Come on now, tech industry, how hard can it be? It's time to level up!

When Women in Tech Sweden hosts the Nordic region’s largest technology conference for women on May 13, career development and the volition to be involved in advancing the industry are at the top of the agenda. The theme Level up! calls for constant development, both within companies and in the work lives of individuals.

The Women in Tech conference has grown every year. In 2020, 2,100 tech women gathered at Waterfront in Stockholm. This year, even more people will be able to participate as the event will be completely digital and possible to attend regardless of where you are physically. Tickets are free thanks to the commitment of more than 20 of Sweden’s most interesting and forward-thinking tech companies. The tickets will be released on February 10, at 12.00.

“Technology could be the most equal sector if more companies decided to actually drive change and not give up until the goals have been achieved. The preconditions are there; so is the knowledge that gender equality leads to better results and innovation. The only thing missing is clear directions and KPIs from the board and top management.

“What other business-critical challenges would the smartest industry address as ignorantly as the challenge of increased diversity and gender equality? The question is deliberately provocative, but the fact is that the skills supply for technical roles is already an urgent problem and the image of what a development or engineer is must be broadened, says Elin Eriksson, Director of Women in Tech Sweden

The member association TechSverige’s report ‘The IT competence shortage’ points out that there is an expected shortage of 70,000 people in 2024 if we do not act decisively. It does not get clearer than this. There is a huge shortage of people in Sweden’s new basic industry, and there’s an urgency to increase the talent pool. We do not have time to wait for new students, we have to tackle education, reskilling, knowledge development and learning in new ways.

“In addition to the inflow to the industry, we also have a job to do to stop the outflow. The women who are already working in the tech industry are needed, and need the right conditions to stay. What Women in Tech can contribute with is to continue to put the spotlight on role models and open up more paths to a larger and more diverse network, says Elin Eriksson

At the conference in May, Women in Tech emphasizes the importance of lifelong personal learning. The courage to change tracks, learn new things and to define one’s own personal vision for the next steps to come. But it is hard to find the skills, and not least women for the roles?

It is difficult but not impossible, which our partners prove every day in how they work to build better teams, a lower retention rate, more inclusive leadership and clear values. Some advice along the way is: do your homework. Equal workplaces do not emerge automatically, they require continuous joint efforts. With management directives, board decisions, management team focus and in the daily decisions regarding recruitment and employer branding. A healthy and sustainable workplace culture means that more women stay longer. And the more in-team diversity, the easier it gets to continue building more sustainable teams. It will turn into a positive spiral.

This year’s theme is “Level up” Paulina Modlitba, who is the program manager for # WITswe2022, explains the theme: “As we step into yet another year colored by the pandemic and climate challenges, we need and deserve new horizons more than ever. Now is the time to rise above platitudes and excuses like “there are no women in tech” and make a real difference. Never before have we had greater opportunities than now to drive change for the better. Our common future needs sustainable, value-driven and humanistic innovation, and for that journey to be possible, many different skills and perspectives are needed.

The conference # WITswe2022, with the theme Level Up!, focuses on just that. How we all can and should take our own and joint responsibility for a better future. On stage, we will see, among others, 18-year-old Wilma Emanuelsson, who has been a devoted coder since the age of seven and has now developed iTrack Reading – a service that helps people with reading challenges; Anya Ernest, Exploration Lead at the electric car company Polestar; Brie Code, a Canadian entrepreneur and programmer who is in the midst of developing a whole new, more empathetic and compassionate, form of human-computer interaction in her AI company TRU LUV; Adriana Knouf, Founding Facilitator at tranxxeno lab, an artistic research lab that explores space art, drones, queer and transfuturism, machine learning and much more; and Nargis Rahimi, co-founder of the global health tech organization Shifo Foundation and strategic advisor in “Immunization and surveillance data” at WHO.

Tickets are free and will be released on April 6 Expensive tickets should not be an obstacle for those who are curious about entering the industry. We are so proud to have almost 30 of Sweden’s most interesting and forward-thinking technology companies as our partners, who make it possible for us to continue to offer 2,500 tickets to our members – completely free, says Åsa Johansen, Women in Tech’s Communications Manager.

The complete program for this year’s conference will be published on womenintech.se and tickets will be released on April 6 at 12 pm. The ticket demand is huge and the seats are usually fully booked in just a few minutes after the tickets have been released.

Main partners Women in Tech 2022:
Accenture, EY och Volvo Cars.

Co-creating Partners Women in Tech 2022:
ATG, Electrolux, HiQ, ICA Gruppen, Kindred Group, Salesforce, Scania, Schibsted, Sigma, Swedbank, Tele2, och TietoEVRY.

Supporting Partners Women in Tech 2022:
Amazon Web Services, Axians, Bonnier News, Ericsson, IF, Knowit, Hemnet, Nasdaq, NENT Group/Viaplay, SAP, SAS Institute, D-congress, Tobii och Visma.

The program for # WITswe2022 is under development; details about speakers and breakout sessions will be published on womenintech.se.

Follow the event on social media via #WITswe2022

Press photos from WITsthlm2020 (free to use in media, citing photographer: Hilda Arneback)

Contact:

Elin Eriksson, Director
elinmaria.eriksson@gmail.com +46706388016

Åsa Johansen, Communications and Operations
asa.johansen@gmail.com, +46706235566

Paulina Modlitba, Program Director
paulina.modlitba@gmail.com +46702075096