Caspar at European Women in Tech 2019

If you saw our Christmas post on social media, you might have noticed that the Caspar team is pretty evenly balanced in terms of gender. In fact, at the latest count, 46 percent of our employees are women and 54 percent are men. For the tech sector, these are some impressive numbers, although we know that our industry as a whole still has a lot of work to do to attract more women to the field. And that’s exactly what the Women in Tech conference is all about. It’s also why we sent our user experience design engineer Beatriz Crespo along to represent Caspar at the most recent conference.

European Women in Tech is a conference by women in the tech sector and is one of the largest events on the industry’s calendar. More than 4,000 visitors attended the conference at the end of November, attracted by a packed program of workshops and sessions with over 200 speakers. “It’s an incredible experience to be in a room with more than 400 other female professionals” Beatriz reports. Yes, the conference is attended by programmers and data scientists, but that’s by no means all, explains Caspar’s user experience designer: “European Women in Tech uses the word ‘tech’ in the broadest sense. So, the conference is also aimed at women from the worlds of science and business.”

Beatriz Crespo

The workshops focus on a wide range of technical topics, such as programming, communication, such as social media, as well as on strategies you can use to be more assertive and maximize your professional development as a woman in a tech company. “For me, it was amazing to see how much the industry has changed,” reports Beatriz. “When I was starting out, I was almost always the only woman on the team. And despite getting top grades at university, it felt like I was constantly battling for the recognition I knew I deserved. There were lots of people in the industry who simply didn’t understand that a female engineer could do just as much as a male engineer. For me, things clicked when I realized that you can’t always afford to be modest – you need to be seen. Fortunately, Caspar is proud of its employees. Caspar shares their passion for continuous development and growth. And every single employee can also be proud to be a part of the Caspar family! For example, we have a number of female colleagues who are experts in multiple fields, such as Ivana, who is both a psychologist and a data scientist. Then there’s Cordula, who is a physiotherapist and a product owner. It’s great when colleagues have more than one string to their bows! After all, diversity isn’t just about having equal numbers of women and men on a team, it’s also about creating a platform for a wide range of different perspectives.” Now Beatriz is looking forward to sharing the insights she gained at European Women in Tech with her colleagues at Caspar, “and I’ll be taking even more Caspar women to the next Women in Tech conference,” she promises.

We asked Beatriz to choose her top five most inspirational European Women in Tech 2019 presentations and here is her selection:

1. Evita Stoop, Chief Marketing Officer IBM Benelux

“Evita Stoop gave a great speech about why diversity is so important and why it is not just something we should pay lip-service to, but something we should all be actively encouraging and demanding. Evita Stoop is convinced that diversity is a driver for new methods in leadership and inclusion is a lens that magnifies companies’ target audiences and increases customer satisfaction.”

2. Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon, CO-Founder und CEO Stemettes

“Dr. Imafidon has such a fantastic track record. At the age of just 20, she graduated from Oxford with a Master’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. In 2018, she was selected as one of the world’s Top 50 women in tech and one of the Top 5 Most Influential Women in IT. She also won the Barclays Woman of the Year Award. At Women in Tech, she spoke about her company Stemettes, which promotes, inspires, and supports young women in tech-related careers.”

3. Karalee Close, MD und Partner Boston Consulting Group

“Karalee Close totally blew me away. The only word that really fits is ‘inspirational.’ She spoke about the businesses of the future and how important it is to support lifelong learning.”

4. Ellen Meekels, Head of GBS Reporting and Data Analytics, Ingram Micro

“Ellen Meekels taught me so much about how to share the basics of data science with my colleagues and why that is so important. It’s something Ivana has wanted to do at Caspar for so long and this presentation reminded me a lot of her!”

5. Eva Deckers, Director Data Enabled Design, Philips Experience Design

“Eva Deckers shared some really incredible insights into the design methods used by Philips for their healthcare products. Afterward, I even got the chance to talk to Eva in person about how fortunate I am to be working with Ivana, who is both a data scientist and a psychologist, and how well our collaboration is going.”

We asked Beatriz to share a final pearl of wisdom from the conference: “A product developed by a diverse team stands a far better chance of being used by a wide audience.” We’re glad Beatriz was able to take so much from the conference and can’t wait to see the new ideas bear fruit at Caspar.