Agenda

Although Imposter Syndrome impacts roughly 70% of people, women are disproportionately affected by it. Feeling inadequate and doubting our own abilities can be detrimental not only to our career development but also to our emotional wellbeing and our personal lives.

In this session, Ruth will discuss some key strategies that can be employed to overcome it and in particular how developing our emotional intelligence skills can support women in overcoming self-doubt.

Key takeaways:
- What Imposter Syndrome is and how it manifests in individuals
- Strategies for overcoming Imposter Syndrome
- Emotional Intelligence as a key concept and tool in overcoming Imposter Syndrome

The world of work is changing faster than ever before. We are told that the majority of jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t actually been invented yet. So how do you prepare for a job category that doesn’t even exist yet? In this talk, Sarah will share anecdotes from her own career journey and draw on the learnings she has made pivoting from declining industries to emerging skillsets in rocketship companies.

Sarah will share tips such as how to:

• Keep yourself and your skillsets relevant in a rapidly evolving ecosystem
• Keep one eye on the horizon to predict future trends and avoid surprises
• Leverage your current experience and existing skills to leapfrog you into the future of work
• Carve out your own opportunities to pivot your career on your terms
• Increase your adaptability Quotient and learn to thrive in an environment of change

Aisling will discuss common business challenges affecting multiple industries, and chart current and emerging ways to address these challenges using the right technology. Attendees will receive insights about the digital transformation journey and the crucial role that an organisation’s culture plays when implementing new tech for its employees, as for the first time some organisations in Ireland have staff from five different generations.

Key takeaways include:
• How organisations with a strong digital culture are more likely to have productive, innovative and engaged employees
• The impact of poorly planned digital culture
• How to ensure the successful cultural adaptation of new technologies within an organisation

The data protection sphere has changed radically over the past 5 years – what can that recent history tells us about what might be yet to come over the next 5 years? Jennifer will provide some insights into the work of the Data Protection Commission, and particularly the context and impact of that work, now and in 2025 and beyond.

Key takeaways include:
· Perspectives on the DPC’s purpose in safeguarding data protection rights
· The potential outlook for the next 5 years of data protection regulation in Ireland, Europe and beyond
· How the DPC plans to create concrete change over the next 5 years

Intersectionality considers different systems of oppression, and specifically how they overlap and are compounded. This is increasingly important because more companies are giving attention to D&I than ever, but often with a narrow, single-minded strategy: “We’re focusing on gender first.” This approach, while well-intended and increasingly positively impactful, is not the way forward for true progress. Here we consider what organisations can do to adopt a more intersectional approach to D&I.

Key takeaways include:

• Realising that by focussing on one area of diversity, like gender, can in turn only ever benefit a subset of the population
• Recognising that in 2019 non-intersectional D&I initiatives are effectively telling people they have to wait their turn!
• Evaluating what will happen if we fail to adopt intersectionality to our D&I initiatives
• Understanding how to go about adopting a lens of intersectionality?

Whilst we are still a long-way away from reaching true AI via the singularity, cognitive technologies are certainly here to stay! 2019 has seen, and continues to see the technology advance further, and here we will assess where AI is today, and how it will impact your business and your own communication experiences with brands and objects in the coming year.

Key takeaways include:

• Understanding the importance and impact of IoT per industry
• Examining the increasing role of machine learning from social media to how companies do businesses with their customers
• Evaluating VR’s abilities to deliver fully immersive digital experiences from gaming to sales and marketing strategies and future learning methodologies
• Assessing touch commerce and the impacts of one-touch purchasing
• Calculating the potential impact of cognitive technology on enterprise software

You've had a fantastic idea for a start-up, you can roughly see how to plan it out - now it's time to put your thoughts and words into action and build a killer business plan. A great and clear business plan that puts you in the position to onboard a team and even investors will stay with you and be the backbone of your future growth. In this session we examine the key components and insights for creating your best business plan.

Key takeaways include:
- Learning how to determine and outline your company’s objective
- Identifying your target market and analysing your competitor landscape
- Deciding your power structure
- Identifying your financial goals and projections and beginning a budget

Citi will host an open panel discussion moderated by Yvonne Callanan, Global Head of Transfer Agency Technology @ Citi with Arlene Ennis, Global Head of Consumer Payments Technology @ Citi and Terry Jack, Client Access Regional Head – Investor Services – Data & Analytics @ Citi. Arlene and Terry will share their thoughts and own personal experiences, in ‘letters to their younger selves’, focusing on difficult situations they encountered and how those poignant moments shaped their journey. The core message it is ok to feel apprehensive, nervous at times during your career.

The panel discussion will be followed by an interactive session focused on Personal Branding. Objective of the session is to help empower women to recognise their abilities and achievements, which provides them with a platform to carry out their roles, both professionally and personally, with more confidence. This in turn empowers the people around them - peers, team members, management which will have a positive impact to work culture as it will elicit a more engaging workplace.

Key takeaways include:
• What is a brand/personal brand?
• Why having a personal brand is important?
• What are key aspects of personal branding?
• Defining your unique skills and talents

Participants will have a more rounded understanding of Personal Branding at the end of the session and how it is important factor in helping to build confidence and ‘Be Brave’ in seeking out new and exciting opportunities.

Emerging technology has given us unprecedented opportunities and challenges for business, society and the world. Innovation is changing our world at such a pace that humans and society are struggling to keep up. If we designed the world today, harnessing technology and our knowledge of its impact, how would we do it differently? How do we best harness it for better experiences, positive human impact and social good?
Learn about the latest in tech innovation and digital potential in this interactive design-led thinking workshop, where attendees will contribute to designing a better future!

Key takeaways include:
• How emerging technology and innovation insights will impact our work and personal lives
• How we adapt to the challenges and opportunities created
• How techniques such as design-led thinking and agile help us to design and deliver change
• The role of ethics, diversity and inclusion in our advancement
How we can use technology and innovation to make a positive impact on society and the world?

Small instances and off-hand statements are often the majority of how we detect unconscious bias. These small instances can build up to a feeling of lack of belonging and can lead us to question our 'fit'. How do we spot these behaviours and what can we do to stop them from happening? We explore how to proactively discuss and stop microaggressions int he workplace.

Key takeaways include:
- Understanding what microaggressions are and how to identify them
- Learning how to open up the conversation without leading the other to feel accused and defensive
- Examining how to get colleagues to support and effectively change aspects of the culture

Catherine will tell a story around Facebook Infrastructure scaling to support over 2 billion customers on huge global products such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp.
This Tale of Scale will outline how Facebook Production Engineers achieve a Zen-like state in a rapidly scaling continuous-push environment.

This hybrid systems and software engineering team automate operations around Infrastructure capacity, performance and reliability with approaches such as clever design patterns, innovative programming, fully integrated tooling, data analytics and machine learning.

Key takeaways includes:

• Understand the engineering opportunities as a large organisation scales
• How to find the best automation solution
• How to create a blameless culture
• Challenging each other to move fast, be open, be bold and focus on impact

The more points of evidence you have, the more likely our ideas are believed; this is something that all of us have been conditioned to believe! In today’s world, as the sheer volume of data continues to grow, and terms like ‘big data’ and ‘internet of things’ have become ubiquitous, how we communicate insights from data is becoming more and more important. In this session, you’ll hear about some of the techniques used to tell compelling stories with data, and how that can impact your influence with external and internal stakeholders.

Key takeaways include:

• Understanding of how data stories should be structured
• Tips for using data storytelling to gain both internal and external credibility
• Real working examples from leaders in the data analytics space
• Skills you can apply in your own field to tell great stories with data

Getting a company off the ground is an uphill battle, but tech-oriented projects tend to carry added expenses with hardware needs, software licensing, and the average salaries of STEM professionals in the Irish hyper-competitive environment. Often, funding these start-ups can be a challenge, especially early on before any investment or revenue. So, what is the differentiator between success and failure? During this session we will consider all this and more:

Key takeaways include:

• Understanding the dynamics of the different funding routes
• Learning about the resources available to you in Ireland and the programmes available for female founders
• Analysing how founders can retain control whilst collaborating with funders and driving growth
• Reviewing the differing legal structures that can help in attracting funding
• Examining how to manage investor disputes should things go wrong

We have been living in a world of take, make, waste. What's known as a linear economy. This approach has caused unfairness and poor conditions for many people, especially women and minorities. For example, there's a 40% increase in the cost of products sold in small quantities in single use packaging in low income areas.

The Circular Economy is helping our industrial world move from this linear model to a fully regenerative loop system. And its technology that is enabling new circular business models for companies to track, trace, take-back, exchange (example: https://loopstore.com/), and refill (Example: https://algramo.life/en/home/). This is creating better experiences for consumers, more responsible products and services and smarter infrastructure.

Key takeaways include:
-Why now is the time for women to learn more about the circular economy and the $4.5 global economic opportunity
-Examples of how tech is being applied to this new area

When we look back at 2019 it will be seen as an inflection point for what will lead to mass adoption of the technology that is blockchain.

In 2019 several large scale implementations have reached production creating benefits for stakeholders and communities across the global. Increasingly large brands and multi-national organisations have begun to understand the potential blockchain has to disrupt and create value for stakeholders. Facebook's announcement of Libra introduced the masses to the notion of digital currency, its accessibility and possibilities. It's an exciting time to be involved.

Key take aways include:
• A view on what point on the adoption curve the technology sits as we head into 2020 and a look to the future when mass adoption becomes a reality
• Understand the value current live global production platforms are bringing to stakeholders and communities today
• Look ahead to the benefits that will accrue as a result of mass proliferation of the technology in the future to us all

How many female founders do you know? How many lead important presentations or negotiations? Not enough. At Mastercard we partner with start-ups around the world to scale with a focus on supporting female founders to take the helm of their business and lead its strategy and success. Hear from Amy Neale, Vice President, Start Up Engagement Lead, about how we can all take actions to support female founders.

Key takeaways include:
• Understand the challenges female founders face
• Learn about the huge opportunity for female-led businesses
• Discuss what actions we can all take to ensure start-ups with great ideas and strong visions succeed

In this workshop we will discuss the tools you can use to map out your career moves whether they be vertically, laterally, or jumping into a new function all together. You will be able to use these tools to help you in a variety of situations.

Key takeaways include:

• Learning how to use the role you are in now to begin harbouring skills for your future move
• Examining how to incorporate your superiors into your plans
• Discussing how to manage career uncertainty and pivot when changes or obstacles arise
• Creating your leadership resource list
• Understanding the role our other experiences, outside work, play in our career development

Without proper management, stress can severely affect an employee’s health, motivation, personal and professional life. Employers are constantly looking for new ways to mitigate stress, increase environmental morale and improve employee wellness programmes (particularly within the tech industry).

VR meditation programmes are successfully being integrated into corporate wellness initiatives to provide employees with a chance to take mental breaks. These specially designed virtual environments encourage meditation, alleviate stress and have a calming effect on the user.

VR meditation programmes are proving to be a high impact and low-cost addition to work environments. Offering an effective solution to reduce employee stress, increase productivity and boost team morale.

Key takeaways include:
- The impact of cognitive and sensory overload within the work environment?
- Physical and mental health benefits from mindfulness and guided meditation programmes?
- How to take advantage of immersive technologies like virtual reality?
- The benefits of integrating workplace VR programmes into corporate wellness programme?
- What the future looks like for corporate and personal wellness?

To take your career to the next level, talent and knowledge is not enough. You need to have confidence to speak in social situations, convince senior management and present in front of an audience.

Key takeaways include:
- Know what the most common fears causing anxiety and lack of confidence are
- Understand what is really blocking you personally
- Develop more clarity on what you want to achieve
- Discover three main methods to overcome fear
- Take three simple, actionable steps to implement straight away in the workplace

You've got several years of experience under your belt, you've put in your fair share of time, sweat, and tears, and by your calculations, it’s your turn to move up into a leadership position. But where to start? How do you position yourself and secure that leadership role? During this presentation we will hear practical tips and advice on what you can do to help advance your career for 2020!

Key take aways include:

• Looking at your current role and assessing the opportunities that could be available to get you closer to the next level
• Evolving the way women are expected to behave so we don’t fear leading from a place of strength
• Assessing the tools you’re going to need to effectively handle leadership challenges successfully
• Finding alternative paths to connect with colleagues or leaders in the positions that you ultimately see yourself evolving into, so you can ask questions and see them in action

Since the Fourth Industrial Revolution was identified, companies have made efforts to improve ‘how’ they use data and to effect digital transformation programmes. This session covers the topic of Data Management Maturity – from the past to the present and what maturity will look like in the future.

Key takeaways
- What is ‘data-centricity’ and why does it matter
- Data maturity models and their application
- The human element
- Preparing for future digital-based success

In many organisations, the business and technical teams often sit in different parts of the office and only communicate in formal setting. This can lead to problems for both sides and ultimately hinder potential growth. In this session, attendees will see how we can encourage better collaboration and understanding to drive progress and better working.

Key takeaways include:

• Building a feedback culture across teams for better transparency
• Understanding the goals and drivers of the different teams
• Communicating the non-monetary values of technical ideas for the business

We work in high-pressure environments with high performance expectations, whilst juggling busy lives, and striving to achieve our version of success. Modern life is hectic and contains many stressors - that is our reality. We’re not born with a resilience trait – it’s a skill to pro-actively develop and strengthen in order to positively handle what life throws at us. A workshop that explores the subjects of stress and resilience in a relatable and pragmatic way, enabling each individual to develop their personal resilience-building strategy to support avoiding burnout.

Key takeaways include:
• Learn the 4 Pillars of recovery from burnout
• Recognise your personal traits that may cause burnout and overwhelm
• How to set your negotiables and non-negotiables
• Understanding how your emotional communication style affects how you interact personally and professionally

No one disputes that good UX & UI is centred around the human experience and truly understanding it. But, as the diversity and inclusion conversation expands and evolves, we're seeing that it's becoming increasingly fundamental to create different ways for people to participate in the experience and engage with products. In this workshop, we'll look at key principals to adhere to for inclusive UX/UI and trial creating an truly inclusive UI!

Key takeaways include:
- Can we really provide equivalent experiences and how do we align this to business?
- Learning how to seek out and identify points of exclusion and situational challenges
- Understanding the breadth of your user characteristics
- Recognising personal biases and involving the wider user community

In today’s technology environment, it’s sometimes not enough to be technically skilled. There’s also a need to engage and connect with audiences and communicate technical information effectively and creatively. Very often audiences are “front office”, often non-technical i.e. marketing teams, sales executives, boards, stakeholders, so shaping messages to achieve (1) a high level of understanding, (2) audience attention and (3) a desired call to action can be challenging. This session shares insights to address these challenges, build stronger collaboration and understanding to ultimately hinder growth.

Key takeaways include:
• How to analyse the audience through our Audience Mindset Model™ resulting in tailored, impactful communication, which will ensure engagement and credibility – even when you have a disinterested audience!
• A streamlined preparation process (Presentation Planning Model™) that can be applied to meetings, webinars, conference calls, and stakeholder presentations
• Examine the concept of “the hook” – engaging audience immediately
• Identify 3 Cs in content - “Colour, Credibility and Clarity” to ensure audiences – technical and non- technical understand and remember your messages and story

In this digital era, the lines between work and home time are blurring - we are constantly connected, we receive communications long after work, we can work from anywhere in the world and still be virtually connected to our teams and the temptation to answer a few 'quick emails' after work is stronger than ever. Therefore, how are relationships with work changing? What might the future new work model look like, and how do we start thinking more about balance. These are important questions and becoming increasingly central to the evolution of work and to our well-being and in this session we explore the ways we can improve our "balance" in this increasingly digital and connected landscape.

Key takeaways include:

• Analysing the role technology will play in the future of work/life balance
• Shifting our thinking more towards integration and alignment than balance
• Understanding the relationship for employers between flexibility and workplace happiness
• Thinking beyond just ‘hours’ to what the workplace experience really means today

If you want to learn what our world could look like, where everyone could be on a more level playing field powered by blockchain, this talk is for you.

Key takeaways include:
- A bird's eye view of our future through a blockchain lense
- A perspective on a future and global trusted infrastructure
- How blockchain could be a catalyst for a more equal and accessible world

As the industry evolves at an alarming pace, we're under great pressure to update or completely change our systems. Doing so when we have years of data and processes in place is a huge feat for anyone. In this session, we will look at case studies of implementing large scale digital changes and how adoption was handled and encouraged across orgs.

Key takeaways include:

• Aiding user acceptance and implementation of new systems
• Learning how to identify and rectify unknown dependencies on the legacy systems
• Planning for workflow issues and implementing realistic time scales for adoption
• Finding points of intersection between legacy and cognitive technologies

Covering refers to when an individual downplays a part of their identity, usually something they perceive as stigmatized, in order to blend into the mainstream. We often talk about the lack of diverse and inclusiveness in today’s tech sector, but more often than not this is from a perspective of looking out than in at ourselves. We often hear said to us, “just be yourself”- but in a work environment is that ever truly possible? What if being yourself doesn’t fit with that company’s corporate culture? It’s time to examine what’s possible, what’s advisable and where the truth ultimately lies.

Key takeaways include:
- Understand what covering is and how to identify the signs that we or members of our team are doing it
- Discuss and dissect how our "true selves" and the work environment shoudl intersect
- Learn how to reach your true self and bring your authenticity into your role and encourage your team to do the same
- Examine what elements are needed for an environement that encourages this level of honesty

As cognitive tech dominates the conversation around the future of the industry and society as a whole, AI and Machine learning have gained the status of buzzwords and fascinating applications have undermined some existential aspects of these technologies. In this session, we take a step back, embrace inclusion, and dive into some core and low-key aspects of AI and ML.
Key takeaways include:
• Evolution of AI, what is the real pace of progression and why?
• Similarities and differences between the concepts of AI, Machine Learning, and Deep learning.
• What AI isn’t good at, yet.
• AI landscape over the globe, geographic and economic disparities in AI adoption.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are two fields leading the exponential technology revolution. Businesses often struggle to understand how to implement this rapidly advancing field within their daily operations. The technology that is being produced and the new way of working it is breeding is often difficult to understand and unlock value from. Annabel will unpack this exciting exponential technology in detail, show examples of how it is being implemented and the impact it is currently having on the businesses that are harnessing its power. This is a talk about what exponential technologies are really about, the power they can unlock and what the future may hold for you, your business and the workforce of the future.

Key takeaways include:

- Insights into the AI landscape
- The reality of AI today and how AI and machine learning can be used to change the way we work
- Why AI and Machine learning should not be viewed as a threat to the workforce of today
- How AI will change the workforce of the future.
- How AI will allow us to make our businesses more efficient
- What can organisations do to take advantage of these new technologies

Leading change in an organisation requires more than just a clear definition of ‘what’ you are doing, but a focus on ‘why’ you are doing it. This ‘why’ allows project leaders to bring purpose to life. In addition to explaining this why, Eimear will discuss how diverse perspectives, combined with an inclusive culture, can drive better decision making, increased organisation agility and can attract and retain great talent - it is business smart.

Key takeaways include:
• Explain why purpose matters for organisations and project leaders
• Equip project leaders with practical steps to bring purpose to life
• Provide insight as to why diversity is relevant in a project context
• Discuss the steps to leverage diversity to boost performance of your projects

Tech for Good is a global movement which focuses on the positive ways we can use technology to solve problems and improve our world. It is in many ways an antidote to the negative news we hear every day about the impacts of technology which may cause us harm now or in the future. Women have a huge part to play in shaping the future of Tech for Good and are already making change happen around the globe. But what does Tech for Good look like in reality, why does it matter, and how can people get involved?

Key takeaways include:

- Key ingredients for building an inclusive group of people who share a positive vision for the future
- Real examples of Tech for Good projects happening in Ireland today to inspire you
- Ways to get involved in creating and promoting uses of technology that deliver positive impact

This session will provide a brief introduction to different types of Intellectual Property and will then focus on patents. We will discuss what can be protected, and what can’t, and the process for getting protection. We’ll discuss the potential pitfalls and misconceptions. We’ll also discuss other people’s patents and how they can affect your business, whether you’re pursuing patent protection or not.

Key takeaways include:
- What you can and can’t protect
- How to go about getting patent protection
- How other people’s patents affect you

Accenture publishes a Tech Vision each year (our most widely read piece of Thought Leadership) which defines the key technology trends we have identified of strategic importance for the next 3-5 years, and I will walk through our 2019 vision trends, and illustrate each with some examples of how we are seeing market leaders apply them today.

Key takeaways include:
• The ideas in Tech Vision 2019 represent opportunities to empower companies and individuals their goals in a positive, responsible way
• Looking 3-5 years out, companies will need to re-strategize and recalibrate, because what got them to today is different from what it will take to thrive in the post-digital era
• Our trends this year focus on what this post digital world will look like from the lens of consumers, workers, threat actors and overall market dynamics—and what companies will need to do to operate at the level of trust and responsibility required in each
• We also outline the technologies that we believe will help companies to thrive in the post-digital world. Differentiation will increasingly come from these four technologies to achieve step-change solutions for business and for society