Elevate 2019

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PSSST... DID WE MENTION IT IS A

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

ATTEND ON YOUR LAPTOP, TABLET, OR PHONE

MARCH 8

SCHEDULE

All times are Pacific Standard

Welcome: Elevate!

9:15AM - 9:25AM

Join the team behind Girl Geek X – Angie Chang, Sukrutha Bhadouria, and Gretchen DeKnikker – as they share their motivations for creating an event for mid-to-senior career level women, why it’s so important and where they are taking Girl Geek X next.

Angie Chang CEO & Co-Founder / Girl Geek X
Sukrutha Bhadouria, CTO & Co-Founder of Girl Geek X
Sukrutha Bhadouria CTO & Co-Founder / Girl Geek X
Gretchen DeKnikker COO / Girl Geek X

Being Unapologetically You: Morning Keynote

9:25AM - 9:55AM

Not only has Sandra Lopez been named one of the 50 most powerful women in tech by the National Diversity Council and one of Latina Style’s Top 10 Latina executives, she’s also the VP and GM for Intel Sports. In other words, #boss. In this session, Sandra will share the advice she shares with the women she mentors on being unapologetically you, being kind, and prioritizing support over competition.

Sandra E. Lopez VP, Sports / Intel

Always Ask for More

9:55AM - 10:25AM

The driving force behind Salesforce’s $8.7M commitment to closing the gender wage gap, Leyla built AppExchange from its earliest days, served as GM of Desk.com and is now EVP of Mobile and one of the most senior female leaders at Salesforce. Tune in to this rare interview along with Cloudflare’s Head of Product, Jennifer Taylor, and get Leyla’s advice on how to always ask for more, help others, and scare the crap out of yourself at least once a year.

Leyla Seka COO / Ironclad
Jennifer Taylor Head of Product / Cloudflare

Building High-Performance Teams

10:25AM - 11:10AM

You think the transition from IC to a manager is the hardest part of your career – until you become a manager of managers. From advancing your hiring skills to optimizing cross-team communication to letting your managers manage, join these amazing women as they share their learnings as they’ve evolved from managers to leaders.

Nupur Srivastava VP, Product / Grand Rounds
Colleen Bashar VP / Guidewire
Citlalli Solano Director, Engineering / Palo Alto Networks
Gretchen DeKnikker COO / Girl Geek X

Data Science And Climate Change

11:25AM - 11:45AM

For the very first time in our history, we can collect incredible amounts of data at scale. Modern data infrastructure enables the documentation and recording of billions of species and data science allows us to collect, analyze, predict and slow down the speed of extinction. Janet will walk us through her extensive research as well as share tips on infrastructure stacks and strategies for processing massive amounts of information.

Janet George Fellow & Chief Data Scientist / Western Digital

Tech Stayers & Leavers

11:45AM - 12:05PM

In 2017, the Kapor Center published the first-of-its-kind Tech Leavers Study why people voluntarily left their jobs in tech. In this session, Lili will walk us through the findings, shattering the myth that women leave to spend time with their family among others, and will provide some ideas for how you can ensure an environment where all employees feel valued, appreciated, welcomed and heard.

Lili Gangas Chief Technology Community Officer / Kapor Center

Intersectionality & Systemic Change

12:05PM - 12:25PM

As we journey into fourth-wave feminism, join Heidi Williams for this important session on intersectionality and systemic change. Navigating the challenging terrain to ensure that as we gain seats at the table, that the voices of all women are heard. She’ll share tips on how to engage allies and advocates, recognize privilege, and lead both up and down the organization.

Heidi Willians Grammarly Girl Geek
Heidi Williams Director of Engineering / Grammarly

The Gendered Project

12:25PM - 12:45PM

When you think of the word “superhero” what do you imagine? Language reflects and reinforces social norms; ungendering language is a vital part of interrogating sexism. However, there’s no dataset of gendered words. This talk is about data – where to get it and how to create it if it doesn’t exist. In this talk, Omayeli Arenyeka creates the dataset for The Gendered Project, showing how to view unavailable data as an opportunity rather than an obstacle to answering questions.

Omayeli Arenyeka Software Engineer / LinkedIn

Office Manager to CPO in 1356* Steps: Afternoon Keynote

1:00PM - 1:20PM

Shawna Wolverton is a self-proclaimed nerd for good product design. Starting at Salesforce in 2003, Shawna worked her way up to SVP Product Management, influencing $30M/yr in revenue before she left to do it all over again at Zendesk. Don’t miss this session as Shawna shares the lessons she learned both personally and professionally in her 25 year career.

Shawna Wolverton SVP, Product Management / Zendesk

Every Day is Important in the Life of a Strawberry: Finding the Users in Government Policy

1:20PM - 1:40PM

Documentation is just a mirror held up to a product. If you think of government services as some of the most crucial products we encounter at the United States Digital Service, then user-centered documentation becomes all the more interesting. In this talk, Sheri Bernard Trivedi tells a story about writing docs for farmers, one of her favorite projects in her career thus far.

Sheri Bernard Trivedi Instructional Content Strategist / United States Digital Service

Creating an AI for Social Good Program

1:40PM - 2:00PM

Data scientist Anna Bethke had approached management with a new position – to become the head of AI for Social Good to bring in new positively impactful projects to the group and company as a whole. Since then, she has created the role at Intel and the AI for Social Good program ever since. Anna shares her story and lessons learned along the way.

Anna Bethke Head of AI for Good / Intel

A/B Testing Cheap & Easy with Open Source

2:00PM - 2:20PM

Quick experimentation in your application can turn feelings driven development into data driven wins. Beyond blue buttons or red buttons, A/B testing can answer key questions on how best to serve your users by offering sometimes surprising insights into how they interact with your product. In this talk, Dena Metili Mwangi will get the first experiment up and running with PlanOut, a Python-based open-source framework.

Dena Metili Mwangi Software Engineer / Sentry

Unconventional Journeys in Tech

2:35PM - 3:20PM

The tech industry is full of misfits. Contrary to the myth, not everyone has a computer science degree and went to a fancy university. Hear from ambitious women who built tech careers on their own terms by leveraging their strengths and creating opportunities for themselves to succeed in roles from sales and engineering to product management, from entrepreneurship to corporate ladder climbing.

Angie Chang CEO & Co-Founder / Girl Geek X
Farnaz Ronaghi CTO & Co-Founder / NovoEd
Rosie Sennett Staff Sales Engineer / Splunk
Shanea Leven CEO & Founder / CodeSee

Coding Strong at Age 60

3:20PM - 3:40PM

At age 40, Akilah Monifa stopped practicing law to do what her younger self had wanted to do: become a full-time writer. She received an Amazon Echo as a gift and made another pivot at age 60. This time, she decided she would learn to build for voice. Her motivation: give voice to a subject dear to her heart and build an Alexa skill called Black History Everyday.

Akilah Monifa SVP / ARISE Global Media

Enterprise to Computer - A Star Trek Chatbot

3:40PM - 4:00PM

Personality and emotions play a vital role in defining human interactions. Enterprise to Computer (or “E2Cbot”) was created with the premise of adding a personality to a chatbot. This helps in making it appear human-like and contributes to a better and engaging user experience. Developed as an Amazon Alexa skill, E2Cbot uses neural networks to capture the style of Star Trek by incorporating references from the show along with peculiar tones of the characters.

Grishma Jena Cognitive Software Engineer / IBM

OUR WONDERFUL

SPEAKERS

Celebrate International Women’s Day with 20+ inspiring speakers by tuning into Girl Geek X: Elevate!

Get your FREE all-access conference pass to join the livestreaming on March 8th, 2019!

Sandra E. Lopez
VP, Sports
Intel
Shawna Wolverton
SVP, Product Management
Zendesk
Leyla Seka
COO
Ironclad
Akilah Monifa
SVP
ARISE Global Media
Lili Gangas
Chief Technology Community Officer
Kapor Center
Nupur Srivastava
VP, Product
Grand Rounds
Heidi Willians Grammarly Girl Geek
Heidi Williams
Director of Engineering
Grammarly
Farnaz Ronaghi
CTO & Co-Founder
NovoEd
Citlalli Solano
Director, Engineering
Palo Alto Networks
Anna Bethke
Head of AI for Good
Intel
Omayeli Arenyeka
Software Engineer
LinkedIn
Jennifer Taylor
Head of Product
Cloudflare
Dena Metili Mwangi
Software Engineer
Sentry
Rosie Sennett
Staff Sales Engineer
Splunk
Shanea Leven
CEO & Founder
CodeSee
Janet George
Fellow & Chief Data Scientist
Western Digital
Colleen Bashar
VP
Guidewire
Gretchen DeKnikker
COO
Girl Geek X
Grishma Jena
Cognitive Software Engineer
IBM
Sheri Bernard Trivedi
Instructional Content Strategist
United States Digital Service
Angie Chang
CEO & Co-Founder
Girl Geek X
Sukrutha Bhadouria, CTO & Co-Founder of Girl Geek X
Sukrutha Bhadouria
CTO & Co-Founder
Girl Geek X
Coming Soon

THANK YOU TO OUR

SPONSORS

Want to join our list of mission-aligned sponsors? Check out our 2019 Sponsorship Prospectus and email sponsors@girlgeek.io

Check out our 2019 Girl Geek X Elevate: Sponsor Jobs Opportunities!

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

NO LOFTY LEADERSHIP ADVICE,
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NO TRAVEL

Lightning tech talks from the brightest minds at LinkedIn, Intel, IBM and more.
Take your career to new heights! Focused on mid- to senior-level technical and leadership content.
Conveniently online so you can attend from your desk, couch, or iPhone.
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