FLINTA Talk Night: Career Progression Beyond the Code

Empowered in Tech, in collaboration with Fraunhofer IPK, come together to invite you to a new FLINTA Talk Night: an event designed to explore and address career progression challenges, offering a space for FLINTA* professionals to reflect, learn and connect.

⏰ Agenda
18:00 – Doors Open
18:30 – Welcome and Intro by Empowered in Tech
18:35 – Talk by Fraunhofer IPK: Equal Opportunities Are Essential to Innovation. Facilitated by Ruth Asan and Dr. Maiara Rosa Cencic.
Researchers need the space to develop their full potential in order to have the groundbreaking ideas that drive us forward. A diverse, inclusive working environment for all is not just a noble goal, but also a competitive advantage.

• Ruth Asan explains the approaches and programs we use at Fraunhofer IPK to implement fair career and development opportunities, specifically for FLINTA.
• Building on this, Dr. Maiara Rosa Cencic will introduce the technologies developed by Fraunhofer IPK – from digital twins that connect engineering, simulation, and real-time shop-floor data to decentralized data spaces. Together, we will demonstrate that equitable opportunities unlock people’s potential and that our technology turns that potential into measurable impact for industry — smarter, more sustainable, and more human.

19:05 – Break
19:15 – Talk: The Hidden Half of the Job. Facilitated by Anastasiia Kudriavtseva.
A practical guide on the thinking, explaining and negotiating that happens before and after the code, and quietly defines your career, and how to get better at it without losing your mind.
In this talk participants will learn:
✔️ How AI changes what “good engineering work” looks like
✔️ How to adapt your message to reach different target audiences
✔️ Tackling daily standups and complaining in retrospectives (correctly!)
✔️ Tracking your work with a WTF-notebook and progress notes
✔️ How to ask for and use feedback without combusting
✔️ How to manage your energy on good and bad days

19:45 – Open Networking Round (Hosted program concludes)

🍴 Food & drinks
We’ll have water, coffee, and tea available. Food won’t be provided, so feel free to bring something to eat.

👋 About Empowered in Tech
We are a local community in Berlin dedicated to empowering FLINTA (women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender) people to excel in their tech journey. Our events offer study groups, technical workshops, hackathons, networking events, panel discussions, lightning talks, and social events.Stay in touch with the community!
Join our Slack:
https://bit.ly/EmpoweredInTechSlack

✨ About Ruth Asan
Ruth Asan is the equal opportunities officer at Fraunhofer IPK and the deputy equal opportunities officer of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. She has a background in political communication and has been working as an expert for digital communication at Fraunhofer IPK since 2018.

✨ About Dr. Maiara Rosa Cencic
Since 2024, she has been leading the department of Extended Reality at Fraunhofer IPK. She has around 10 years of experience as a researcher, with focus on developing innovative smart services and data-oriented business models.

✨ About Anastasiia Kudriavtseva
Frontend Engineer with a focus on React, and experience UI/UX design, with a background in robotics and computer systems. Worked across biopharma, publishing, and defence tech. Originally from Ukraine, now based in Berlin.

📍Host
This evening will be kindly hosted by Fraunhofer IPK, a research and development institution in the field of production technology. They are located in Berlin-Charlottenburg, at Pascalstr. 13 – 14 10587 Berlin.
Learn more: Fraunhofer IPK

☂️ About the FLINTA label
This event is labeled as FLINTA (women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender) as we make it a mission to empower women and other underrepresented minorities in the tech community. That being said, we don't exclude anybody!
Cis men are welcome to join, just bear in mind that the topics will be discussed from this perspective. 😊

💗 Code of Conduct
We are dedicated to providing a safe and welcoming experience for everyone who participates in our events.

Our events aim to empower diverse women and we welcome everyone who identifies as a woman or another underrepresented group in tech or an ally.We follow the Berlin Code of Conduct for our events: https://berlincodeofconduct.org/

📸 Media Consent
We may be taking photos of this event for social media posts. If you do not want to be photographed, please let the organizers at the event know. We will make sure to respect your privacy.