Tag: ada awards

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DLI Update – May-June 2016

Spring has sprung right into summer, and although the weather may not reflect it, the crush of activities in Brussels has made it clear that the yearly exodus to warmer climes is imminent. Besides carrying out several awesome hands-on events around digital skills for girls and women, in this timeframe, DLI also launched the Digital Leadership Academy on 21 June with a seminar on “the Cloud” with Amazon Web Services, organised in the context of the first-ever Digital Festival in Brussels.

At GE‘s 14 June Minds+Machines event in Paris, DLI Cofounder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, also had the unique opportunity to interview Miss Niamh Scanlon (13 years old from Ireland), who is our Ada Awards 2016 European Digital Girl of the Year.  Check out the conversation they enjoyed here — and be sure to watch till the end to hear Niamh’s insightful advice for digital industry leaders!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Lfud7LKM4&feature=youtu.be

The DLI Board and Executive Team are actively involved in initiatives with partners and stakeholders around the world that promote ESTEAM* leadership by girls and women. Find out below about our work in May and June 2016, learn here about future activities we are involved in, and visit our calendar for upcoming events that DLI is organising.

*entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics

womenandtechgoogle3 May – Google “Women and Technology” Event (Brussels): On 3 May, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder,  organised a hands-on workshop on “Android Coding with MIT App Inventor” for girls, and Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Coounder,  contributed to a high-level panel discussion at an event on “Women and Tech” organised by Google and Politico in Brussels.

bxlsmartcity3 May – Brussels Smart City (Brussels): On 3 May, DLI Cofounder, Ms. Cheryl Miller gave a keynote intervention on the subject of “Smart Citizens Make Smart Cities” as part of the Brussels Region “Brussels Smart City” event, organised under the auspices of Ms. Bianca Debaets, State Secretary of the Brussels Capital Region responsible for Digital Transition.

makerstown24 May – Makerstown (Brussels): On 24 May, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, spoke on the topic of “We Can Make It: Women Entrepreneurship,” as part of the first-ever Makerstown event in Brussels.

inspiringfifty25 May – Inspiring Perspectives (The Hague & Amsterdam): Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, joined Inspiring Perspectives, a high-level event attended by her Majesty Queen Maxima of Holland and Mr. Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, recognising top women in technology from around the world. The event was organised by InspiringFifty and StartupDelta special envoy Ms. Neelie Kroes, former Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda.

smeepp2 June – Female Entrepreneurs and Digital Business (Brussels): On 2 June, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, contributed to an expert panel on “Female Entrepreneurs and Digital Business,” for SME Europe of the EPP in Brussels.

ge14 June – GE Minds and Machines (Paris): On 13 and 14 June,   Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, joined the inauguration of the GE Digital Foundry and contributed to “Minds + Machines Europe 2016” with an interview of Miss Niamh Scanlon (13 years old from Ireland), the DLI Ada Awards 2016 European Digital Girl of the Year!

ey15 June – EY: Women. Fast forward Global Planning Session (Paris): On 15 June, DLI Cofounder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, contributed to a global planning session on harnessing digital disruption to promote leadership by women, at EY headquarters in Paris.

digitalfestivallogo221 June – Digital Festival 2016 (Brussels): Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, joined the opening plenary panel of the first-ever Digital Festival in Brussels on 21 June, at which DLI also organized two official side-events:

  1. Digital Leadership Seminar on “The Cloud” with Amazon Web Services – for women decision-makers by invitation; and
  2. Coding for Young People Expert Roundtable and Android Coding Workshop with Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder.

youthspeak27 June – AIESEC Youth Speak Forum (Brussels): On 27 June, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, delivered a keynote presentation on the gender gap in technology sectors, and she and the DLI team facilitate a workshop on building educational programs to address this gap, as part of the AIESEC Youth Speak Forum in Brussels.

28 June – Women and the New Economy: The Future of Work (Brussels): Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, contributed to a panel on “Women and the New Economy” as part of a conference organized by the Gender Equality Committee of European Commission trainees, on 28 June in Brussels.

dsi4eu29 June – CAPS Policy Workshop on Digital Social Innovation (Brussels): Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder,  joined a panel on “digital social innovation” as part of a Collective Awareness Platform Workshop at the European Commission on 29 June in Brussels.

Be sure to visit our Calendar, Upcoming Activities page, and sign up for the DLI Newsletter in order to keep up with DLI events and activities!

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2015 European Ada Award-winners

On 14 December in Luxembourg, the Digital Leadership Institute and its partners – the Council for European Professional Informatics Societies, DIGITALEUROPE, the European Centre for Women and Technology, and European SchoolNet – announced winners of the 2015 European Ada Awards, recognising outstanding girls and women in digital studies and careers in Europe, and the organisations who support them.  The 2015 Ada Awards ceremony took place at the opening for a high-level eskills and entrepreneurship event as part of the Luxembourg presidency of the Council of the European Union.

2015 European Ada Award winners and finalists were recognised in the following categories:

NiamhScanlonWinner – 13 years old:  Niamh from Ireland

Niamh, 13, learned to code at CoderDojo when she was nine and she loves to build websites and apps that help people. When she was 11 she developed an award-winning app to help the drivers of electric cars. For three years Niamh has mentored at CoderDojo in Dublin City University, where she helps other young people – and particularly girls – to learn how to create with technology. She is a member of the Digital Youth Council in Ireland and she would like to see more coding and technology taught in schools.

YasminWinner – 14 years old:  Yasmin from England

Yasmin is a fourteen year old who has been programming for six years. She regularly builds projects with the Raspberry Pi computer, and volunteers to run workshops for young people to learn how to code using the Pi. As well as this, she runs a programming club during her school lunch breaks for younger pupils, to hopefully increase the uptake of Computer Science at her school.

Winner:  Janneke Niessen, Improve Digital, from the NetherlandsFoto janneke niessen

Janneke is a female serial technology entrepreneur who, next to her role of Chief Innovation Officer at Improve Digital, also makes big efforts to help other entrepreneurs and is a strong advocate for women in tech. She is mentor for startups, angel investor and regularly speaks at events to share her experience in building a high-growth international technology company. She is co-initiator of Inspiring Fifty, that makes female role models in technology more visible. She recently published a novel for young girls (10-14) to create a role model for them and show them how great and fun technology is and how many possibilities it offers.

First Runner-Up:  Monique Morrow, Cisco, from SwitzerlandMonique Morrow

Monique Morrow is the Chief Technology Officer for New Frontiers at Cisco that uniquely focuses on empowering women through the intersection of research, economics and technology execution.  Her current focus is spearheading an Internet of Women movement as an opportunity for women worldwide to collectively shape the future of the Internet powered by a SHE (Supercritical Human Elevated) technology platform.

Second Runner-Up:  Nicole Wajer, Cisco, from the NetherlandsNWajer

In her work, Nicole supports account teams and partners that need her technical expertise.  She is passionate about the Internet of Things (IoT), IPv6 and Security, and is currently playing with new technology e.g Sensors in her own home.  Nicole is a Champion of Change for her passionate work in the Industrial Automation space, and is a frequent blogger and attendee at the four annual Dutch Hacker Conferences.

vhtograbWinner:  VHTO, The Netherlands:
VHTO, the Dutch national expert organisation on girls/women and science/technology, makes an effort in many different ways to increase the involvement of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Every year VHTO organises the Dutch Girlsday together with 300 IT and technical companies. In 2015, 9,525 girls participated! To increase the participation of girls in Computer Science specifically, VHTO created the Digivita program for girls (age 8-18) which took place in in six cities in 2014, and carried out the Digivita Summer Camp in 2015. In 2014 VHTO reached 55,210 Dutch children through projects in primary and secondary education.

TravisFoundation-1 Runner-Up:  Travis Foundation – Railsgirls Summer of Code, Germany: 

Travis Foundation runs Rails Girls Summer of Code for the third year in a row now – providing stipends for women all over the world to work on Open Source projects. The grassroots initiative is a hands-on solution for the problem of women being underrepresented in Open Source and Tech in general. With Rails Girls Summer of Code we are not only changing women’s careers, diversifying Tech Communities and building safer environments for women in Tech – we are also creating the much-needed role models in IT, so that future generations can follow suit.

Congratulations to all the 2015 European Ada Awards nominees, finalists and winners in every category, and thank you to our Award Partners and supporters of the 2015 European Ada Awards:  Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Google, HP and SAP!  Please contact us with questions or inquiries on how to  support the Ada Awards and the larger mission of the Digital Leadership Institute.

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DLI Promotes Girls in Tech at ICT2015

On 20-22 October 2015, more than 4500 people will converge on Lisbon to attend ICT2015, Europe’s largest ICT event. DLI board members, Ms. Cheryl Miller and Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, will host the Women in ICT booth at ICT2015, and DLI will organize “Ada200,” a special networking session to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lady Ada Lovelace — the first computer programmer in the world, a woman and a European.  DLI and its partners will showcase European women role models in ICT and carry out a speed-mentoring activity to encourage young girls toward digital studies and careers.

ECThe program for the Ada200 Networking Session at ICT2015 is as follows:

To participate in, partner or sponsor the Ada200 Networking Session at ICT2015, please contact us!

httpv://vimeo.com/126954305

 

 

 

 

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DLI Update – April 2015

In April 2015, DLI formally welcomed a new board of directors to lead the organization in new directions.  We celebrated our fifth annual Girls in ICT Day event including launch of the 2015 European Ada Awards and a fantastic “Girls and the Future Internet” workshop — led by Esther Roure Vila from Cisco and Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, g-Hive Community Manager.  We also kicked off the “Kick@ss Online” inQube series for women entrepreneurs and career-seekers led by our very own Ms. Selma Franssen, Community Manager for inQube.  Please read below for more details on what we have been up to!

11 April – TEDxVilnius (Vilnius):  tedxvDLI Founder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, co-hosted the fifth annual TEDxVilnius event.  This year’s theme was “Pale Blue Dot,” as immortalized by the Voyager 1 photo of the Earth in 1990 and in the words of the great Carl Sagan.  The 2015 edition of TEDxVilnius featured inspiring speakers from around the world.  Cheryl herself gave a talk at the 2012 edition of TEDxVlinius on the subject “girls are going to save the world,” of course.  Photos here.

20 April – European Commission Forum on The Future of Gender Equality (Brussels): EC  Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Digital Literacy Lead, and Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, were invited to contribute to a European Commission forum on the future of gender policy in Europe.  Ms. Miller co-led two workshops on “Women and the Digital Society,” whose attendees set the following policy priorities in this area:

  1. dgjusticeDigital skills for girls;
  2. Funding for tech entrepreneurship by women; and
  3. Legislation against cyberviolence against girls and women.

A brochure for the event, which showcased several high-level speakers and addressed eight key subject areas for future gender policy is here.  A report on the forum outcomes is forthcoming.

girlsinict2015 logo25 April – Girls in ICT Day – 2015 European Ada Awards Launch (Brussels):  International Girls in ICT Day took place on 25 April, and with it came the DLI launch of the 2015 European Ada Awards – recognising outstanding girls and women in digital studies and careers in Europe, and the organisations who support them.  In its third year, the 2015 European Ada Awards will be handed out on 10 December in Brussels – in honour of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lady Ada Lovelace – in the following three categories:

  1. Digital Woman of the Year
  2. Digital Girl of the YearAda Awards
  3. Digital Impact Organisation of the Year

Nominations for the three EU Ada Awards will be open until 23 October 2015.

SKFlogo30 April – DLI at SKF (Brussels):  On 30 April, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Digital Literacy Lead, and Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, visited the Belux headquarters of SKF to celebrate International Women’s Day and kick off the “Women Work” initiative for SKF employees.

Be sure to visit our calendar and sign up the DLI Newsletter in order to keep up with DLI events and activities!

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DLI Launches 2015 EU Ada Awards

On 23 April 2015, at our fifth annual celebration of International Girls in ICT Day, the Digital Leadership Institute and its partners – the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies, DIGITALEUROPE, European Centre for Women and Technology, and European Schoolnet – launched the third edition of the European Ada Awards recognising outstanding girls and women in digital studies and careers in Europe, and the organisations who support them.

The opening ceremony for the 2015 European Ada Awards featured lightening talks by inspiring Digital Leaders including girls and women in tech from across Europe, past & current Ada Award-winners, and supporters of the Awards, including:

Ada Awards

The launch of the new DLI digital innovation centre for girls and women included opening online nominations for the 2015 European Ada Awards in the following categories:


International Girls in ICT Day 2015:

The 2015 European Ada Awards Launch was part of an all-day Digital Leadership Institute celebration of International Girls in ICT Day 2015 that includes the following activities:

17:00-19:00 – g-Hive workshop on “Girls & The Future Internet”: A hands-on workshop for girls*, ages 13-17, to promote active participation and leadership by girls in designing and building the Internet of tomorrow, for fun, safety and wellbeing.

19:00-20:00 – 2015 European Ada Awards Launch & “Inspiring Digital Leaders” Talks, hosted by Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder & Executive Director.

20:00-22:00 – inQube workshop “Quantify Everything”: Third workshop in the Spring 2015 “Build A Kick&ss Online Presence” series for women* by Ms. Selma Franssen, DLI Communications Director & inQube Community Manager.

*Anyone who identifies as a girl or woman.

All DLI “Girls in ICT Day” and European Ada Awards events were an official part of the 2015 e-Skills for Jobs Campaign.

Volunteering, Donations & Sponsorship:

If you or your organisation is interested in partnering, volunteering, sponsoring girls & women to participate in DLI activities, or would like to support DLI and its mission in other ways, please contact us. Donations to DLI are gratefully accepted and go toward furthering its mission of bridging the gender gap and the digital divide worldwide.

Thank you to our 2014-2015 Ada Award Partners & Sponsors!

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DLI Update – March 2015

Spring has sprung at the Digital Leadership Institute and we have welcomed it with open arms–and the Brussels launch of Europe’s first-ever digital innovation centre for girls and women!

In addition to celebrating this great milestone, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer and Ms. Selma Franssen, the DLI g-Hive and inQube Community Managers, kicked off our first digital and entrepreneurship events for girls and women in the brand new DLI space.  The DLI team were also in Belgium, Germany and the US this month promoting girls and women in what we call “ESTEAM”: entrepreneuership, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. Please read about our activities below and check out our calendar for more upcoming events and activities.

 

EP4 March – International Women’s Day at the European Parliament (Brussels):  In celebration of International Women’s Day 2015, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, moderated an all-day conference at the European Parliament on the “strategy for equality between women and men in Europe“.  Photos here.

 

iwd9 March – International Women’s Day – DLI Digital Innovation Centre Opening (Brussels): On 9 March in Brussels, DLI celebrated International Women’s Day by opening the very first digital innovation centre for girls and women in Europe. Please see coverage of this event here.

 

csw5911 March – Urban Digital Women High-level Roundtable – 59th Meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (New York): On 11 March in New York City, DLI Founder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, moderated a panel on “digitally empowering women for positive urban transformation” co-chaired by the cities of Brussels and Barcelona as an official side-event of the Beijing+20 and 59th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations.  Photos here.

 

GSMA_logo17 March – GSMA Europe – Connected Women (Brussels): Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Executive Director, participated in a high-level roundtable on “accelerating the role of women in the digital economy” hosted by GSMA Europe, the regional organisation of the global association for GSM stakeholders.

 

 

adalsmall26 March – Ada Lovelace Conference (Berlin): In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lady Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer, DLI founder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, moderated a best practices roundtable on “getting more girls and women into digital studies & careers” hosted at GE Garages Berlin. Several high-level women representatives of Berlin-based tech organisations spoke at the roundtable, and an animated discussion with the 40+ participants ensued. This was the second Ada Lovelace Conference hosted with General Electric. Read about the first one – blogged by European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip – here!

 

Thank you to all our supporters and friends for welcoming Spring 2015 and this exciting new stage of DLI activity with us!  We are looking forward to enjoying the coming months and to welcoming many more Springs with you in the years to come!

Be sure to visit our calendar and sign up the DLI Newsletter in order to keep up DLI events and activities!

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Supporting Girls in ICT Day

girls-in-ICT-2014

International Girls in ICT Day is being celebrated around the world this year on 24 April 2014. The Digital Leadership Institute will join in the festivities by organising two Digital Muse workshops in Brussels and Geneva, and DLI founder, Cheryl Miller, will contribute to an expert panel on “Celebrating Successes, Inspiring Girls” at the UN International Telecom Union‘s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 15 April.  To join the Geneva event live, please click here.

Looking for a way to celebrate Girls in ICT Day 2014?  Please consult the ITU’s Girls in ICT Day portal to find resources for organising your own event and to learn about activities being organised in your area.  UN Women is also promoting Girls in ICT Day around the world.  And if you would like to do something simple and effective to get more girls into tech, please consider contributing your own 1-minute video to the European Commission’s #Passion4Tech campaign via their  “Every Girl Digital” Facebook page.

As always, if you are an girl or woman working and studying in digital sectors, or part of an organisation promoting more girls and women in tech, please consider nominating yourself or your organisation/project for a 2014 European Ada Award, deadline 16 September 2014!

Questions?  Please contact us!

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2014 European Ada Awards Launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_In96cjPJlA

Video care of the QUIDOS “Fascinating Stories” Series

Nominations for the 2014 European Ada Awards launched on 4 April 2014 in Athens, Greece, in the context of the “Women and Girls Go Digital!” event, co-organised by ECWT and celebrating the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Nominations for this year’s European Ada Awards – named after the first-ever computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, Lady Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace – are now being accepted in the following categories:

Deadline for submissions for the European Ada Awards is 16 September 2014 and winners in each category will be recognised at the Ada Awards Ceremony on 30 October 2014 in Rome, as part of the closing event for the 2014 eSkills for Jobs campaign. Please follow the noted links to find out more about each Award.

The international Ada Awards™ recognise outstanding girls and women in digital sectors globally and the organisations that support them. The European Ada Awards™, launched in 2013 by the Digital Leadership Institute (formerly Zen Digital Europe) and its partners – CEPIS, DIGITALEUROPE, ECWT and European SchoolNet – are an official pledge to the Grand Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs in Europe, and have the following objectives:

  • Increase the number of digitally-skilled girls and women in Europe;
  • Increase participation of girls and women in digitally-driven and digitally-enabled studies, enterprises and jobs;
  • Recognise outstanding women and girls in digitally-enabled and digitally-driven studies and careers; and
  • Showcase organisations who are increasing participation of girls and women, particularly in leadership roles, in digital sectors.


For questions or to become a partner or sponsor of the Ada Awards, please contact us.

© Digital Leadership Institute, asbl/vzw

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Ada Award Nominations Open 4 April

On 4 April 2014, in honour of the Hellenic Presidency of the European Council,  nominations for the 2014 European Ada Awards will officially open in the context of the “Women & Girls Go Digital” event in Athens.  We look forward to a great turnout for the event and a record number of 2014 nominations for Digital Girl, Digital Woman, and Digital Impact Organisation of the Year in Europe.

The European Ada Awards are an initiative of the Digital Leadership Institute and its partners – CEPIS, DIGITALEUROPE, ECWT, and the European SchoolNet – that aims to recognise outstanding girls and women in digital sectors in Europe and organisations supporting them.

The European Ada Awards were launched as a five-year pledge to the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs and are part of the 2014 Eskills for Jobs campaign.  In 2013, Ms. Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, was personal patron of the Awards and presented prizes in the following categories to deserving girls, women and organisations in Europe:

An award for African Digital Woman of the Year was also presented in 2013.

Thank you to partners and sponsors of the European Ada Awards!