International Women's Day 2025 - Women Techmakers Salzburg

What is the International Women’s Day?

The global International Women’s Day (IWD) occurs on March 8th every year. It marks a moment to celebrate and provide visibility for the incredible contributions of women around the world and is a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

What are we going to do and what's the Theme of #IWD25?

In honor of the global International Women’s Day, on March 8, the Women Techmakers Salzburg Community will host a IWD Salzburg Meet-up in April.

The event will bring together thriving women in tech and allies for an evening of keynote speakers, inspirational talks, and technical content.

We invite you to join us on 10th of April 2025 to hear about AI, Tech career Stories and Web technologies and more.

Our IWD theme for 2025 is "Redefine Possible" 

"Redefine Possible" is a bold declaration that challenges the boundaries of what technology can achieve and reimagines who shapes its future.

We stand at a pivotal moment where AI is transforming our world—bringing unprecedented opportunities but also risking the amplification of gender biases and systemic barriers. As artificial intelligence becomes woven into society, we believe that women are not just participating in its development—they're revolutionizing it, breaking conventions, and expanding the horizons of what technology can and should be.

The future of technology isn't predetermined— it is something we actively shape. What seems impossible today becomes tomorrow’s reality when we dare to challenge it. 

Get prepared for an evening full of talks, workshops, sessions, panel discussions etc. to celebrate the International Women's Day together!

Agenda

5:30 PM: Get together

Let's meet and warm up for an amazing evening together

5:45 PM: Welcome Keynote

What is this year's Women Techmakers International Women's Days Theme "Redefine possible" about?

6:00 PM: Peak Prompting: Advanced prompting strategies and optimisations with Vertex AI

Akshata Mohanty - Effective prompt engineering is key to optimizing performance of AI models. In this session, we will explore advanced prompting strategies and demonstrate how Vertex AI enhances accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness with tools like Model Garden, Prompt Gallery and the Prompt Optimizer. We explore different prompting strategies via live demos of using Vertex AI to refind prompts, improving LLM responses, and automating optimization. Whether you are developing AI-powered applications or fine-tuning enterprise LLMs, you will gain actionable techniques to enhance your AI model performance and drive more effective outcomes.

6:30 PM: Building AI Agents with GCP

Ilya Kaznacheev - Learn how to build and deploy AI agents on Google Cloud quickly.

This session provides a demo of setting up, training, and integrating AI agents—no deep ML expertise required. Walk away with the skills to automate workflows, enhance customer interactions, and scale AI solutions in the cloud.

7:00 PM: Break

Let's have a short break to get refreshed

7:15 PM: Making the Web Inclusive by default

Talia Asghar - Join Talia for a great session on the importance of accessibility in web development. Discover how accessibility can transform the online experience for people with disabilities and learn about the various types of disabilities that can affect web users. Talia will provide practical insights and actionable steps that developers can take to make the web more inclusive and accessible to everyone, whether they face temporary or permanent challenges.

By the end of this talk, you'll be equipped with the knowledge to create your own accessibility checklist, aligned with web standards, to ensure that accessibility becomes a seamless part of your development process.

7:45 PM: Beyond Coding: 10 Lessons You Won't Learn in School

Dajana Stojchevska - The talk includes mindset points that Dajana has learned on her journey. These things are not technical, they are related to culture, and leadership skills. Those are things that she realized with experience. Example: why everyday leadership is actually about empowering those around you.

8:15 PM: Networking

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Speakers

Akshata Mohanty - Keis (Founder)

Akshata is an engineer with over 8 years of experience in software product development across EdTech, media, and FinTech sectors. She has worked in research, multinational companies, and startups. She used to be an architect (for buildings!) and taught herself to code. Outside of work, she loves connecting with fellow tech enthusiasts, travelling, and painting.

Ilya Kaznacheev - Capgemini (Lead Cloud and Applications Architect)

AI and Cloud-Native Applications Architect | Google Developer Expert on Cloud | Consultant | Coffee Enthusiast. I help with cloud and systems architecture, cloud migration, optimization, and support.For the last decade, I have been architecting and developing backend services and distributed systems.Currently, a Lead Cloud and Applications Architect at Capgemini.

Talia Asghar - Delivery Hero (Software Engineer)

Taley’a is a software engineer, having exposure to working in the product ecosystem for the more than seven years.
She has experience in diverse web and mobile technologies. She enjoys simplifying problems and making the user experience better for the product users.She is an active contributor in the community and loves speaking at community events and conferences. Apart from this…

Dajana Stojchevska - Google (Software Engineer)

Originally from Macedonia, a small country in the Balkans, Dajana built her path as a software engineer in Germany through persistence, curiosity, and self-belief. Her talk is a reflection on what she has learned beyond programming — lessons in culture, communication, and everyday leadership that are often overlooked but deeply transformative.
Beyond her work in tech, Dajana is passionat…

Hosts

Bianca Glasner - Nosto (Head of Engineering)

Passionate digital and technology leader with a strong focus on innovation and best practices in the ever-evolving tech world. As Head of Platform Integrations Engineering at Nosto, Bianca leads a high-performing team of software engineers, ensuring seamless integration of Nosto’s solutions across major e-commerce platforms. Her leadership mantra, "Teamwork makes the dream work," reflects her …

Vicky Pirker - Vicky Pirker UX Consulting (Strategic Business Consultant)

With a solid blend of expertise, Vicky is a strategic business consultant with over 15 years of experience in IT consulting across global corporations. Her work goes beyond creating digital products💻; she enhances processes and efficiency🚀, making sure businesses and customer experiences are as rewarding as a good morning coffee.

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Partners

honeyfield GmbH (https://www.honeyfield.at/)

Moonshot Pioneers (https://moonshotpioneers.com/)
This wonderful Salzburg-based software company specializes in user-friendly applications in the SAP Fiori environment and covers nearly the complete SAP software stack with their expertise.

hilarion5 (https://hilarion5.com/)

Volkshochschule Salzburg (https://www.volkshochschule.at/)
The Volkshochschule Salzburg is a non-profit continuing education institution that offers over 4,000 courses in areas such as health, languages, arts, politics, technology, parent-child programs, and second-chance education, reaching around 29,000 participants annually. With locations in 98 municipalities, it serves as a central educational provider in the state and promotes lifelong learning.

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Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-salzburg-presents-international-womens-day-2025-women-techmakers-salzburg/.