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Keynotes & Featured Speakers

Lunch Keynote: Mechanical Ducks, Tea-cup Robots and Frankenstein's Monster: Imagining a New Future for Computing
Genevieve Bell, Ph.D., Director, 3A Institute, Australia National University
June 5, 12:45 pm - 2:15 pm

The origins of today's digital technologies are far more complicated than it sometimes appears. In this talk, Genevieve Bell, a cultural anthropologist working at the intersections of culture and technology, will explores the ways in which our stories about the future are intimately and inexorably linked to a very particular set of histories. Tracing a genealogy from the early automatons and mechanized looms, through AI, the Turing Test and the Singularity to the present day of devices and services, Bell creates a compelling genealogy for computing. It is a genealogy we recognize. But increasing technologically sophistication seems to engender consumer anxiety. The rise of machines complex enough to provide us with meaningful assistance appears to be accompanied by a fear that these machines will kill us, ala Hal in 2001: a Space odyssey and many others. Drawing on Sanskrit philosophy, medieval Islamic engineering and even the Romantic poets, she suggests the possibility of different future and of a different kind of life with computers and computing.


Monday Lunch Keynote Presentation: Designing Diversity into Tech
Angela Benton, Founder, NewME Accelerator, Founder/Publisher, Black Web 2.0
June 4, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

In technology we often discuss designing products, user interfaces, or infrastructure. In this Keynote Presentation, Angela Benton will discuss the use of design principals to build more innovative teams, workforces, and organizations through inclusivity.


Monday Opening Keynote and Breakfast Presented by Comcast
Lysa Dahlin, Sr. VP, HR & Organizational Effectiveness, Comcast Cable
Grace Killelea, Senior Vice President of Talent, Comcast Cable
John Schanz, Executive Vice President and Chief Network Officer, Comcast Cable
June 4, 7:30 am - 9:30 am

Panel Discussion - Good Day WITI - Join this high energy talk show format panel as they discuss the status of technology innovation and leadership in the media industry. Comcast's leadership team will provide insight into a rapidly changing technology landscape. Women's leadership is critical in this dynamic time and will be part of our discussion. Cutting edge innovation must be connected to content, people and products. Start your morning with this interactive panel.


Tuesday Opening Keynote and Continental Breakfast: Rocket Science, Political Science And A Bit Of Elbow Grease
Gwynne Shotwell, President, SpaceX
June 5, 8:00 am - 9:30 am

Gwynne Shotwell is the president of SpaceX, an American space transport company founded by PayPal co-founder and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, SpaceX was founded with the goal of revolutionizing rocket and space technology in order to take space exploration to the next level. The reusable Dragon cargo capsule is set to become the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station in May of 2012.

Gwynne Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development, fostering SpaceX's customer base and managing strategic relations. Now president, Mrs. Shotwell's responsibilities include providing strategic direction to support company business development and government affairs as well as managing day-to-day corporate operations. Prior to SpaceX, Mrs. Shotwell's experience includes over ten years at the Aerospace Corporation, where she held positions of increasing responsibility in space systems engineering and technology, and project management. While at Aerospace Corporation, Ms. Shotwell was recruited to be director of the Space Systems Division at Microcosm, where she served on the executive committee and directed corporate business development. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees with honors in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics from Northwestern University.

Gwynne will join us as our featured speaker to share the story of her rise within the aerospace industry to become an influential leader of one of the country's most innovative companies.


Breakout Sessions

Diversity Hiring That Innovates Business: An atypical approach to solving a very typical hiring practice
Jackye Clayton, \, Textio
June 5, 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm

I am sure you have heard of the phrase "Birds of a feather flock together." That might work in choosing your friends but it has no place in your hiring practices.

Diversity workshops typically are viewed with resistance, fear, and/or the belief that those participating have nothing to learn. This assessment-based non-confrontational workshop enables participants to review their company and personal hiring practices (privately) in order to acquire better insight into best practices to encourage hiring of employees with diverse beliefs and attributes.

Active participants in this interactive session can expect to leave with:

* A personal (and private) assessment of your subconscious choices in candidates for employment and a look at how our personal style influences our expectations.

* A better understanding of how one's own preferences affect who we hire. You'll pinpoint how personal tendencies influence information delivery, as well as how it influences the way we interact with co-workers on any level.

* Tips on how to broaden your talent search to include people that possess diversities of mind, culture, experience, education, background, and physical abilities.

* A personal implementation plan to apply new methods of hiring as soon as you are back in the office and the tools to help you audit your success.

This is a must attend workshop for Tech Recruiters and HR executives to ensure that you are finding employees that innovate business and present diverse ideas.


Women's Employee Resource Groups: Invigorating Your Organization by Connecting Powerful Women
Rachel Book, Associate Director, Global Talent Attraction & Diversity, AT&T
Theresa Spralling, CEO, Women of AT&T National Organization
Katherine Swift, Director, Sales Operations, AT&T
June 5, 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm

AT&T has made a commitment to connecting people with their world. Connecting the exceptionally diverse, talented and dedicated individuals is the purpose of our robust Women of AT&T Employee Resource Groups. How is our organization made more vital, successful, engaged and invigorated by encouraging these connections? Does the promotion of an inclusive work environment truly impact business and personal success at every level of an organization? Discuss these topics and more today with a few of AT&T's Leaders in Emerging Technology, Sales and Recruiting.


Schedule Event

WITI NextGen Program
Brigette Jackson, VP GM Michigan/Indiana, T-Mobile
Betty LaMarr, Chairwoman 2012 WITI NextGen Summit, Executive Coach, Nadisa Associates
Maureen McQuestion, Director, IRT Customer Service Center, California State University, Sacramento
Sue Robins, Owner, Ascend Training Solutions
Rakel Solvadottir, Founder and CEO, Skema
Emily Ubik, Engineering Student, Boston University
Bonnie Wolfe, Co-Founder, 2 Billion Monkeys
June 4, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

This micro-conference, led by Betty LaMarr, on Monday, June 4th, is designed to encourage young women and girls to consider careers in Science and Technology. Leading women in Technology will teach, mentor, and share with students through speaking engagements, mentoring panels, workshops and roundtable discussions how these women of note chose their path while reinforcing the importance of demonstrated leadership. The day will also feature an opportunity to hear the Keynote lunch presentation and interact with distinguished members of the WITI Board of Advisors and Directors as well as WITI Hall of Fame Honorees.


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Charting Your Success: Steps for Personal Brand Development
Tracie Ybarra, Director, Personal and Printing Systems Learning & Development, HP
June 5, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm

Theme: Importance of Personal Brand Development

Questions to be answered: Who are you and what are you known for? What does your name stand for at your workplace? Where are you in your career? Is your personal brand helping you achieve your career goals? Why not?

Objective: Demonstrate the importance of establishing a personal brand in your personal/career development plan using social media.

- Mitigate the fears that are holding you back
- Take stock within yourself to identify your strengths and weakness
- Uncover your current career status
- Determine where you want to go
- Develop your personal brand that supports your mission using social media including Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging

Audience key take-ways:

1) Fears that prevent them from moving forward
2) Three career goals to begin working towards
3) Personal mission statement to guide their decision making and career path
4) How to build your personal brand in your workplace


Funding and Investments
Monica Dodi, Managing Director, The Women's Venture Capital Fund
Mike McGlade, Chief Revenue Officer, FastPay
June 5, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm

The Funding and Investments Workshop will define the various types of funding and investors available to get a business or project off the ground. Friends, family, your day job, bank loans, angel funds, crowdsourced funding: what are they and which is best for you? The workshop will provide examples of businesses that have had success with each before breaking into smaller group discussions focused on how to go about seeking the appropriate investments. We'll discuss the pitch, the necessity of confidence, a clear business plan, passion and a full understanding of the strings attached to each type of funding. Attendees will leave the room with a working knowledge about which types of funding to pursue and how to go about attracting investors.


Global Women. Global Business
Joanne Martin, Ph.D., Distinguished Engineer and Vice President of Technology, IBM Corporation
Heather Healy, Vice President and EMC Products Division CIO, EMC Corporation
Jessica Hunt, Senior Vice President and General Manager, HighTable
Marina Levinson, Founder and CEO, CIO Advisory Group, LLC
June 5, 9:40 am - 10:40 am

This panel discussion will feature global business insights and anecdotes from some of today's top women leaders in the global economy. The stories and information shared will focus on innovations in worldwide business operations and strategy while celebrating key successes in the career paths of the panelists.


Innovation in Emerging Markets - Brazil and Russia
Patricia Florissi, Vice President, Americas & EMEA CTO, Distinguished Engineer, EMC
June 5, 11:00 am - 11:40 am

Developed economies have traditionally looked at emerging economies as areas of market growth for their existing product portfolio, as a source of human capital at more competitive costs, or both.

In these scenarios, the emerging economies retain very little of the intellectual capital created by their human capital and have sub-optimal benefits from the R&D investments made by the investing companies. Emerging economies have been devising strategies for multi-nationals to make more sustainable investments, fostering co-innovation and co-development, which benefit the developed and the developing economies in a more balanced manner.

In this presentation, we will analyze two rapid growth economies, Brazil and Russia, providing some context around their social, political and economical environment, their industries of focus, and the R&D programs they are devising. We will also share EMC's journey to partner with these countries in fostering global scale innovation programs.


Making Business Drive IT Transformation Through Enterprise Architecture (Cloud)
Lauren States, Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow, Harvard University
June 5, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm

Todays business demands and pressures have accelerated the pace of change. This focus on growing the business, entering new markets, enabling new, faster, better and less expensive services to customers creates challenges. While enterprise systems that may address these challenges are emerging:

* How is an enterprise to choose which IT systems to utilize?
* What strategies should they employ for short-term realization and longer term value of IT investments?
* How does the CIO ensure that business and IT infrastructures cohesively evolve while keeping pace with economic challenges and associated uncertain business implications?

To enable this kind of agility, IT needs to evolve to become the driving force to significantly impact the organizations ability to compete. This session will explore, in the context of cloud computing, the connection between a well structured business strategy and transformation, IT's enterprise architecture, including a discussion on how your enterprise architecture can lay the foundation for enterprises to address business and IT complexities.


Navigating Success through Practical Strategy
JJ DiGeronimo, Author, The Working Woman's GPS
June 5, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

As you know, success does not happen overnight and it often requires many life choices to achieve your goals. The Navigating Success through Practical Strategy Workshop will give attendees the insight and motivation to further define the next level of success while outlining specific actions to further ignite the energy to leap.

As a Tech Veteran, JJ DiGeronimo will share practical, effective and proven advice from her journey and the journey of other women that was recently released in the book, The Working Woman's GPS. This workshop provides individual exercises to easily document the current state and then a 12 steps guide that empowers from within to facilitate and achieve your external goals.

Join us for this one hour session where you are sure to leave more inspired, knowledgeable and prepared with a plan to Navigate Success.


Special Events

Networking Break
June 4, 9:30 am - 9:45 am


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Panel Discussion: Business Goes Social
Rachel Sklar, Founder, Change The Ratio
Sloane Berrent, Vice President of Digital Marketing, Lippe Taylor
Sophia Chung, Software Engineer, Facebook
Jen Friel, Owner/Lifecaster, Talk Nerdy To Me Lover
Maria Ogneva, Global Head of Community, LinkedIn
Ekaterina Walter, Senior Social Media Strategist, Intel
June 4, 9:45 am - 10:45 am

Panel will discuss every angle of how social media has evolved both as a communication tool and as a revenue generating business strategy, plus the technology, sites and apps driving Social Business forward.


Panel Discussion: Data Security
Nicole Perlroth, Reporter, The New York Times
Nancy Cam-Winget, Distinguished Eng., Enterprise Service & Security, Cisco
Melanie Frazier, Engagement & Strategy Team Manager, CISSP, eBay
Michelle Koblas, Director of Security, Guardian Analytics
Candice Tal, CEO, Infortal Worldwide
June 5, 9:40 am - 10:40 am

The Data Security panel will take a look at the innovations and challenges businesses face in Data Security and Privacy today while exploring solutions to key engineering and IT challenges in Business, Mobile and Social.


Panel Discussion: Women, Venture Capital and Creating a Paradigm Shift
Pemo Theodore, Media Producer & Startup Coach, EZebis
Patricia Nakache, General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Stephanie Palmeri, Senior Associate, SoftTech VC
Rachel Sheinbein, Parter, CMEA Capital
Sharon Wienbar, Managing Director, Scale Venture Partners
June 4, 4:05 pm - 5:05 pm

Women led businesses have traditionally raised funding via personal equity and outside debt, according to research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation. The number of women entrepreneurs who have successfully raised venture capital has been negligible at best. This panel discussion will delve into the barriers to funding, advocacy and action in venture capital to dissuade antiquated perceptions and the emerging solutions that will help to create a paradigm shift.


Paths to Success - Stories from the Front Lines of Tech
Jane Moran, CIO, Unilever
Maya Baratz, Senior Product Manager, ABC News
Cindy Gallop, Founder & CEO, IfWeRanTheWorld
Joan Hestenes, Platforms IT Leader, Life Technologies
Sonita Lontoh, Head of Global Marketing, Trilliant
Kathryn Minshew, Founder & CEO, the Daily Muse
June 4, 2:35 pm - 3:35 pm

Panelists will share lively and engaging stories, challenges, personal triumphs and strategy innovations they've each developed along their respective paths to success in several key areas of technology, business and personal career development.


Technical Workshop: Mobile Development
Ketan Anjaria, Founder, CardFlick
Bess Ho, Partner, Archimedes Labs
Amanda McConnell, Head of Product, Rent.com
Patty Toland, Partner, Filament Group, Inc.
June 3, 2:15 pm - 3:45 pm

In today's mobile landscape your mobile presence is no longer defined by whether or not you have an iPhone app. With 50% of the US population now in possession of a smartphone and over 8% of all internet traffic generated by a mobile or connected device it is time to learn what it takes to give your customers the best experience on any device*. At WITI's first Mobile Development Workshop you will get the opportunity to meet with industry experts and learn about the latest trends in app development, responsive design and leading mobile technologies in small, intensive discussion groups. Take this unique opportunity to get advice on what you need to do to optimize your mobile presence. *Comscore 2012 Mobile Future in Focus


The Social Business Agenda: Developing a Strategy to Drive Business Forward
Sandy Carter, CEO | CMO | Ecosystems | Business Development Information Technology, Silicon Blitz
Laura Wolf, Social Business Sales Executive for North America Canada, IBM
June 3, 3:50 pm - 5:20 pm

Working in over 67 countries and with 1000s of companies, IBM's Sandy Carter is a global evangelist for strengthening Social Business strategies. Sandy will lead attendees in an action packed workshop on creating your company's Social Business Agenda. As you return to the office after the WITI Summit, you'll be well equipped to deliver greater value to your company's Social Business strategy. The workshop will provide hands on work in creating the following:

- A cultural assessment of Social inside your company
- A trust plan around your company's Influencers
- An engagement strategy -- leveraging mobile and social tools
- The evaluation of a key business process to add social competitive advantage and the start of a business case for social
- A risk and reputation management plan
- Analytics plan around Sentiment, Affinity, Predictive trending, as well as an overall comprehensive view

Note: The workshop will be built using key elements of the book "Get Bold" by IBM press.


Special Events

WITI Founder's Reception
Carolyn Leighton, Founder/Chairwoman, WITI
June 3, 5:30 pm - 7:15 pm

The first evening event on the Opening Night of the Women Powering Technology Summit, June 3, features welcoming words from WITI Founder Carolyn Leighton and offers an intimate, networking environment for attendees to meet Summit speakers, VIP guests and attendees.


WITI Networks - Leadership Team Event (Invite Only)
June 3, 1:15 pm - 2:30 pm


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

WITIstyle Storytelling: Stop Telling Women Not To Do Startups
Alexia Tsotsis, Co-Editor, TechCrunch
June 4, 3:45 pm - 4:05 pm

Why all of this debate about women in the startup ecosystem and what they should or shouldn't be doing? How do we eliminate preconceived notions of women in business or gender stereotypes in order to do what all of us want to do: build successful businesses and disrupt commerce? Silicon Valley is a world leader in innovation. In order to maintain this reign, we need to compel the tech industry to innovate its attitudes and biases towards women in business.


WITIstyle Storytelling: What Intuitive Women Bring to Technology Design
June 4, 10:45 am - 11:05 am

Usability is an important goal of any technology design but is often difficult to achieve. Recent research suggests that aspects of developers' personalities may at least partially underlie usability problems in technology, since the distribution of personality types within the industry differs from that of the general user population. In this talk, I will focus on the role of intuition - how designers come to know and interpret user needs and behaviors - and how intuitively-motivated women can positively impact usability within their own organizational environments.


WITIstyle Storytelling: Women, Tech Innovation and the Great Global Opportunity
Vivek Wadhwa, Vice President of Academics and Innovation, Singularity University
June 4, 2:15 pm - 2:35 pm

A range of technologies are rapidly evolving and converging that will make it possible to solve some of humanity's grand challenges. Advances in fields such as robotics, AI, computing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, medicine and nanomaterials are allowing small teams to do what was only once possible by governments and large corporations. Vivek Wadhwa will discuss why he believes that a world with abundant energy, food, and water is possible, and how women can lead the charge in making this happen.


Workshop: Book Publishing for the Technology Author
Eileen Gittins, Founder and CEO, Blurb
June 5, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm

In this session, Blurb CEO Eileen Gittins will address the many options available for executives looking to self-publish books on their respective areas of expertise. She'll review the book publishing process from how to outline a book concept and design to distribution to promoting the finished product. Eileen will share a few anecdotes from her own experience building Blurb and working with a breadth of authors across many different interest areas. You'll discover tips, approaches and unlock your writing potential to heighten your industry profile.


Workshop: The Changing Role of Technology Marketers
Erna Arnesen, Vice President, Global & Strategic Services Partners, Cisco Corporation
Cheemin Bo-Linn, President and CEO, Peritus Partners
Deirdre Straughan, Community Architect, Joyent
Marlene Williamson, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, HGST
June 5, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

The role of the top marketing executive is changing and expanding. Different strategies, decisions, styles, and metrics are required for success. Managing the brand is paramount to the company's success. These top marketers will share best practices and their experiences as they take risks and win!


Hall of Fame Reception

17th Annual WITI Hall of Fame Awards Banquet
June 4, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Key leaders in science and technology were honored at the 17th Annual WITI Hall of Fame Awards Dinner on Monday, June 4, 2012 in conjunction with WITI's Annual Women Powering Technology Summit in the Silicon Valley.

Click Here for Full Details!


And more to be announced soon!

* Speakers and Sessions are subject to change

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Sponsors and Exhibitors:

Amazon.com, AT&T, Avnet

BMC Software, CA, Caesars Entertainment

Cognizant, Comcast, Diva Toolbox

EMC, FedEx, FICO

GEICO, IBM, IRS

Life Technologies, Microsoft, Robert Half Technology

Safeway, Salesforce.com, ThoughtWorks

Thomson Reuters, TiVo, T-Mobile

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