#LiT Roadshow: On tour for more women in tech

In 2023, we continued our German #LiT Roadshow. In this activity, we visit eco member companies, interested parties or women’s networks from tech companies on-site and jointly focus on a specific topic in the context of “Women in Tech”. In the year under review, Hanna von der Au, Senior PR Manager and Project Leader of the #LiT initiative, and Emma Wehrwein, Project Manager Digital Business Models, were guests at the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in Bonn on the topic of “Woman@BSI meets #LiT – Ladies in Tech: Successful in the Tech Industry with Visibility and Networking”.

Both Dr. Astrid Schumacher, Head of Information Security Consulting and Industrial Security at the BSI, and Emma Wehrwein shared their experiences, challenges and best practices on the topic of making presentations on tech stages and at conferences. Together with the women’s network at BSI, we discussed strategies and recommendations for women in tech who want to enrich the tech stage with their professional expertise. We also provided valuable tips on how to meaningfully expand someone’s own network and create a sustainable professional network.

At the ICANN78 meeting in Hamburg, we were invited by DNS Women to speak on the topic of “Women in Tech”. As part of the DNS Women Session on “Expanding our Impact”, Eilin Geraghty, Project Manager eco International, and Hanna von der Au, Project Manager #LiT, presented the activities of the eco Association at both the German and international levels. They highlighted eco’s initiatives to make women in tech more visible and contextualised the topic with facts, figures and data.

Lucia Falkenberg, Chief People Officer and founder of the #LiT – Ladies in Tech initiative, was on board as a panellist in December at the Telecommunications Executive Circle in Dusseldorf, covering the topic of “The Battle for Talent – How to Counteract the Shortage of Skilled Workers”. She emphasised the crucial importance of having more women in tech in order to counteract the shortage of skilled workers and to enhance innovation through increased diversity in teams and leadership positions.

Role models are the be-all and end-all: Interview series with leading figures in the Internet industry

To inspire more women to pursue careers in IT and technology, the visibility of female role models plays a crucial role. This is emphasised both by studies and empirical experiences of female IT specialists. When girls, students, young professionals and working women are made aware of the diverse professional fields in the Internet industry and the associated career options through exemplary female careers in tech, more women will consider these career paths for themselves and seize the opportunities.

With this in mind, on our German #LiT – Ladies in Tech website and in our international dotmagazine, in 2023 we continued our successful interview series with role models in the digital economy. Six interviews with inspiring specialists and managers from the Internet industry were published in the year under review. Our interview partners included Kim Dressendörfer from IBM, Kiki Raedicke from Adacor Hosting, Lars Steffen from the eco Association, Vanda Scartezini, Partner and General Manager at POLO Consultores Associados and Head of the DNS Women Initiative, Dr. Olga Nevska from Telekom MobilitySolutions, and Leoni Rossberg from Groundbreaker. The content focused on specialist topics such as artificial intelligence, connected mobility and trends and developments in the domain industry, while also shedding light on the impact of greater equality and diversity on the tech industry.

Regular activity content on the topic of women in tech

We regularly publish additional content related to women in tech, such as press releases on International Women’s Day or Girls’ Day, on the website of the #LiT – Ladies in Tech initiative, as well as in the #LiT newsletter and the #LiT LinkedIn group. Additionally, we have continued to maintain the directory of female speakers, which was launched at the beginning of 2022.

For more information, visit: lit.eco.de