Non-Profit Organisation. Three finalists were selected for each category.

Kathrin Egolf (Büro für Gleichstellung Kanton Zürich) got the attendees in the mood for the celebration night. And so did the inspiring keynote speakers of each category: Taisha Fabricius (Girls in Tech Switzerland), Penny Schiffer (Raized.ai) and Dalith Steiger (SwissCognitive).

The jury, with the members David Luyet (Swisscom), Claudia Bruce-Quartey (Red Hat), Stefano Mallè (AWS), Heike Riel (IBM), Christine Leiss (Fossil) and Dalith Steiger (Swiss Cognitive) had not an easy task to select the winners.

All the applicants occupied a field of expertise, different career path and amazing achievements. Nevertheless, the decision was made! We congratulate the winners: Alexandra Diening (EPAM Systems) wining Empowered Women, Zulma Prieto (Emilian AG) wining Startup / Innovation and Sonia Karkare (Adavanced to Ampify) wining Non-Profit Organisation.
Find more detailed information on the Hidden Figure Award website!

The #wetechtogether conference day event

Saturday was filled with a magnitude of encounters, inspirations and exchanges. At first Dr. Heike Riel set fire for a career in the tech industry by sharing her personal story and passion. A truly inspiring role model! After that, Director Audience at SRF, Laura Köppen, called for participation in the 50:50chance campaign by SRF, aiming to mirror the gender structure of the society in the media.

Subsequently, hands-on experiences were offered in 10 different kind of workshops (check them out in this years program). These covered topics like blockchain, AI, agile on large scale projects, cybersecurity and many more. During these workshops organizing companies and supporting female tech communities witnessed super engaged attendees. Various workshop formats were offered for all levels of experts. Some were sharing valuable insights and learnings from projects. On the other hand a couple called for collaboration to co-create solutions. And in others you learned to use new technologies.

Meanwhile at the talent matching event five companies and over 20 talents ventured a different hiring approach and invited talents to speed interviews. We know this interviewing format is matching todays’ HR needs. That is to say, we have to go back to a more individual and personal approach.

Finally, the exhibition sponsors were ready all day to network. They were perfectly located next to the offered awesome food and beverage option. One had time to explore companies, exchange casually with their staff or tie even first knots. Most importantly, all without forgetting to recharging energy.

Knowledge Session – the future is now

To sum up, did you ever wonder about the future? Well in the knowledge sessions you could see that the future already started today. This year’s topics covered area from outer space down to the soil we farm on in the future and the daily challenges in between.

• Alexandra Haas, Head IoT Solutions at Swisscom let us think about how the low digitalized construction work industry can benefit from IoT.
• Emmanuelle David, Executive Manager of EPFL Space Center, clears the path to exterritorial adventures by removing debris in the space – basically working on a more sustainable space logistics.
• Petra Donka, Engineering Lead at Scandit, walked us through some AR use cases (ticket check at airports, package delivery and shelf management in retail shops). that showed how efficiency, productivity and quality can be improved profoundly by using AR.
• Giulia Schneider, Co-Founder & CTO and Patrick Albrecht Co-Founder and CEO, both at Fruitful Farming AG, shared with the audience how future farming will look like and how AI let taste basil better.

Reach out to us by email if you wish to view the recorded sessions.

This fantastic day was closed by our esteemed and experienced leadership panel. Marion Leslie (SIX), Eva Schönleitner (Crate.io), Kamales Lardi (Lardi & Partner Consulting), Pascal Bouquet (data42, Novartis), Pasha Pourfallah (AWS) shared their insights and provided valuable advices around the topic of leadership.

To get more visual impressions of #wetechtogether 2021 by visiting the gallery.

We are looking forward to see you at the #wetechtogether conference 2022!

The conference would not have been possible without our great sponsors, who are committed to bring more diversity into tech, and the many female tech communities!

Main Sponsor

Workshop & Exhibition Sponsors

Further Sponsors & Partners

Media Partner

Partnering Communities