Women in Tech, #WIT2014, was held in Hilton Slussen on the international women´s day by three companies, MTGx, Google and Spotify to attract more women into the tech industry. This event is just the beginning of something much larger. Its gonna be annual event and this summer MTGx opens 100 position of internship for young women.
I got blown away by the energy that was sparking in Hilton during Women in Tech. All seats were taken and the waiting list to take a empty seat where extensive. It was exhilarating to see the majority of women and the bursting interest. I really hope that the tree giants succeeds in their mission for everyones sake.
Christina Stenbeck want to disrupt
A great role model for many, Cristina Stenbeck, Executive Chairman at Kinnevik, got up on stage early in the event having a long chat with Ola Alhvarsson. She was fun, intellectual, pragmatic and talked about the need of diversity in the tech industry. Christina said that she always surrounds herself with smarter people then herself and that are different with a clear sense of purpose for the group.
Christina is a passionate entrepreneur and builder with exceptional visions for the future. Already 15 years ago she predicted social networks that would connect the world and now we’re living in the middle of it.
The business modell of Kinnevik is that they will support whoever they believe in with the backbone of IT, ongoing support and scale them to different markets if they decide to says Christina Stenbeck Executive Chairman at Kinnevik
Partly why she was at #WIT2014 was to show the importance of disrupting the industry, reinvent and lead digitalization in all MTG countries and to try to get more women into the industry and evolve it.
To be able to recruit more women and make a change you really have to understand what the issues are; it’s overall structural issues. And we have to change it. I really hope it will change soon and that more women are interested in the tech industry. Only time will tell though but reflecting on the amount of women the event attracted I have a positive view on the future.
If you gonna start a company this is what you need ti succeed according to Christina Stenbeck:
- You need to be passionate about you do
- Find a niche
- You need to have a momentum in your brand, community and business
We are both women and men from all over the world that use everything, same in the digital world. Thats why MTGx hires people with different nationalities and gender.
Rikard Steiber – CEO MTGx and Founder of Women in Tech
Michelle Guthrie – Managing Director, Partner Solutions Asia at Google
Michelle Guthrie exploded with energy on stage that were so contagious that I were jumping in my seat. She told that Larry Page is really driving innovation within Google much like Steve Jobs did for Apple. Every idea need to be 10 times better, the golden rule of Google called 10x rule. If you want change the game – then we have to innovate to be in the market. Thats what we’re doing, says Michelle smiling. If you work with the biggest stuff, greatest thing and attract talent and the best people, thats why Michelle is at Google.
Michelle’s mantra is; Be fearless. She wants to make a global impact and where better to be then in Google which have a finger in many more things than in search.
The event with all the speakers really inspired the audience and the amount of positive tweets afterward really showed that. I’m looking forward to the tree giants work and to the next event.
The event ambassadors located by Traackr
During the event I used the multi platform influencer tool Traackr to locate the brand advocates divided into relevance, resonance and reach, something for MTGx to keep in mind for the next event to create more digital ripples and to get the word out. The list kept changing during event which was exciting. As the event was over this is the ten people that that tweeted the most relevant to these keywords: spotify ”women in tech”, 3WIT2014, #wit2014, wit2014, WIT2014.com, #WIT14, #wit14, ”women in tech” stockholm, ”women in tech”, ”kvinnor i tech”, ”kvinnor och tech”
Don’t miss: Näringslivets 101 mäktigaste kvinnor 2014 (swedish post about the 101 most powerful women in Sweden)
All talks was filmed and the will be added to www.WIT2014.com later on.