Kiwi.com to host second Women in Tech conference in Czech Republic

Event celebrating women in the industry will feature speakers from Netflix, Google and Twitch

This Saturday, Kiwi.com is hosting a conference to provide a platform for high-achieving women in tech — only the second ever of its kind in the Czech Republic. The speakers will share their expertise and know-how from the industry which is traditionally dominated by men. The different talks, workshops and accompanying activities aim to serve as an inspiration to men and women of all ages to get involved in the world of technology.

“We want to offer role models for women who might be thinking of joining the tech field,” says Bára Hanousková from Kiwi.com.

“We want to provide a platform where tech-savvy people in Brno and the surrounding area can learn from women who’ve achieved the top in the tech field.”

Bára and her team are in the middle of pulling together the final pieces of the second Women in Tech conference in the Czech Republic. She is Kiwi.com’s Community Marketing Coordinator and this year has managed to attract big names from Netflix, Google and Twitch to educate and inspire those who hope to break into a workplace often thought to be a male environment.

“It’s going to be bigger and better than last year,” she continues. “Way more speakers, way more workshops — and it’s going to be way more imaginative.”

The conference will be held in Impact Hub Brno on 18 May. It will be hosted by Kiwi.com and Czechitas, a non-profit organisation focused on helping women and young people into the industry.

Regular tickets are 690kč, with a 30 per cent discount for partners. Kiwi.com staff are able to bring a +1.

Speakers will include Microsoft’s Software Engineer Sofiya Huts, Twitch’s Technical Writer Ilona Koren-Deutsch, Google’s Program Manager Katja Minitsenka, and Jessica Hester, a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix, who will talk about how the streaming giant woks with GraphQL. Hester previously worked at SpaceX.

Other topics that will be covered include the ethics of algorithms, deep space technology, and how to ensure products are accessible for everyone.

Tech industry attracting more and more women to workforce

Žana Flander is a Frontend Developer at Kiwi.com. She’ll be holding a workshop on the Perks of Using Design Systems in Frontend Development.

“It’s going to be my first time having any workshop. So, yeah, I’m kind of excited but also nervous,” she says.

“I would like to present how to use our components to work faster. Using components means people don’t need to make their own styles — you can just call this component and it will save a lot of time.”

Žana started working on websites when she was in high school but studied geodesy and geoinformatics at university. Then she took a 6-month online course in frontend development with Udacity, and she was hooked again.

“I came to Brno and I started studying this online course which was really amazing and found out that I want to do this,” she says.

She feels that the tech industry is an area that is attracting women in ever greater numbers.

“I think in the past tech was more for guys, but now there are more and more girls.

“I was doing the Udacity course and I saw there were so many girls and they had the same background as me.

“They had changed their career for something different and now they want to try something new and challenging.”

And there’ll be a big afterparty, with cocktails named after Ada Lovelace, Hedy Lamarr and Grace Hopper — all created by the mixologists of Bar, který neexistuje.

“We want to show Kiwi.com as a company welcoming diversity and we want to do that by offering role models for girls who might be thinking of joining the tech field,” Bára finishes.

“We want to inspire those who are searching for courage or motivation.”