technology – Digital Leadership Institute

1 September 201711 April 2022

DLI Update – June-August 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. As part of our activities in Summer 2017, DLI Founder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, contributed to the Entrepreneurship Summer School in Brussels, whose outcomes are shared in the video below.

Find out below about our other work in Summer 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

1 June – Digital Festival (Brussels): DLI partnered for the second edition of the Digital Festival, that took place on 1 June in Brussels which aims to celebrate technology, ideas and global innovation. Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, contributed to an invitation-only luncheon panel on the topic of “Redesigning Work to Unlock Human Potential.”

8-9 June – Gender Equality in STEM Conference (Berlin): On 9 June, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, moderated a day-long session exploring Gender Equality in STEM as part of a first-time event on this subject that took place 8-9 June in Berlin.

11 June – In Conversation with Gloria Steinem at Google (Brussels): In collaboration with the European Women’s Lobby, Google Belgium welcomed Ms. Gloria Steinem in Brussels for an invite-only luncheon attended by Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder. The event was followed by a panel at Brussels Town Hall and a march to end violence against girls and women.

14 June – SciChallenge Contest: On 14 June, DLI Founder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, joined the jury of the 2017 SciChallenge contest, in which 487 teams from across Europe participated. The twelve top projects were awarded on 20-21 July in Vienna.

14-15 June – 2017 Digital Assembly (Valletta, Malta): 14-15 June in Valletta, Malta, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, joined hundreds of European and global stakeholders promoting “Digital Europe: Investing in the Future,” as part of the Maltese presidency of the Council of the European Union.

21 June – KAGIDER “Women in the Workforce” Session at European Parliament: On 21 June at the European Parliament in Brussels, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, joined a high-level roundtable hosted by MEP Kati Piri and KAGIDER on the the topic of participation of women in the workforce in Turkey and Europe.

29 June – “Women in Tech” Platform Launch (Brussels): On 20 June, DLI joined in celebrating the launch of the Brussels “Women in Tech” platform whose aim is to promote greater participation of girls and women in digital studies and careers in Brussels. The initiative, to which DLI is a partner, is part of the Women In Business platform supported by Impulse Brussels

10-11 July – Chatham House International Policy Forum (London): 10-11 July, DLI Founder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, joined an invitation-only International Policy Forum on the topic of “Smart and Fair: Recognizing Women’s Role in Our Economic Future,” organised by the Chatham House in London.

10-16 July – Entrepreneurship School Brussels: 10-14 July, DLI Founder, Ms. Cheryl Miller, gave a talk to dozens of aspiring entrepreneurs gathered in Brussels to take part in the Think Young Entrepreneurship School 2017. Ms. Miller provided advice and mentorship based on her experience as an entrepreneur and contributed to judging the final presentations at Google in Brussels on 14 July. Top projects by women-led teams were awarded incubation with inQube, DLI’s female tech incubator.

28-30 August – UNESCO International Symposium and Policy Forum (Bangkok): 28-30 August in Bangkok, Ms. Cheryl Miller, DLI Founder, spoke on the topic of “Best practices to increase participation of girls and women in ESTEAM,” as part of the UNESCO International Symposium and Policy Forum on Cracking the Code: Education for Girls in STEM.

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!

1 February 201615 October 2023

Brussels Women Move It Forward

Winning Project and Judges - MIF Brussels 2016 — ENAC: Best Overall Project & Jury – MIF Brussels 2016

On 23-24 January, forty young and adult women gathered at DLI’s inQube space in Brussels to develop websites and smartphone applications, and to launch their own enterprises to tackle cyberviolence and promote online safety for girls and women. Participants of the first-ever Move It Forward Brussels female digital starter weekend — organised by DLI and subsidised by the Brussels Capital Region — came from across Brussels and around the world, to improve their tech skills and try their hand at entrepreneurship.

Move It Forward Participants Create First Smartphone App

Says Bianca Debaets, Brussels Minister for Equal Opportunity and Digitalisation, and supporter of the Move It Forward initiative: “When women take up an active role in the ICT and business worlds, they are stronger. And that should reduce cyberviolence against women too. In that way, Move It Forward serves a dual purpose: It makes more women entrepreneurs and it empowers them digitally.” (Read a full press release about the Move It Forward event in Dutch here: Move It Forward Persbericht 2016.)

Worldclass Tech Partners - Tableau Software — Worldclass Tech Partners – Tableau Software

Attendees of Move It Forward Brussels, from 14 to 54 in age and representing upwards of twenty-two nationalities, dedicated an entire weekend to learning digital and entrepreneurial skills taught by DLI and its worldclass technology partners, including Tableau Software, Amazon Web Services, WordPress and AppInventor. With the help of a dedicated and talented team of coaches, participants developed innovative projects that they presented to a jury on Sunday evening for top honors. Jury-members included Ms. Maité Morren, Councilmember for Ixelles responsible for ICT, and representatives from European Schoolnet, Child Focus Belgium, DLI and AWS.

Ms. Ellen Van Den Berghe - Inspiring Young ICT Lady of the Year — Ms. Ellen Van Den Berghe – Belgian Young ICT Lady of the Year

The two-day Move It Forward Brussels initiative kicked off on Saturday morning with a keynote presentation by Ms. Ellen Van den Berghe, 2015 Young ICT Lady of the Year in Belgium, and closed with an inspiring talk by Ms. Terry Reintke, Member of European Parliament who recently authored a report on Women and the Digital Society.

Awesome Team, Coaches & Partners — Awesome Move It Forward Team, Coaches & Partners

Top awards for the weekend were presented to ENAC, Detrolled and iCompassion-Ubuntu, each promoting a unique approach for addressing cyberviolence against girls and women. All winning teams receive several months’ inQubation and startup coaching at DLI and free membership for one year on the Amazon Web Service platform. Each member of the Overall Best project team also received Amazon Fire tablets. In addition, several follow-up workshops are already planned to allow inQube community members to further develop the digital and entrepreneurship skills they started learning at Move It Forward Brussels.

Organisations across Europe have expressed interest in organising Move It Forward events in their own cities, and future plans for the Brussels inQube community include taking on additional challenges faced by Europe’s girls and women, including immigration and asylum-seeking, health and nutrition, media portrayal, etc. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about the Move It Forward initiative, to partner with DLI/inQube, and/or to organise a Move It Forward event in your city!

The Jury: Child Focus, European Schoolnet & Amazon Web Services

Pitching Projects to Tackle Cyberviolence

Dedicated DLI Staff — Dedicated DLI Team

"Check out this exciting line-up!" — “Check out this exciting line-up!”

19 March 2015

Europe's First Digital Innovation Centre for Girls and Women

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:

Ms. Jasmin Battista, Member of Cabinet for European Commission VP Andrus Ansip, responsible for the Digital Single Market
Ms. Pascale Van Damme, Managing Director Belux, Dell Belgium & Luxembourg and 2014 “ICT Woman of the Year” (DataNews)
Ms. Esther Roure Vila, Technical Service Cisco Belux, and 2014 European Digital Woman of the Year
Miss Manon Van Hoorebeke, Belgium Age 11, 2014 European Digital Girl of the Year
Ms. Laure Le Bars, SAP Strategic Research & Innovation, Research Projects Director
Ms. Ilse Bracke, Business Unit Manager, CIPAL

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!

24 December 2014

First-Ever Ada Lovelace Conference

On 10 December 2014 in Brussels, in honor of the 199th anniversary of the birth of Lady Ada Lovelace – world’s first-ever computer programmer, woman and European – the Digital Leadership Institute held the inaugural Ada Lovelace Conference celebrating outstanding girls and women in technology in Europe and beyond. The event, blogged by new European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip responsible for the Digital Single Market, was generously hosted by General Electric as part of the GE Garages initiative. It included a high-level best practices round-table on “getting more girls and women into digital studies and careers,” and three hands-on digital workshops – on 3D design & printing, creative coding & “beautiful/electric Arduinos” – for girls ages six to sixteen. The event enjoyed participation by over one hundred people, and was part of the 2014 European Hour of Code.