Women In Tech 2022 event turns it up
THE 6th Annual Innovator Trust Women In Tech (WIT) appreciation experience is set to take place on Wednesday, to honour female tech entrepreneurs from across the country for their outstanding achievements in leading their businesses.
This affair will have women leaders from industry, technology, media and the small-business sector gather at the event hosted in the City of Gold.
Seasoned broadcasters Iman Rappetti and Pabi Moloi will be driving conversations as programme directors.
While women make up more than half of South Africa’s population, the country’s workforce only reflected 43.4% of women according to data from the second quarter of last year.
The case appears similar in the South African tech space, which although is a growing sector, still sees less than 25% of tech jobs held by women, and simply not enough female entrepreneurs being produced.
As such, the Innovator Trust has sounded the call for South African women tech entrepreneurs to #PowerUp at the 2022 Women In Tech Appreciation Experience.
While much of the issue lies at a grass-roots level in the lack of sufficient early exposure to technology for young girls in schools and communities, the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic still weighs on the economy, adding to the slow progress.
The likes of South African icons, Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, former global director for the UN Development Programme and UN Cepa Chair, and Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former executive director: UN Women, and former deputy president of South Africa, are among the confirmed speakers at the WIT 2022 event, who will be delivering keynote addresses in honour of the female tech SMMEs nominated for awards across several categories, in recognition of their achievements leading their businesses over the past two years while on the Innovator Trust’s incubation programmes.
“The Women In Tech Appreciation
Experience has always been our way of highlighting the remarkable work and innovation of female tech SMMEs, elevating their voices to a bigger platform,” said Tashline Jooste, Innovator Trust chief executive officer.
“This year, we are humbled to have some of the country’s greatest women icons join us in this cause, to appreciate and simply say, we see you and we thank you. We cannot wait to celebrate, inspire and #PowerUp with current and future generations of women leaders to realise the potential of technology, in envisioning and creating a better Africa of tomorrow.”
The WIT 2022 line-up features an exciting mix of back-to-back keynote addresses and exclusive one-on-one interviews, on “SA’s Transformation Agenda for Women”, with Vodacom Group executive head of B-BBEE and Transformation, Lynda Marthinus, an SMME Sector Address from acting director-general at the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, Nonkqubela Thathakahle Jordan-Dyani, and a pivotal Q&A segment on women’s mental wellness titled, “The Struggle is Real”, with clinical psychologist and mental health speaker, Dr Lwanele Khasu.