Diversity and inclusion in the company

The tech sector is considered to be one of the domains dominated by men.

Real diversity and inclusion is therefore rather difficult to find in some companies. But how can you support change within the company and how can you actually recognize an inclusive corporate culture?

Inovex is an innovation- and quality-driven IT project house with a focus on digital transformation. The company won the ECN Award with its "Women & wyne & Tech" event series.

EuroCloud Native (ECN) is an initiative of the Association of the Cloud Computing Industry in Germany.

Linda Brunner, Brand Builder, Coach & Team Lead, tells us in an interview how the event series came about, what challenges she encountered along the way and how other companies can also support an inclusive culture with events.

What role do events play in your company?

We organize many target group-specific events: from customer to employer branding events, everything is represented in the program. "Networking" and "exchange" are two elements that are particularly important to us. We are also very happy to open our offices to create a place for this exchange.

During the pandemic, we naturally switched to online events.

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When did you realize that female empowerment is a topic that is relevant for your company?

As an IT project house, this is a topic that is generally very relevant to us. We have our own diversity team that drives initiatives forward, and diversity is also anchored in our shared vision.

As a company, we focus on topics such as innovation and excellence and want to make our customers and ourselves happy in the process. Sustainability and the idea of community are important components of our corporate culture.

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What are the advantages of a diverse corporate culture?

Different teams contribute to the fact that diverse opinions come to light and there is more impetus on different topics.

Everyone can contribute their own strengths and individuality.

We also live this in marketing, for example, and regularly try out new formats. We are open to other opinions, cultures and challenges that we may not have experienced ourselves.

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What are the most important advantages of an online event for you?

The fact that we are organizing the event online means that colleagues can take part from any location. This form of event is also much more flexible for mothers, for example. In my opinion, online events are much more inclusive than physical events.

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What was the aim of the event series that you created?

There was already a similar format internally, which I regularly used to exchange ideas with female colleagues. We used it to talk about the different challenges you face as a woman with or without professional experience, with children or with different backgrounds.

We wanted to create a space in which other female colleagues could take part. With this step, we have also opened up the event series to external participants.

After winning the "EuroCloud Native (ECN) Award", our visibility has also increased. Before that, we had only advertised the event in our own network.

We have different keynote speeches and themed tables every time. So you can talk about different topics.

We wanted to offer women a safe space where they feel heard and can talk about issues that are important to them.

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How was the feedback from the event?

We were very surprised by the extremely good feedback. The "no-show rate" was very low.

We have also received more and more requests from women who would like to give a keynote speech or organize a theme table.

Our series of events will certainly not be able to solve all the problems that exist in companies, but it is a pragmatic measure that can help.

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What challenges did you face during the process?

We were very happy to have the support in the company to drive the topic forward.

Word of the presentations got around so well that some male colleagues would have loved to attend too. 

We then make it clear that it is a target group-specific event that he cannot attend this time, and that there are challenges that he is not familiar with and that we would like to discuss in a safe environment. We tried to create understanding and the colleague in question ended up becoming a multiplier and Male Ally for us, who invited many women from his network to our event himself.

We made a conscious decision to keep the number of participants relatively small at 30 to 40 women and to continue organizing the event online.

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What requirements did you have when choosing the event platform?

We were looking for a platform that would make it easy to exchange ideas and offer some classic functionalities, such as a keynote speech with a Q&A session.

We then opted for one of the American market leaders. However, we would have liked participants to be able to speak to the speaker alone and for other elements of participant managementto have been automated.

In addition, one of our challenges was to ensure that the space remained secure. This could have been solved automatically via whitelisting, as this allows domains to be listed that are allowed to register or are automatically released.

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How does a Women & wyne & Tech event work?

The event begins with a keynote speech and there are additional themed tables on selected topics such as application tips, imposter syndrome, challenges in everyday project work, work and cycle, feminist AI and role models. Participants can ask questions anywhere and switch between the topic tables. Each topic has its own moderator.

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What is "wyne" all about?

"wyne" is a start-up from Munich that is run by Nelly. She held the first impulse contract and we found the idea behind it so exciting that we offered her a cooperation. 

wyne was Germany's first digital winery. In the male-dominated winegrowing industry, it is not exactly easy to establish something new. What has always been good still applies today. Nelly, on the other hand, doesn't think much of complicated wines and wants to make high-quality wine accessible and understandable for everyone.

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How did the award come about?

We were approached by the initiative because they found the format very interesting.

What sets us apart from the other nominees is that our event is a very practical tool that can contribute to change.

A partnership was subsequently formed with the second-placed initiative, which took over a theme table at the next event.

Do you have any tips for people who would like to set up their own network?

We didn't have a dedicated budget for advertising the event, so we mainly activated our own network.

It was important to us to keep the framework relatively small.

The decisive factor for the success of the event was that it is a practical tool and that we combine two components: We are all about women who work in IT. That would also be my advice to women who want to set up a network themselves: Look for two topics that narrow down your target group well and that bring certain challenges with them! Ask yourselves what the connecting element between the participants is!

Another tip would be to find a topic that you are passionate about!

How did you measure the success of the event?

The very low "no-show rate" was a very important indicator of relevance.

We have also received more and more inquiries and positive feedback on the topics and presentations.

About the expert

Passionate networker, inspiring motivator, curious tech enthusiast: these are just three of the qualities with which Linda inspires those around her! She combines professional expertise and emotional intelligence in one person. Linda has built up a broad knowledge of tech and IT during her various professional positions in marketing and sales. She is now a team leader and brand builder in an IT project house.

A cooperative, appreciative and mindful style is important to her in her leadership activities. She puts people at the center and is therefore the best example of servant leadership and mentoring. As a systemic coach, she is also dedicated to empowering and strengthening her coachees outside of the professional environment.

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