Volunteer for Girl Tech Fest 2017!

In honor of International Girls in ICT Day 2017, on 29 April at European School IV in Brussels, the Digital Leadership Institute will organize the second annual Digital Muse Girl Tech Fest — an event that aims to encourage girls aged 11-15 to pursue studies in ESTEAM* through a day filled with fun, hands-on workshops and inspiring encounters with women role models in technology.  Past GTF events have included workshops on: “The Tech of DJ-ing, “3D Jewelry Design & Printing” and “The Future of Fashion.” Activities will also include a Digital Muse Lab where participants get to experience cutting-edge tech gadgets and interact with STEM mentors.  Interested participants can register here.

Volunteer!
To carry out an event of this kind requires a dedicated team of volunteers for promotion, registration, coordination and workshop and DM Lab leadership.  So please get involved!

Promote the Girl Tech Fest in your Communities:
Be sure to get all the girls in your school and work communities involved in our event by printing and sharing GTF2017 posters in the following languages:

Why volunteer for the Girl Tech Fest Brussels 2017?

  • Social encouragement is 28.1% and career perception is 27.5% of the explainable factors influencing a young women’s wanting to pursue a computing related degree; and
  • If women held digital jobs as frequently as men, the gain for the European GDP each year would be around 9 billion euros!!!

If you’re interested in inspiring girls with STEM skills, check out the volunteer registration page! We do strive to showcase female mentors but men are of course very welcome to volunteer!

*STEM plus Entrepreneurship and Arts

Support Our Women and Coding Survey

In early 2017, the Digital Leadership Institute joined a group of organisations from across Europe in the WOW Code2Confidence project, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission, which aims to empower women by teaching them to code. In the two-year project, a team of five partners from the UK, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania and Belgium, will research the following questions:

  • How can coding inspire women to develop themselves, encourage them to take active part in the digital society, and allow them to access new jobs created by the digital transformation?
  • What are the skills and competences women can build from basic coding education?
  • How can outcomes around coding for women be improved upon?
  • How can digital skills be used by women for social and economic empowerment?

In the first stage of the project, DLI and its partners are conducting a survey that will form the basis for recommendations and future action around the scope of the WOW Code2Confidence project.

To contribute to our research on women and coding, please participate in the survey here!

Read the first WOW Code2confidence Newsletter here, and for more information about the project, or about other DLI work promoting women in coding, please contact us!

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!

Celebrate "Girls in STEM" for Women's Day 2017

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2017, the Digital Leadership Institute will organise several exciting activities across Europe promoting “women and girls in STEM*”.  In Brussels, DLI will lead an invitation-only visit with Ms. Vera Jourova, European Commissioner for Justice, where several young women — including Ms. Manon Van Hoorebeke, 2014 European Digital Girl of the Year — will share about their experiences and aspirations toward studies and careers in STEM sectors.

In Dublin, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, will give a talk on “Be Bold for Change” as part of a day-long event organised by Amazon Web Services, in order to promote greater participation of girls and women in digital studies and careers.

Ms. Miller will also author a special International Women’s Day opinion piece on “the digital gender divide” for General Electric‘s GE Reports, read by three million people annually.

In collaboration with the European Commission and European Parliament, Ms. Miller will also moderate an International Women’s Day event on “Women’s Economic Empowerment” that will feature keynotes and panel discussions by European thought-leaders, including renowned French nuclear physicist Hélène Langevin-Joliot, granddaughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie.

Coming up on 29 April 2017, DLI will organise its second “Girl Tech Fest” promoting ESTEAM** skills for girls, for which we welcome inquiries by potential partners, workshop leaders, volunteers and sponsors.  Other DLI activities supporting our mission of inclusive digital transformation may be found on the DLI Calendar and Upcoming Activities pages.

  • *Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
  • **STEM plus Entrepreneurship and Arts

DLI Update – January-February 2017

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 January and February 2017, 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


18 January – Gender Mainstreaming Congress for Metropolis Women Network: Ms. Cheryl Miller, Brussels Capital RegionDLI Cofounder, moderated a day-long global congress for cities and regions on the topic of Gender Mainstreaming, chaired by Ms. Laura Perez Castano, Barcelona City, and hosted by Ms. Bianca Debaets, Brussels Capital Region Secretary of State for Equal Opportunity and Brussels Smart City, on behalf of the Metropolis association of world cities and capitals.


wowc2c19-20 January – WOW Code2Confidence Project Meeting (Nottingham, UK): Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, contributed to the first working meeting of the WOW Code2Confidence project, on the topic of Coding for Beginners, which was hosted on 19-20 January in Nottingham by project partner Go Digital All. WOW Code2Confidence is an Erasmus+ project of the European Commission.


Unconv2017-0123-25 January – Unconvention 2017 (Brussels, Belgium): On 23-25 January in Brussels, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, contributed to the fifth edition of the European Young Innovators Forum’s Unconvention in Brussels, as a mentor and jury member for the InnoPitch competition. Innopitch promotes entrepreneurship for young Europeans and contributes to the European Young Innovator of the Year contest.


3 February – Design Your Life Workshop at euroclearEuroclear (Brussels, Belgium): On 3 February in Brussels, Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, organized a Design Your Life workshop for Euroclear staffmembers to tackle questions of personal and professional development based on design thinking.


SEW176-10 February – Startup Europe Week Brussels (Brussels, Belgium): From 6 to 10 February, the second annual Startup Europe Week was celebrated across Europe with as many as six events taking place in Brussels alone. As 2017 SEW ambassador for Brussels, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, and a team of Co-organisers organised several SEW Brussels 2017 events that showcased resources for Brussels-based startups. On 9 February, Ms. Miller moderated a panel on “Navigating EU Resources for Startups,” at Infopoint Schuman. On 11-12 February, DLI hosted the Move It Forward for Women in Media female digital starters weekend.


IMG_61088-9 February – InnoApps Challenge 2017 (Brussels, Belgium): Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Cofounder, mentored and trained top projects in Design Thinking for Startup and MIT AppInventor for Android for the 2017 InnoApps Challenge which took place 8-9 February in Brussels.


pes power to women9 February – Gender Equality and Cyber Empowerment Workshop for PES (Brussels, Belgium): On 9 February in Brussels, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, and Ms. Maria Alfonso, DLI Development Manager, led a hands-on workshop for the Party of European Socialists on the topic of Gender Equality and Cyber Empowerment.


fintech16 February – Financial Inclusion at B-Hive #FinAndTonic (Brussels, Belgium) : On 16 February in Brussels, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Cofounder, gave a keynote presentation on the subject of Financial Inclusion as part of the #FinAndTonic evening at B-Hive, newly-formed Belgian FinTech bridge.


distdenialofwomen23 February – Distributed Denial of Women (Global): On 23 February, DLI supported Distributed Denial of Women (#DDoW), an online and offline campaign to promote greater participation of girls and women in digital studies and careers.


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!

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