Monday, May 13
6:00 - 7:00 PM
SIM Women Welcome Reception
7:30 - 10:30 PM
Exclusive Showing of "Show Her The Money"
Alamo Drafthouse Toyota Music Factory
"Show Her The Money" is a documentary about raising awareness of the underfunding of women, and the solutions on the horizon to change this. SIM Women has rented a theater at the Toyota Music Factory (walking distance to the hotel) and will have a showing of the movie on the evening of May 13th.
Features Q&A after the film with La Keisha Landrum Pierre of Emmiline Ventures and Kelly Ann Winget of Alternative Wealth Partners.
Tuesday, May 14
7:30 - 8:30 AM
Mentoring Circles & Breakfast
Mentoring Circles are the best way to kick off the SIM Women Leadership Summit! Attendees engage in dynamic mentoring circles during breakfast, fostering enriching discussions and personal growth. During the registration process, participants will have the opportunity to choose from a range of compelling topics such as AI & Machine Learning, Board Readiness and Pursuit, and Unconscious Bias, among others, aligning with their interests and goals. Led by experienced SIM Women Mentors, each table becomes a hub of insightful conversation, providing invaluable guidance and support. Whether exploring pathways to board positions, honing leadership skills, or navigating diversity and inclusion challenges, these mentoring circles offer a platform for attendees to enhance their professional development and forge lasting connections within the vibrant SIM Women community.
8:30 - 9:40
Welcome & Opening Keynote
The Empathy Dilemma: How to Balance the Needs of Your People with the Demands of the Business
Maria Ross, Empathy Advocate, Keynote Speaker, Leadership Trainer, Podcaster
All across the globe, organizations are becoming more human-centric. They've jettisoned old paradigms of success that center on endless overtime and constant employee sacrifice. They've tied success to purpose and workforce morale and helped people balance personal and professional needs as their priorities change. They've made shifts that are both necessary and positive.
But now, those striving to be empathetic leaders are experiencing the dark side: Taking on extra work, avoiding conflict, spending too much time on personal issues, or simply burning out from trying to balance concern for colleagues with the needs of the business.
How can we remain human-focused and inclusive, and still maintain high performance, personal boundaries, and our own mental health, without being treated like villains?
In this timely talk by empathy advocate, TEDx speaker, podcaster, and strategist, Maria Ross, author of the The Empathy Edge and the forthcoming The Empathy Dilemma: How Successful Leaders Balance Performance, People, and Personal Boundaries, goes back to the basics of what empathy is, and what it isn’t. She details where leaders struggle to navigate complex differences while still creating an inclusive, high-performing environment. Ross shares the Five Pillars of Effective Empathetic Leadership and offers actionable tactics to shore up these pillars for yourself.
You will leave inspired to embrace the new human-centered workplace, deliver bottom-line results, and create real change without sacrificing accountability or your own mental health!
9:40 - 9:50
Transition Break
9:50 - 10:30
Breakouts
EDUCATE | Architecting Out Biases: a Deep Dive in Enterprise Architecture | Anu Ganesh
In a world where biases are implicit, how can we strive to remove them? Is the attempt to do a Fool's folly? No.
Machine learning is filled with human biases. The work to reduce or remove them involves a greater human quotient. We need to respect more, talk more, and stay focused on ethics. Through collective decisions, shared vision, and asking more "why?" questions, we can create effective architectural frameworks. In this architectural deep dive, Anu Ganesh will share how focusing on our humanity will actually help us reduce the human biases in design.
EMPOWER | Your Brand at Work | Cher Jones
There’s no question about it. We all bring our personal brands to work, whether you’ve worked on yours… or not! Cher Jones is the founder of Socially Active, a corporate training company that specializes in personal branding for the hybrid workplace. With over two decades of PR, marketing and broadcasting experience under her belt, and a long list of international clients, Cher is on a mission to teach professionals how to own their awesome in our hybrid world of work.
EXEMPLIFY | Be Seen: Board Visibility | Daphne Jones & Maria Lensing
Whether you are looking to gain visibility with your corporate board or garner visibility to obtain a board seat elsewhere, look where you’re standing, because these goals intersect. Hear from board members and board coaches on how you can Be Seen and secure your board seat!
10:30 - 11:00
Networking Break
11:00 - 11:40
Breakouts
EDUCATE | Deep Dive: Cybersecurity | Gladman Dibi
Gladman Dibi is a seasoned cybersecurity expert renowned for his strategic insights and technical proficiency in Architecture and Incident response. Please join us for a discussion on how your organization can benefit from a threat intelligence program to help navigate today's ever-evolving threat landscape. With years of experience and a deep understanding of cybersecurity challenges, Gladman's expertise promises to shed light on crucial strategies to stay ahead of emerging threats.
EMPOWER | Owning Our Voices | Navixha Bagga
Recognizing internal and external barriers is vital for our journey to empowered leadership, as women. Whether rooted in self-doubt or industry impositions, these challenges hinder our growth in roles demanding capable, widely accepted, and unapologetic leadership. Overcoming these obstacles involves dismantling self-imposed limitations and addressing systemic biases. By doing so, we empower ourselves and contribute to a broader narrative of inclusivity and effective leadership.
EXEMPLIFY | Ethics and Risk Management for our AI-enabled Future | Dr. Quintin McGrath, D.B.A.
The AI revolution is upon us, and IT leaders must be at the forefront. This exciting “new intersection” comes with tremendous opportunities, complex ethical considerations, and potential risks. In this session, we will equip you with insights and frameworks to navigate these multifaceted ethical dilemmas and provide you with proactive risk management strategies to guide your way. Join us and become your organization’s Responsible AI champion!
11:40 - 11:50
Transition Break
11:50 - 12:15
Breakouts
EDUCATE | Cultivating Diverse Tech Talent Pipelines as Women Leaders | Caitlyn Brazill
Women continue to be dramatically underrepresented in tech roles - and women of color even more so. Women make up 47% of the U.S. workforce, and as of 2022, they only make up 28% of the tech industry. As sponsors, mentors, and coaches, SIM women help early-career women technologists up the career ladder every day. But how are you advocating for talent acquisition and development strategies that bring new pools of talent into the workforce? This session will offer practical solutions for companies that want to recruit and retain women technologists and offer insight into the real-life experiences of women launching & leading careers in technology with the help of Per Scholas, a non-profit talent developer advancing equity across the U.S.
EMPOWER | TBD
EXEMPLIFY | Command-Shift | Candice Dixon, NPower
12:15 - 1:15
Luncheon & Keynote
1:15 - 2:15
KEYNOTE: (Un)Common Ground Storytelling Series with ITSMF and HITEC
Storytellers: Lisa Caraballo-Delly, Ricardo De La Cruz, Leona Thomas
Moderated by Cher Jones
The social injustice tragedies that took place in 2020 crystalized an existing need within the technology community to empower all leaders to have conversations about race in the workplace. The Society for Information Management (SIM) and Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF) have partnered on a quarterly webinar series titled (Un)Common Ground bringing together members from our organizations to share their personal narratives surrounding career origins and journeys, leadership development and advancement, and the impact of race, bias, and lack of inclusion. In previous sessions, we focused on Black/White or Black/White/Latinx panelists, but life isn't "either/or." In line with our conference theme, our next session will feature biracial/multi-cultural individuals. This session will be a powerful discussion on identity and intersectionality.
The intentions behind the (Un)Common Ground series are to:
- Educate and equip our leaders to lead a multi-cultural organization (closing ignorance gap, empathy) and share strategies, data, and tools
- Raise awareness of the challenges for Black & Hispanic leaders in technology - both conscious and unconscious
- Create more sensitivity and openness around the advancement of people of color in tech
- Encourage leaders to have difficult conversations because the understanding and trust that is gained is priceless
We want the result of the series to be a call to action - not one that is demanded, but one that is offered. We're hopeful that attendees will be inspired and strive to remove obstacles and bias from their hiring and promoting practices, be deliberate in their development and inclusion across their teams and have stronger relationships and engagement with their peers and employees.
2:15 - 2:45
Networking Break
2:45 - 3:15
Breakouts
Talent Trends: Data & Insights | Amanda Mathieson, Info-Tech Research Group
Balance is critical whether looking at bringing together AI and people, in-office and remote work, technical and soft skills, or productivity and employee wellbeing, IT leaders must find the right balance for both their organizations and their employees. The Info-Tech Research Group Talent Trends Report outlines four critical areas impacting leaders now and in the future world of work. Explore the research and more importantly, actions you can take to navigate new intersections ahead!
The Intersection of Technical Debt & Tech Investment
3:15 - 3:25
Transition Break
3:25 - 4:05
Breakouts
EDUCATE | Building an Effective AI Digital Strategy - Balancing Innovation and Implementation Risks | Hsing Hsing Li
AI has been the "shiny new object" in technology that captured everyone's imagination. From consumers to board rooms, AI elicits a full range of reactions from skeptics to disciples. In addition to regulatory and security risks, AI add-ons proliferate the vendor ecosystem and AI builders can close shop overnight. What are the landmines technology leaders need to navigate around to ensure a sustainable AI roadmap?
In this deep dive on AI, Hsing-Hsing Li will discuss how technology leaders drive AI strategy for the enterprise and identify winning opportunities among the hype.
EMPOWER | C-Suite Bootcamp | Joan Holman, Fern Johnson, Elaine Norman & Angela Venuk
If you've got a drill sergeant yelling in your face, you better listen. We've gathered our group of C-Suite drill sergeants to share their "truths" on how to sail over the last hurdles to joining the C-suite and becoming a true leader. Not every truth is easy to hear, but most of us need to hear it and then put the advice into action!
EXEMPLIFY | Women in Venture Panel | La Keisha Landrum Pierre & Kelly Ann Winget
Hear from featured entrepreneurs in the documentary, “Show Her the Money” on their inspiring journeys and learn how you can gain your piece of the $30 Trillion up for grabs.
4:05 - 4:15
Transition Break
4:15 - 5:10
Closing Keynote & Closing Remarks
Nicole Small, CEO, Lyda Hill Philanthropies
You do not want to miss this session! We are delighted to have Nicole Small, CEO of Lyda Hill Philanthropies, serving as our Closing Keynote. Lyda Hill Philanthropies focuses on supporting women in tech, STEM initiatives, and they are proud of the fact that they lean in to risk where others shy away. There is no doubt that Nicole's experience and insights will be a call to action reminding each one of us that we have the power to affect change and ensure there is a next generation of female technology leaders!
5:10 - 6:10
Networking Cocktail Reception