On 3 July 2015 in Brussels, DLI and its partners – Consulta Europa, PRISM & ATI (Spanish Association of IT Professionals) – launched Coding for Young People, a two year European Commission Erasumus+ Project that will collect and share best practices on innovative methods to teach coding to European youth, with a special focus on girls.
For more information about the Coding for Young People project, please contact us!
On 9 March in Brussels, the Digital Leadership Institute and 150 of its closest friends and supporters celebrated International Women’s Day with the grand opening of DLI‘s Digital Innovation Centre for Girls & Women, a first of its kind in Europe! This very special occasion was marked with fun, hands-on digital activities for all ages, a high-level roundtable with Brussels, Belgian and European stakeholders, and a reception for all in attendance.
To kick off the evening, DLI volunteers and partners took over the entire, new 100m2 space to give young and young-at-heart members of the DLI family a try at hands-on digital activities with the following themes:
3D Design & Printing
Digital Music & DJing
Bits, Bytes & Machine Code
Silly Robot Missions
Play Your Musical Fruit
In particular, the Bits, Bytes & Machine Code activity – a card game for all ages designed by Ms. Rosanna Kurrer, DLI Digital Literacy Lead and g-Hive Community Manager – was a popular (and loud) crowd favorite. It required players to calculate in bits and bytes, and showcased the digital natives in the group, who nimbly trounced their analog ancestors to much vocal lamenting.
The Digital Activity Stations then gave way to an official DLI Opening Ceremony graced with a beautiful video message from Ms. Bianca Debaets, State Secretary of the Brussels Capital Region for Equal Opportunity and ICT, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony officiated by Miss Manon Van Hoorebeke, 2014 European Digital Girl of the Year, and Ms. Esther Roure Vila, 2014 European Digital Woman of the Year.
The evening’s activities were rounded out with a high-level discussion on the topic of “Women Driving Digital Innovation,” with unique and insightful interventions by the VIPs in attendance, all amazing role models for girls and women in technology:
As a magical closing to an exciting evening, Ms. Pascale Van Damme, Managing Director of Dell Belgium & Luxembourg and 2014 “ICT Woman of the Year”, surprised the convened guests with dedication of forty Dell laptops to DLI saying “this is a contribution to help ensure the DLI Centre gets off on the right foot and is able to achieve its mission which we support very much.”
Thank you, Dell! And thank you to all of our DLI community and supporters for such a wonderful and memorable DLI opening event!
We are very excited to announce the launch of the Digital Leadership Academy, the very first initiative of the newly-formed Digital Leadership Institute! In its first year, the DLA will carry out a year-long training program for future female digital leaders, starting on 23 April 2014 in Brussels, in celebration of International Girls in ICT Day!
Digital Leadership Academy The Digital Leadership Academy aims to close the ICT skills gap and increase the number of female entrepreneurs and leaders in digital sectors in Europe and beyond, by delivering digital and leadership skills to young and career-age women. The DLA approach combines cross-generational mentoring and technical, business and leadership skills development with the goal of building a resilient community of female digital leaders, confident and prepared for long-term, fruitful careers in digital sectors.
The DLA approach is unique because:
Topics addressed meet a real need;
Content provides both theoretical background and practical experience; There is opportunity for self-reflection and interaction;
Motivation is stimulated; and
People have fun.
2014 Digital Leadership Series
In 2014, DLA will launch an inaugural Digital Leadership Series consisting of twelve seminars (two hours each) taking place from April to December in Brussels for a group of twenty teen- and career-age women. The series will be split between fun, hands-on, result-oriented workshops that deliver practical, creative, digital skills, and leadership and business seminars that address personal and professional skills for success. All courses will be led by a team of DLA digital, business and leadership experts.
Practical
The 2014 Digital Leadership Series will be carried out from April to December* in Brussels. Places are available for individuals wishing to take part in the program and organisations wishing to sponsor young women or women in transition to participate in the series.
Please contact us if you would be interested in becoming a DLA 2014 candidate, if you would like to sponsor a participant in the DLA 2014 class, or if your organisation would like to support the Digital Leadership Academy! More information about the 2014 Digital Leadership Series may be found here.
Welcome to the homepage of the Digital Leadership Institute, a Brussels-based, international NGO whose mission is to bridge the gender gap and the digital divideby empowering the digital leaders of today and tomorrow.