Ada Lovelace Day 2020

Leeds City Council, Sky, & Empowering Women with Tech invite you to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day with us with a day of inspirational digital, science & technology role models.
Delighted to announce that we have both Dame Stephanie Shirley & Helen Sharman as our keynotes, two women who have broken boundaries in science & technology.
We're also proud to be showcasing the ones to watch in 2021 onwards. The event is being streamed live - you can join for some of the talks or all of them, it's up to you!
Tickets are free & open to all (m/f/gn)

Where to watch LIVE
Our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCILZc9Aa_0s5F9fubO4SE1A

On Facebook:
www.facebook.com/Empowerwithtech
www.facebook.com/consumecomms
www.facebook.com/sky

Programme

09:45 - 10:00: Natasha Sayce-Zelem, Founder of Empowering Women with Tech, & Head of Technology at Sky for Digital Service.

10:00 - 10:30am: Ava Garside
”It should be healthier to walk to school than go in the car, right?"
14 year old Ava is this year’s individual winner of the UK Space Agency’s SatelLife competition & junior champion of the government’s Youth Industrial Strategy challenge.
She will be talking about her journey into space with a team of nano-scientists at Graphene Manchester & how pin badge technology can help everyone lead a healthier life.

10:35 - 11:20am Sky’s Women in Tech Scholars, interviewed by Debbie Foster MBE, founder of Tech Talent Charter.
Sky set up the Women in Tech Scholars scheme, which offers £25,000 to five women to help fund their tech idea, along with support/mentorship.
Debbie will ask the scholars about how they took their ideas to concept and reality, applying for funding & winning the Sky Tech Scholars, sharing lessons learnt on their Tech startup journeys including the challenges throughout Covid-19, how they overcame imposter syndrome, & on a day celebrating role models, discuss who inspires them.

11:25 - 11:55 Urenna Okonkwo, founder of Cashmere App.
"The power of community and curiosity: how to build a tech company as a first time founder"
Urenna is an award-winning entrepreneur & founder of fintech startup, Cashmere, a social savings app that enables young female aspirational consumers to save for & buy the luxury products & experiences they desire in a financially responsible manner & without falling into debt.

12:00 - 12:30 Maddie Julian, DigiBete
Leeds based Maddie Julian is the Co-Founder of DigiBete, an award winning digital platform & App supporting young people & their families to better manage their type 1 diabetes through much needed free support, awareness, education & training resources and digital tools.

13:20 - 13:35 Tom Riordan CBE - Chief Executive of Leeds City Council

13:40 - 14:25 Helen Sharman OBE CMG
Helen Sharman became both the first British & first female Astronaut when, in May 1991, she launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spent 8 days orbiting the Earth, living & working on the MIR Space Station.
Helen Sharman was selected from 13k applicants but didn’t think she stood a chance of being chosen when she applied, after hearing an advert on the radio.
She describes the meticulous training & preparation, learning Russian, launch & landing, how weightlessness feels, her science experiments, the team spirit, & readjusting to life on Earth.

14:30 - 15:15 Dame Stephanie Shirley
Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley is a pioneer of British information technology & a philanthropist who has given away an estimated £67 million of her personal wealth to charitable causes.
In 1959 she founded an early software company Freelance Programmers (now called Xansa) with just £6. It went on to employ 8,500 staff & her female-friendly company broke new ground in its flexibility, its holistic approach to human resources & in its co-ownership, which peaked at 62% staff control.
Dame Stephanie was named by Woman’s Hour as one of the 100 most powerful women in Britain.

15:20 - 15:35 Emma Trickitt, Head of D&I in Technology at Sky.