Amalia @ Women in Tech 2024

07:16

I'll be at Women in Tech today, and thought - why not do a little live blog while I'm there? Share some of my insights, thoughts and just... lower the thresholds for those of you that aren't there?

See this as my live & open notebook for you all!

Also: I chose white pants for this occasion. I've already almost spilled coffee on them. Root for me 😅

07:32

Coffee: chugged. Tram: missed. Look forward to: meeting a bunch of cool women & women in tech allies I’ve got to know throughout the year.

Also really stoked about the lineup?! Had such a hard time choosing between the focus sessions. Mission: to go to stuff that feels most far from my comfort zone, tech & personality wise. Will probably be Sandviks presentation & Shaenas workshop.

08:14

I also get nervous. I get it, I seem like a super extrovert but I’m actually a tad bit shy.

This is my best mingle tactic: guessing that everybody else also is shy, nervous and a bit out of place.

It’s the ”imagine people are naked” speaker tip but for mingling ✌️😅

08:42

Merch: acquired ✅

09:14

Stephanie Darvill is one of the coolest people I know. In terms of putting yourself out there and having an ask - telling a conference that your startup failed is so brave!! This lady is a changemaker, hire her 💛

09:24

Anna Lundqvist held such a powerful talk about empathy and diversity. If some people aren’t considered ”human” enough, like her brother, what will that mean in terms of developing software and especially AI?

If we don’t consider all users, it’s just some users. Reminds me of the acronym SUX.

09:38

Just realised - this is one of the few Swedish tech conferences I’ve been at that are in English?! This just shows how to do inclusion for real. Love the Women in Tech community 💜

Also realised during Sarah Freiesleben’s talk that I, despite taking courses in statistics, still mess up correlation & causality.

09:56

… and this is why I do what I do, and write what I write. If we decide to write ourselves out of the present, we also write ourselves out of the future.

10:51

Unn Swanström speaks so warmly about her journey, and especially about how important it is to be a beginner at something. How it makes you kinder to yourself, because you know you’re going to fail and learn and relearn. And that can also combat struggling with mental health. I felt the same when I learned how to cross-country ski this spring. LEARN NEW STUFF 📣 it’s good for your mental health.

11:03

”Minecraft is scary - bad things happen”

Best. Design principles. Ever.

11:25

Degmo Daar’s slide about principles for designing for ”the tripple E’s” (empathy, engagement & ethics).

In a world that goes faster & faster in terms of needing (yeah, if you want to be first on all parameters) us to make Quick decisions… how can we make sure to involve all these things in our development process - WHILE being fast?

I think that is the core question to make all stakeholders jump on the diversity train.

11:39

Data gaps!!! Hearing Leyla at Ovulai saying that it takes 2 years isch to get your PCOS diagnosis means it will probably be HUGE gaps of data within those years while you wait for the diagnosis.

No clever thoughts about that, just… frustration.

11:55

Human Connection as a Service. Giggled. As a friend whispered; ”That’s kinda like your job!”

Shaena Harrison is goals.

12:43

Met the team behind the podcast SvD Tech Brief. Star struck, to say the least 😭

Also, they are the first media I see/recognize throughout the day? Where are the articles from today?!

13:05

At session with Sandvik. Love that they have psychological safety as part of their mining safety protocol 🥹

… because if you can’t trust your co-workers being kilometers under the ground, it’s dangerous. For real real.

14:20

As I manifested: I went to Shaena’s workshop and it was GREAT!!!! Have so many new perspectives on what wingwomaning can be, and many lunches & fikas booked from that. Totally outside my comfort zone, but got to know a woman behind Tjejer kodar (Girls Code) and it totally set my brain on fire. So many opportunities for collaboration, too few me. Shout out to them!

15:37

Paulina Modlitba!! 💜 Speaking about new stories needed within the space of AI, the positive stories, where AI can be a psychological help for example mitigating having a bad parent (haha).

Also, full circle in terms of data gaps. Paulina shared the example of an AI company generating nude pictures, saying it only had been trained on female bodies, and hence couldn’t generate images of male bodies.

”Is this the only male data gap known to date?” Paulina asked.

Mic drop💥

16:33

”I got over myself and applied to start my dream” said Tove Ågren, explaining her journey to become Aerospace Engineer at NASA. And that resonated soooo much with me. As my dear friend Emma ususally puts it; what’s the worst that could happen?

16:59

Binette later asked me what stuck with me during her talk and I’ll tell you what did (bc I had GOOSEBUMPS):

Always bring a plus one. Not a plus one that you know will be there anyways, but a person that brings new perspectives to the table. A person to which those doors would be closed.

Also: Never rely on things being, or seeming, progressive. Just because it seems like we success on some areas of diversity, doesn’t mean we’ll success always.

17:07

Ida Östensson spoke about my favorite data. Not because it’s great. But because it’s important.

🪄Invisible work🪄

I’ll just leave this here 👇

21:23

I know I am biased but the amazing work by the team at Women in Tech can’t go uncredited. Thank you for an amazing lineup, volunteers, day, night, … Now we carry your legacy (in a good way) until next year 💜