Cheryl Miller – Digital Leadership Institute

25 March 2017

Girl Tech Fest Brussels 2017

In celebration of International Girls in ICT Day, on 29 April the Digital Leadership Institute and the European School IV in Brussels will carry out the second Digital Muse Girl Tech Fest, a day-long, volunteer-run event promoting entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (“ESTEAM”) to 11-15 year old girls from the greater Brussels area, in order to encourage them to take up studies and careers in these areas.

The Digital Muse Girl Tech Fest 2017 will be carried out in three languages (Dutch, English and French) for participants who will take part in fun, hands-on workshops led by role model professionals from ESTEAM fields. At last year’s Girl Tech Fest, 250 girls took part in over 100 workshops on subjects such as “The Tech of DJ-ing,” “3D Jewellery Design & Printing” and “The Future of Fashion.”

Digital Muse Girl Tech Fest 2017 participants will have day-long access to the “Digital Muse Lab” where partners and sponsors showcase activities that represent the latest in high-tech gadgets, games and experiments. GTF17 will also include two Plenary Sessions with contributions by leading female figures in ESTEAM from Europe and beyond. At past events, participants enjoyed hearing from and meeting women astronauts, software engineers and global ESTEAM leaders.

Draft Agenda:

8:00-8:30: Check-in with Identification
8:30-10:00: Opening Plenary with Keynote Speeches by outstanding Girls & Women in ESTEAM
10:15-11:00: Workshop 1 & DM Lab
11:15-12:00: Workshop 2 & DM Lab
12:15-13:00: Lunch & Digital Muse Disco
13:15-14:00: Workshop 3 & DM Lab
14:15-15:00: Workshop 4 & DM Lab
15:15-16:00: Closing Plenary with GTF17 Showcase & Ambassador Selection

Volunteers & Partners Sought

If you are interested in volunteering for Digital Muse Girl Tech Fest 2017, please contact us or sign up to our volunteer event page. We are also eagerly in search of partners who can deliver workshops, talks, and DM Lab activities, and sponsors who can provide catering, goodie bags and other in-kind contributions to make the Girl Tech Fest a fabulous day for participants. If you or your organisation would like to be involved, please get in touch!

26 December 2016

DLI Wrap-up 2016

Banner Year for DLI: In 2016, the Digital Leadership Institute directly reached over seven hundred girls and women with hands-on workshops and role model activities aiming to improve their ESTEAM* skills and promote their participation in strategic, innovative sectors of the economy — as creators, entrepreneurs and leaders. We thank you for your support of DLI in 2016 and, with your help, we look forward to positively impacting the lives of more girls and women in 2017!

Support DLI in 2017: If you would like to support the ongoing work of DLI to promote inclusive digital transformation, which is reaching some of the most under-served communities in Europe, please consider donating to our institute or supporting us in other ways in the coming year. US-based organisations can make a tax-deductible donation to DLI here. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information on how to get involved.

Upcoming Events in 2017: The following DLI events are coming up in 2017. To keep up with the rest of our events, please visit our calendar or sign up for the DLI Newsletter.

1 February – Launch of CYPRO Cybersecurity Cohort #2: Cyber professional training and job placement program for experienced women. Please contact us for more information.
11-12 February – inQube Move It Forward for Women in Media: Female digital starters weekend as part of Startup Europe Week 2017, at the Creative District Ravenstein Coworking Space in Brussels.
29 April – Digital Muse Girl Tech Fest Brussels 2017: In celebration of International Girls in ICT Day 2017 at the European School of Brussels IV.

Update November-December 2016: On 8 December 2016 in Brussels, the Digital Leadership Institute celebrated the 2016 European Ada Awards recognising top girls and women in digital fields in Europe, and the organisations that support them. The event was hosted by GE Garages in the context of European Vocational Skills Week 2016, and supported by top decision-makers from public and private sectors across Europe, including Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Ms. Eva Paunova, Member of European Parliament, and Ms. Beata Stelmach, CEO of GE Poland. DLI and its partners awarded the 2016 European Digital Girls of the Year, Digital Woman of the Year, and Digital Impact Organisation of the Year.

The DLI Board and Executive Team are actively involved in initiatives with partners and stakeholders around the world that promote ESTEAM* leadership by girls and women. Find out below about our work in November and December 2016, learn here about future activities in which we are involved, and visit our calendar for upcoming events organised by DLI.

*entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics

8 November – “Promoting Digital Skills for Girls” Webinar: Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, was a special guest for an 8 November webinar on “promoting digital skills for girls,” hosted by the Innovation in Education Unit of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Art and Culture.

17 November – “Enterprising Women in Tech” WeHubs Closing Event (Brussels): On 17 November in Brussels, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, judged the final pitch competition and contributed to an expert panel on “best practices in promoting female entrepreneurship,” in the context of the closing event of the WeHubs project for women web entrepreneurs in Europe.

21 November – “Make America Great Again” – Debaets Debates (Brussels): On 21 November in Brussels, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, joined a high profile public debate on the topic of “Make America Great Again” hosted by Ms. Bianca Debaets, State Secretary for the Brussels Capital Region, and moderated by Mr. Rik Van Cauwelaert, journalist for De Tijd.

23-24 November – “Helping Europe’s Entrepreneurs Reach New Heights” 2016 SME Assembly Slovakia (Bratislava): On 23-24 November in Bratislava, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, contributed to a high-level roundtable on “Entrepreneurship Education” at the European Commission’s annual SME Assembly, taking place as part of the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council.

29 November – Think Digital “Shaping the Digital Future of Europe” (Brussels): On 29 November, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, moderated an expert panel on “Shaping the Digital Future of Europe,” including Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Ms. Kaja Kallas, Member of European Parliament, which took place at Egmont Palace in Brussels as part of the first Think Digital summit.

1 December – A Journey into European Factories of the Future (Graz, Austria): On 1 December in Graz, Austria, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, delivered a closing keynote on the topic of “Industry 4.0” for the event “A journey into European Factories of the Future,” organised by SFG.

Be sure to visit our Calendar, Upcoming Activities page, and sign up for the DLI Newsletter in order to keep up with DLI events and activities!

3 November 2016

DLI Update – October 2016

The DLI Board and Executive Team are actively involved in initiatives with partners and stakeholders around the world that promote ESTEAM* leadership by girls and women. Find out below about our work in October 2016, learn here about future activities in which we are involved, and visit our calendar for upcoming events organised by DLI.

*entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics

5-6 October – Internet and Mobile World 2016 (Bucharest): On 5 October, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, gave a keynote presentation at Internet and Mobile World 2016, the largest digital and IT business conference in Central and Eastern Europe.

6-7 October – Telecentre Europe Annual Conference 2016 (Ghent, Belgium): On 6-7 October in Ghent, Telecentre Europe organised their annual event to address the future of work in a digital area. Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, led a session on “inclusive digital transformation,” and Ms. Miller was nominated for the Digital Changemaker Award for her work to “aspire to change the world, and by gathering knowledge and resources, make that change happen.”

13 October – Amazon Academy (Brussels): Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, joined a high-level panel on “innovation” and on “the cloud” at an Amazon Academy event in Brussels.

13-14 October – Ada Lovelace Festival (Berlin): On 13 and 14 October, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, led a series of hands-on workshops as a part of the DLI partnership with the annual Ada Lovelace Festival in Berlin.

18 October – “Europe in the Digital Era – where skills are making the difference” Eskills for Jobs Event (Bratislava): Under the auspices of the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, led a panel on “Women in Technology” taking place as part of the Eskills for Jobs program closing event in Bratislava on 18 October.

18 October – KAGIDER “Digitalisation of women’s entrepreneurship and growing opportunities for all”: On 18 October at the European Parliament Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, spoke at a high-level event on “digitalisation of women’s entrpeneurship” hosted by KAGIDER, the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey. This event also showcased the winning projects from the 15-16 Move It Forward weekend organized by DLI in collaboration with KAGIDER.

21 October – European Education, Training and Youth Forum 2016 (Brussels): On 21 October, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, participated to the “Digital Skills and Competences: Learning for the Digital Age” session as part of the European Commission’s European Education, Training and Youth Forum 2016 in Brussels.

24-26 October – WOW Code2Confidence Project Launch (Targu Mures, Romania) : On 24-26 October, Ms. Katja Legisa, DLI Communications Director, traveled to Targu Mures, Romania for the launch of the WOW Code2Confidence project supported by the European Commission Erasmus+ program. This project, which aims to share best practices to increase digital skills among women, was recently awarded to a European consortium made up of DLI and four partners.

25-26 October – Women in STEM Conference (Dubai, UAE): On 26 October in Dubai, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, provided a keynote address on “Tech and the Cloud” at the third annual Women in STEM Conference organised by the Meera Kaul Foundation under patronage of His Excellency Sheik Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development.

25 October – Leveraging the Talent Pool for Tech Startup (Dubai, UAE): On 25 October, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, joined an expert panel on leveraging the tech startup talent-pool held at the Dubai Future Accelerators.

Be sure to visit our Calendar, Upcoming Activities page, and sign up for the DLI Newsletter in order to keep up with DLI events and activities!

25 October 2016

DLI Launches CYPRO – Cyber Professional Program for Women

On 10 October 2016 in Brussels, the Digital Leadership Institute launched its newest initiative, the CYPRO cyber professional training and workforce placement program for women, which aims to increase participation of experienced women in strategic, often male-dominated, ICT specialist fields such as cybersecurity, data science, DevOps, etc.

The CYPRO program targets experienced women with intensive specialised education, apprenticeship opportunities, and permanent placement into IT organisations that includes ongoing training and mission support for as long as five years.

The first CYPRO cohort on cybersecurity kicked off in Brussels in October 2017, with a group of women who will join the IT workforce in 2018. For more information about upcoming CYPRO cohorts or about placing CYPRO delegates in your organisation, please contact us.

CYPRO is an initiative of the Digital Leadership Academy, professional training organisation of DLI.

10 October 2016

DLI Update – September 2016

The DLI Board and Executive Team are actively involved in initiatives with partners and stakeholders around the world that promote ESTEAM* leadership by girls and women. Find out below about our work in September 2016, learn here about future activities in which we are involved, and visit our calendar for upcoming events organised by DLI.

*entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics

6, 8, 13 & 15 September – The Women’s California Style Career Clinic (Brussels): In collaboration with the DLI inQube community, four free workshops with the Women’s California Style Career Clinic were carried out at DLI in September for women looking to discover their dream career.

15 September – Women in Business Social Event (Brussels): On 15 September in Brussels, DLI team members were on board for the autumn networking event of the Women in Business platform at Impulse.Brussels.

15 September- MizBiz Mentorship Event (Brussels): Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, joined a 15 September MIZBIZ speed dating event that connected MIZBIZ members with mentors in the Brussels business community.

DAW Flower 21-22 September – Digital African Woman Annual Event (Brussels): In the context of the inaugural Digital African Women event on 21-22 September, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, carried out a series of Design Thinking and Android app development workshops to support entrepreneurship by women in the African diaspora.

27 September – “How do we make every week Code Week?” Debate at the European Commission (Brussels): On 27 September in Brussels, the European Code Week Ambassadors, including Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, and wider community engaged in a debate on the merits of learning to code.

28-29 September – ET2020 Working Group on Digital Skills and Competences (Helsinki): On 28-29 September, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, joined representatives of Ministries of Education from across Europe to promote Digital Skills and Competences especially for Europe’s young women.

30 September – European Commission WEgate Launch Event (Brussels): On 30 September in Brussels, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, joined an expert panel at the launch of WEgate, the European Commission platform promoting women in entrepreneurship.

Be sure to visit our Calendar, Upcoming Activities page, and sign up for the DLI Newsletter in order to keep up with DLI events and activities!