Women Techmakers Belfast 2018 took place over a Friday evening - practical workshops, in conjunction with Women TechSpace Belfast on Friday 13th April at The Hive @ PwC, and a whole day conference - Saturday 14th April - in the lecture theatre at W5 in Belfast, as well as of course an afterparty on Saturday night - unwind, network and celebrate!
Women Techmakers 2018 Speakers
This year, for the first time, we put out an open call for speakers hoping to uncover great people & stories we didn't know about. We had an overwhelming response, and hope you enjoy this awesome mix of backgrounds & talents & topics!
You can also check out some of the talks on our YouTube channel - enjoy!
This year, for the first time, we put out an open call for speakers hoping to uncover great people & stories we didn't know about. We had an overwhelming response, and hope you enjoy this awesome mix of backgrounds & talents & topics!
You can also check out some of the talks on our YouTube channel - enjoy!
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Heather McNamee
@nearlythere 
10.15am
Open Source Changed My Life and It Can Change Yours Too Heather McNamee, Open Strategy Partners, is a technical communication and marketing professional with an MSc in Learning and Technology. Her experience in open source technologies and associated start-ups started with using Drupal in 2002 in a not-for-profit. She came for the code and stayed for the community. Since then, she’s developed documentation, and hundreds of hours of learning materials to facilitate the adoption of open source technology and software. |
Joan McAleer
@joanmcaleer 
10.45am
Leading a Software Delivery Team to Success Joan is a Senior Software Consultant for Deloitte Digital, having just returned from a year leading a product Development team for Deloitte Ventures. She a has a diverse career spanning 13 years with experience in delivery of large scale financial enterprise systems, product development and integration software. She is very passionate about women in tech particularly encouraging more women to be developers. She is currently on maternity leave with newborn twins and a toddler. |
Claire Wilgar
@clairedotw 
11am
Accessibility for Everyone Claire Wilgar is a frontend developer with a passion for accessibility, currently working for Bazaarvoice Belfast. She is an avid speaker at conferences & meetups, and organises local events and groups such as Women in Tech Lean In Belfast, Global Game Jam and BelfastJS. Claire is also the Community Manager for Farset Labs and has worked with the CoderDojo and other local and education events. |
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Brenda Hutchinson
11.45am
A Female Perspective of Architecture I’m the Billing architect for Allstate Insurance, in the role since January 2015. Last year I had architecture responsibility for evaluating legacy transformation of the Billing space. We are currently designing the foundational infrastructure that will enable us to migrate to a new platform. I’ve been promoted into a payments product manager role starting mid-April 2018. |
Gillian McCann
12pm
Conversation as Code: Building an Enterprise Digital Assistant Gillian is Head of Cloud Engineering & AI @Workgrid Software & a Certified AWS Cloud Architect. Prior to WorkGrid Software, Gillian was an Architect & Technical Product Owner of the Liberty Mutual Cognitive Technology team and as such responsible for the explorations into how Chatbots and Conversational AI could be leveraged to improve the employee experience for our global employees. Gillian is a passionate advocate of Cloud Native Architecture with a keen interest in how Conversational Interfaces, Machine Learning and AI can be applied to employee focused products. |
Claire Burn
12.30pm –
How to be a Time-Travelling Productivity Wizard Whilst Working I’m Claire. I’m currently a software engineer at the cyber-security company Rapid7, and a massive self-professed nerd. I recently completed an MSc in Cyber Security at QUB, passing with Distinction after completing my BEng Computer Science a year prior. I’m also currently the Director of the Belfast branch of the global not-for-profit organization Women Who Code, and the founder of the Google-sponsored Women Techmakers Belfast conference, which aims to highlight the work and achievements of local women in STEM. I recently won a UK-wide TechWomen50 award for my diversity & inclusion work, and I’ve spoken at many conferences and events, most notably AppSec EU and the international “Women In Leadership In a Changing World”. In my (rare) moments of free time, I enjoy cooking, singing, drinking tea and playing “Dungeons & Dragons” with friends. |
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Deepa Mann-Kler
@deepamann_kler 
2.15pm
Making Pain Fun with VR/AR Deepa Mann-Kler is CEO & Founder of NEON creating immersive technology software applications for health and well-being in virtual and augmented reality. She directed and produced her first virtual reality experience called “RETNE” which was built for HTC Vive and demoed at SxSW17. Deepa is an internationally acclaimed, multi-disciplinary artist with over ten years experience of major international exhibitions and public art programmes. |
Desy Kristianti
@dessskris 
2.30pm
Middleware Integrations: An Innovative Approach to Connecting Enterprise Applications Desy Kristianti works in Technology Consulting at Deloitte. Her specialisation is within Enterprise Integrations using middleware tools such as Dell Boomi and MuleSoft to create a network of applications that communicate with each other. Early in her career, she has delivered a 6-month digital transformation programme building integrations to reduce architecture complexity and deliver a customer centric business strategy. Outside of work, Desy is a City Leader at Women Who Code (WWCode) Belfast, which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. She is responsible for organising meetups, building relationships with local companies and organisations, and building a strong Women Who Code community. Desy also co-founded Women of Indonesia (WIN) Career Network and acts as the Events VP. WIN is a non-profit global network aiming to empower Indonesian women in achieving their professional objectives. |
3.15pm
The Science of Where Rachel McKane is a Customer Success Manager for Esri Ireland working primarily with utility companies such as NI Water to deliver end to end mapping and GIS solutions. Prior to joining Esri Ireland, Rachel was the first female to be promoted to the position of Principal Mapping and Charting Officer (Grade 7) in Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI). During her time in OSNI she managed high profile projects such as the Positional Improvement Project and the DARD Single Farm Payment Project. In these projects she managed over 100 technical staff across multiple teams, disciplines and locations to deliver a common goal. Rachel was elected to the position of Chair of the Northern Ireland Branch of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT in September 2016. Only the second women in Northern Ireland to take up this position. |
3.30pm
I’m a Design Thinker - What’s Your Superpower? A teacher by education and an innovative optimist by choice. As a certified Instructional Designer, Gosia is professionally focused on designing and optimizing e-learning solutions (mostly for IT). As a Design Thinking coach, she leads problem-solving projects for educational and business organizations. She combines the above with her teaching experience and an open mind of a traveler to approach both eLearning and complex business challenges in a creative way. Currently located in Derry, Northern Ireland, she actively helps to expand the local design thinking community. Additionally, she’s already ginger for the part! |
Anna Szabelska
4pm
Utilising Tech within Psychology Anna is in the last year of her PhD in cognition. She’s also a methods consultant in the Psychological Science Accelerator; youth STEM ambassador; an instructor for Code First: Girls, and Code Club Holywood. |
4.30pm - Keynote Speaker
Emerging Tech and Rule Bending Rachel is a software specialist, CTO and founder of MedTech company, AppAttic. She was named as one of Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation 2016 and has led AppAttic to be named as one of the Disrupt 100 “businesses with the most potential to influence, change or create new global markets” in 2017. Holding a PhD in Software Architecture and post-doc in connected health, Rachel is a former academic with a passion for innovation. She uses her specialist skillset to develop people-focused, novel technologies that form an integral part of solutions for complex medical conditions. Rachel’s natural curiosity and tendency to bend the rules has enabled her to produce software that works with today’s healthcare system whilst provoking change for the better! The aim is to create a new model of healthcare where data is democratised and people are more actively involved in their healthcare. |
Tech Educators Panel
1.30pm – Our panel of experienced educators will discuss the challenges, opportunities & awesomeness of preparing women of all ages & stages for careers in tech.
1.30pm – Our panel of experienced educators will discuss the challenges, opportunities & awesomeness of preparing women of all ages & stages for careers in tech.
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Deborah Fitzsimmons
BA (Hons) QTS Business Education, MEd, PQH. Teacher of ICT & Business 17 Years, including my role as Head of Department (ICT/Computing) 14 Years. Founder of GO2VirtualAssistant. I launched GO2VirtualAssistant in June 2017. The core part of my business focuses on Education and Training, whereby I create electronic resources and courses that are affordable for schools, businesses and individuals. My initial products for teachers include Business Studies, Business Communication Systems and Digital Technology. As the name suggests I also work as a Virtual Assistant providing virtual business administration support, and help other businesses to create and deliver tailored training programmes. go2virtualassistant.co.uk |
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Diane Morrow
Diane is an experienced educator with ten years of classroom experience, delivering A Level Business Studies and careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG). Her passion for enterprise education and increasing students’ awareness of their career options has led to her current position which aims to energise the imaginations and aspirations of local young people by increasing their awareness of future careers as innovators. Through her current role she has forged productive links with industry to deliver collaborative education programmes for 14 - 19 year olds, as well as delivering teacher training with CCEA and the Education Training Inspectorate in Northern Ireland around skills for 21st Century employability. @MrsDMorrow |
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Narelle Allen – Education Outreach Manager – PwC
Over 10 years combined experience in the IT & educational sectors. Specialist in the design creation and deployment of technology educational programmes which are internal and external to the firm covering topics such as: coding, cyber security, artificial intelligence, Internet Of Things, data analytics, voice technology, VR & AR. In-depth understanding and awareness of the national curriculum and business training requirements. Specialist in creating education/training programmes that cater to an organisations purpose as well as the educational sector as a whole. Solid understanding of the full mobile and software development life cycles with more than two years’ experience designing, implementing & integrating impactful applications for mobile and tablet devices on the Android platform. Breadth of skills in Java, C#, C++, PHP, MySQL, Python, AS3 & Native Android Development obtained from supervising and creating university specific projects. Proficient in object-oriented design, data structures and problem solving. @narelle_allen |
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Rachel McDermott
Rachel McDermott graduated from Ulster University in 2012 with a PhD in Creative Technologies. From 2013- 2016 she was Education Manager for CultureTECH, running large scale projects and events for schools and community groups. In 2016 she took on the responsibility of organising events in the North West for the Northern Ireland Science Festival and also joined the Nerve Centre as a Creative Media Trainer. At present she continues to Manage the Northern Ireland Science Festival North West events (in partnership with the Nerve Centre) and also run school projects in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). @RachelMcD86 |
Conference Schedule
We have a packed schedule of short talks, longer talks & panel discussion – with some room for lunch, questions, and networking breaks!
We have a packed schedule of short talks, longer talks & panel discussion – with some room for lunch, questions, and networking breaks!
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9.30am – Doors open & registration
10am – Welcome! 10.15am – Open Source Changed My Life and It Can Change Yours Too – Heather McNamee 10.45am – Leading a Software Delivery Team to Success – Joan McAleer 11am – Accessibility for Everyone – Claire Wilgar 11.30am – Break 11.45am – A Female Perspective of Architecture – Brenda Hutchinson 12pm – Conversation as Code: Building an Enterprise Digital Assistant – Gillian McCann 12.30pm – How to be a Time-Travelling Productivity Wizard Whilst Working – Claire Burn |
12.45pm – Lunch
1.30pm – Tech Educators Panel 2.15pm – Making Pain Fun with VR/AR – Deepa Mann-Kler 2.30pm – The Power of Enterprise Integrations in Building a Network of Applications – Desy Kristianti 3.00pm – Break 3.15pm – The Science of Where – Rachel McKane 3.30pm – I’m a Design Thinker - What’s Your Superpower? – Gosia Pytel 4pm – Utilising Tech within Psychology – Anna Szabelska 4.30pm – Keynote: Emerging Tech and Rule Bending – Rachel Gawley 5.30pm – Thank you! (& close) 6pm onwards – After party! (details to follow) |
Partners & Sponsors
This year's conference is being supported by a range of local & international businesses, who like us, believe in highlighting the achievements of women working in the tech industry.
This year's conference is being supported by a range of local & international businesses, who like us, believe in highlighting the achievements of women working in the tech industry.
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Recruitment Partner
Our 2018 recruitment partner is ReaITime IT Recruitment Experts. |
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Media Partners
We're delighted to announce this year's media partners - local brands and huge supporters of Women in Tech - Secure Broadcast & syncNI |
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Say Cheese!
Just some pics from the Conference - we'll be posting videos from all the talks soon!
Just some pics from the Conference - we'll be posting videos from all the talks soon!
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Women Techmakers 2018 Workshops
In conjunction with Women TechSpace Belfast, we hosted five workshops, running concurrently at The Hive, PwC, Friday 13th April 2018, 6 - 9.30pm. All workshops were 2 hours long, and food and drinks was provided! |
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iOS Development for Beginners
by Kris Jones Have you ever wanted to create an iOS app but didn’t know how or where to start? This is a practical workshop where you will learn how to navigate Xcode, learn the basics and create your first iOS application. Please bring your own MacBook with the latest Xcode installed (9 or above). Setting Product Goals with Design Thinking
by Sam Fraser How do you set product goals that the whole team agrees to and that drive success? How do you include all the influencers in creating the goals - developers, product managers, designers, product owners and other teams? Product goals are critical to building great products, and measuring your success as a team. Getting it wrong can mean you end up down the wrong path, or without clear measures of what’s working and what’s not. Learn how to get input from all sources in a way that everyone feels heard and included and new ways to prioritise and agree on the goals you create. Join us to experience Design Thinking methods that you can use with your own teams to set clear, prioritised product goals. |
Design Thinking Approach to Blockchain
by Aisling McGibbon and Clare McKeever Join us for a collaborative and practical session, which introduces design thinking techniques and how these can be applied to emerging tech. We will explore hands-on techniques, whilst sharing our journey of developing Blockchain solutions using this human centred approach, including an overview of what Blockchain is and how it is disrupting industries globally today. We'll fuse empathy, creativity and experimentation to develop skills that encourage a mindset for innovation. We are adamant that innovation is fundamental to growth, and to do this we need to start by thinking differently. Agile Delivery Techniques
by Steven Limmer Informal workshop covering the practical application of agile delivery techniques including the Why and How of user stories and epics. This covers story writing, story splitting, estimating, planning and prioritising. JavaScript Development for Everyone (Self-Led)
by Claire Wilgar et al A self-led workshop on Javascript following the tutorials from codebar.io, with a group of mentors to give advice and assistance throughout the evening where requested. Will be suitable for people with a range of experience as they can lead themselves and work at their own pace. Please bring your own laptop. |
Women Techmakers is Google’s brand and global programme for women in technology. It is an initiative that aims to raise awareness of innovative female leaders in technology and inspire others to join the field. It does this through raising the visibility of women in tech, through online community-building, and through providing resources to support women develop their technical skillsets. The focus of WTM is on both local events, and higher-level resources and global community building.
Want to know more? Check out womentechmakers.com
Want to know more? Check out womentechmakers.com
Women Techmakers Belfast is a collaborative event from the women in Belfast behind these organisations and more.
Women Techmakers Belfast - Saturday 14th April 2018 @ W5, SSE Arena, Belfast
@WTMBelfast • wtmbelfast@gmail.com
Women Techmakers Belfast is an inclusive event, and follows Google Event and Community Guidelines
@WTMBelfast • wtmbelfast@gmail.com
Women Techmakers Belfast is an inclusive event, and follows Google Event and Community Guidelines