vGHC EMEA Tracks, and Sessions

Career Track

Women face a unique set of opportunities and challenges- both at a professional and personal level. The career track provides a platform for attendees to learn and discuss a wide variety of topics to help support each other and advance their careers. Proposals that present a unique perspective with clear takeaways will be preferred. Topics of interest for the career track include but are not limited to:

Career Management and Mastery

• Professional brand and presence
• Practical tips to securing your dream job
• Product vs. Developer vs. Design vs. Data Scientist- demystifying the tech roles
• Startups vs. mid-size vs. global organizations vs. non-profits vs. govt- finding the right fit
• Mentoring vs. sponsorship- gaining them and becoming one
• Building your dream network
• Collaborating and managing upwards and sideways
• Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship
• Crucial and difficult conversations in the workplace
• Strategic thinking skills and building alliances
• Defining balance and success in career

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

• Leveraging intersectionality in the workplace
• Conscious vs. unconscious bias
• Imposter syndrome: identifying and overcoming
• Parenting in tech – the up’s, down’s and everything in between
• Motherhood in tech – the unique challenges and perspectives mothers bring
• Reentering the workforce after a break
• Cultivating the sense of belonging at work
• Becoming better allies
• Pay equity in the workplace
• Resilience and caring for your whole self

Senior Career Transition

• Interviewing for a senior leadership position
• Reaching the C-suite and what’s beyond it
• Navigating mergers and acquisitions
• Traits of a successful leader
• Senior career trajectories for different disciplines
• Culturally conscious leadership

Data Science

In recent years, data has exploded, and the need to make sense of it and harness it towards practical applications is stronger than ever. Data science has emerged as the discipline to tackle this vast data, develop insights, and deliver intelligent solutions to optimize business performance as well as improve customer experiences.

As the discipline has been developing, the importance of sourcing and using data ethically and equitably has become a key area of focus for practitioners, further encouraged by privacy laws and considerations, so perspectives in that aspect of the field are highly encouraged.

We are looking for submissions in the following categories:

Data Engineering & Infrastructure

• Data pipelines (e.g. from acquisition to prediction).
• Heterogeneous data integration.
• Data management, including quality and lineage.
• Infrastructure, cloud, and distributed applications.
• Model productionalization.
• Data scaling.

Data Analysis & Modeling

• Data analysis (e.g. statistical, in situ, real-time).
• Streaming and other novel algorithms in support of data science.
• Cloud and distributed data analysis.
• Applied machine learning.
• Knowledge discovery and data mining.
• Search and recommendation.
• New interfaces and visualization.

Novel Applications, Use Cases, and Lessons Learned

We encourage submissions focusing on novel applications, use cases, and lessons learned in any field, including but not limited to:

• Social sciences and social media.
• Physical sciences.
• Life sciences.
• Medicine and health informatics.
• Finance
• Marketing
• E-commerce, advertising.
• Technology (networks, privacy and security, IoT).

Software Engineering

Software increasingly underlies the technologies that permeate every aspect of our lives. Its ubiquity and inherent complexity emphasize the importance of adhering to responsible and well-defined practices. Software engineering is the application of knowledge, methods, and principles to the development of creative software solutions that are often enriched through collaborations with individuals from different disciplines, such as business, engineering, and science.

We seek high-quality submissions on fitting within one of the focus areas described below.

Continuous Integration, Agile Methodologies, Testing, and Automation

From ideas to methods to frameworks and tools, automation of quality assurance efforts increases the value of your products. Agile practices such as iterative planning, short feedback loops, early delivery, and continual improvement are a major contributor to building higher quality software.

• State-of-the-Art Testing: eg. Testing-as-a-Service, IoT testing, testing in DevOps, CrowdSourced testing, AI/ML and automation in testing
• Agile Engineering Practices, Testing, and Automation
• Quality of Code: Continuous Integration, Deployment, and Delivery
• Code reviews, Programing Styles

Digital transformation, DevOps, and Programming Languages

According to Forbes: “89% of enterprises have plans to adopt or have already adopted a digital-first business strategy”. With such a high interest from all businesses, we seek to explore arguments like the digital integration of social networks with agile and DevOps; the novelties in business process management; the evolution and trends of programming languages; the latest techniques within Biomedical Informatics. Moreover, as technology continues to fill every aspect of our lives in stronger and deeper ways, issues of integrity and standards have become increasingly important, hence we invite submissions evaluating the short-term and long-term ramifications digital transformation has on society;

• Digital Transformation
• Programming Languages (evolution and trends)
• DevOps Tools, Automation, and Patterns
• Biomedical Informatics
• Software Engineering Ethics and Policy

Large-Scale Software; Trends and Future of Software Engineering 

With the next billions users still following to become active Internet users <internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>, designing scalable software is one of the main focus in architecting software today. Innovation, whether evolutionary or revolutionary, requires well-defined practices and discipline. For example, the huge growth of the as-a-service model is opening so many new opportunities to simplify IT infrastructure, and furthermore, according to disruptionhub.com, by 2020 “the global XaaS (anything as-a-service) market is forecasted to grow by 40 % each year”. We seek submissions exploring the latest trends, pioneering practices and tools, research, and driving digital disruption and innovation in 2019 may be, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cloud Computing, Serverless, and Microservices
• Performance/Load Testing at Scale
• Scaling DevOps Capabilities
• Cultures and Leadership
• Strategic automation, renewable energy expansion, and sustainability are becoming  a major innovation driver
• Disruptive technologies and redefining the way we interact with machines

Sponsor Hall

Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) has made a huge impact in increasing the presence of women in STEM, tech and engineering roles. Many women professionals already face barriers to entering the tech industry, and this has been amplified by the effects of COVID-19 on the job market. vGHC EMEA will included a virtual Sponsor Hall featuring company booths hosted by our Sponsors.

1:1 Meetings

1:1 Meetings was traditionally known as our Career Fair. vGHC EMEA attendees can learn about the companies who are supporting women technologists, some of which may be hiring. Sponsors and attendees can schedule appointments and set up 1:1 informational meetings to make connections and further explore career possibilities.

Attendees who are seeking employment will be able to create a profile in this adjacent virtual space, include a resume or portfolio, and visit employer booths to research open positions, which could include online video interviews with prospective employers during the event.