{"id":463627,"date":"2023-11-10T17:20:27","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T16:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=463627"},"modified":"2023-11-10T17:20:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T16:20:27","slug":"female-tech-heroes-awards-show-red-carpet-glamour-and-a-night-of-emotion-and-pride-in-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/female-tech-heroes-awards-show-red-carpet-glamour-and-a-night-of-emotion-and-pride-in-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Fe+male Tech Heroes Awards Show: red carpet, glamour, and a night of emotion and pride in diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Cheryl and Terry Boyd<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a first-time event, the Fe+male Tech Heroes Awards Show set a new standard for glitz and glamour in a tech ecosystem that can be rather sedate. It also had full participation from foundational partners with representatives from the largest companies, including ASML, TNO, and TU Eindhoven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winners of the four award categories were announced at the sold-out event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hidden Gem: Amrita Singh<\/a>, SMART Photonics<\/a>
Male Ally: Alex Tavassoli<\/a>, Enliven<\/a>
Corporate Inclusion: LUMO Labs<\/a>
Female Tech Hero of 2023: Christine Brown<\/a>, ASML<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more than anything, the awards show had authentic emotion, with the raucous audience of 300-plus momentarily hushed by the winners\u2019 candid retellings of their journeys, then breaking into prolonged standing ovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Audience<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fan clubs from start-ups and companies who\u2019d come to support nominated colleagues were bolstering the sell-out crowd. At one point, nominee Alex Tavassoli\u2019s supporters chanted, \u201cHe gets it! He gets it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was the culmination of five years of building Fe+male Tech Heroes, the High Tech Camps Eindhoven-supported initiative dedicated to improving diversity and inclusion in tech organizations and recognizing and encouraging women in tech and the men who support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hilde<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fe+male Tech Heroes founders Ingelou Stol & Hilde de Vocht<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The High Tech Campus Conference Center was transformed from a very cool corporate meeting space to \u201cgala night,\u201d with videos, a walk of fame with stars for each of the Fe+male Tech Heroes nominees, balloons, champagne, and, of course, a red carpet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leticia\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The evening\u2019s emcee, comedian Katie Nixon from Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, got the crowd singing to Shania Twain\u2019s slightly reworked hit \u201cMan! I Feel Like a Woman in Tech!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, the two founders of Fe+male Tech Heroes, Hilde de Vocht and Ingelou Stol, took the stage to welcome the crowd and kick off the awards, to celebrate a community that\u2019s grown to 4,000 members, and to talk about the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilde de Vocht, Marketing and Communications Director for HTCE, said Thursday night\u2019s event was to celebrate a community that\u2019s grown to more than 4,000 members. \u201cWe\u2019ve existed five years, and\u2026 we\u2019ve grown tremendously. We need to take the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That includes events that highlight role models within companies. So, Fe+male Tech Heroes \u201cis looking for a big group of partners that support our goals \u2013 an effort that just started a few months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Partner<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fe+male Tech Heroes was about recognizing \u201ca woman who would never nominate herself, the guy who really gets it, the corporate that doesn\u2019t just talk the talk, but walks the walk,\u201d said Ingelou Stol, Director, Marketing Communications for Salvia BioElectronics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jury<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The jury of the Fe+male Tech Heroes Awards Show 2023<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judges had their work cut out for them, scoring 10 finalists from more than 230 nominations. The jury included Maarten Steinbuch (TU\/e), Moyra McManus (ASML), Clara Otero Perez (NXP), Brigit van Dijk (BOM), Judith Heikoop (Entrepreneur), Monika Hoekstra (NXTGEN HIGHTECH) and John Bell (HighTechXL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first of the four awards was the Hidden Gem award, with Brigit van Dijk presenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 10 finalists represented Eindhoven\u2019s signature institutions, including ASML, TU Eindhoven and Philips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Amrita\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hidden Gem Award: Amrita Singh<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner was Amrita Singh, Cluster Lead\/ R&D Process and Integration Team, at SMART Photonics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the jury report: \u201cAmrita was born in a poor village in India where girls were not allowed to go to school. Being the rebel she was, she gave her parents such a hard time they allowed her to go to school. Today, she still visits her home village to inspire girls, telling them they can become tech heroes one day, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is for all the fathers who believe in their daughters,\u201d Amrita said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She described her village as a place where \u201cour destiny was fixed.\u201d Her mother married at 9, her sister 16. \u201cOne person who believed in me … my father. I had to escape that destiny that was already decided.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could hear a pin drop. And then came thunderous applause and a standing ovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alex\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Male Ally Award: Alex Tavassoli<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next was the Male Ally award for \u201cguys who get it, with Monika Hoekstra from NXTGEN HighTech presenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the jury report: \u201cAlex Tavassoli, an Iranian refugee, arrived in the Netherlands when he was 8 years old. He experienced domestic violence as a child. He used his experience in game development to develop Don\u2019t Forget Me, a virtual reality empathy training program. Using VR, the program puts users in the victim’s shoes and increases awareness of destructive behavior’s emotional and mental impact. Since Enliven\u2019s launch, Alex and his team have developed other VR-enhanced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion empathy training programs, including Gender Bias. The programs allow users to experience and feel workplace inequality through a woman’s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I really didn\u2019t expect this,\u201d Tavassoli said. He thanked his wife for \u201cthe person I\u2019ve become.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tavassoli said he found his ambition in preventing children \u201cfrom what I went through. I want to be a voice for empathy \u2026 to make sure everyone is heard and equal in the workplace and the classroom. To be treated like humans. To make sure at every step to put ourselves in the shoes of others. To treat everyone as we want to be treated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess we have a lot of work to do there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More thunderous applause. Another standing ovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"LUMO<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Corporate Inclusion Award: LUMO Labs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third award, Corporate Inclusion, was presented by HighTechXL CEO John Bell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the winner was \u2026 LUMO Labs, an investment fund and venture builder based at High Tech Campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the jury report: \u201cLUMO Labs is an investment fund and venture builder that believes in diversity, equity, and inclusion in their own team and their portfolio companies. Seven of the 15 portfolio companies include female founders. They fully understand the highest-performing teams are diverse teams. At LUMO Labs, females make up 1\/3 of the LUMO Labs team, and two women are on their Scientific and Industry Advisory Board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founding Partners Andy L\u00fcrling and Sven Bakkes used the moment to announce a new investment fund, where\u00a0the leadership team will consist of three females and three males. And they invited Alex Tavassoli, whose Enliven is a LUMO Labs start-up, on stage for a round of hugs, applause, and more photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climax of the evening was the Fe+male Tech Hero Award, with Ingelou and Hilde making the presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christine\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Female Tech Hero of the Year Award: Christine Brown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner was Christine Brown, Sr Director, Development & Engineering Performance & Integration at ASML:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From her jury report: \u201cChristine is a die-hard techy woman by nature, very knowledgeable on loads of technical topics and an engineer by heart. At the same time, she has the most beautiful softer side and is a true wizard with her soft skills. She is not afraid to speak her mind, both on technical topics and on non-technical topics. She is a frontrunner in design and integration at ASML and a source of inspiration for many of us at ASML. She is not the type to step into the limelight but she does deserve it. She knows her tech stuff and cares for you, a true role model and hero, an inspiration to us all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christine said she didn\u2019t think she was going to win, but her husband James, whom she called her \u201cchief encouragement officer,\u201d told her she better write a speech just in case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first reaction was, \u2018Do I deserve this?\u2019 I\u2019m deeply honored and grateful for people who recognized me and me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She recognized ASML and her late father, \u201cmy role model for leadership from when I was a child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christine cited author Br\u00e9ne Brown as another influence for a woman navigating the world of tech, quoting Brown\u2019s advice to \u201cstop looking for confirmation you don\u2019t belong. You\u2019ll always find it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth about who we are lives in our hearts, Christine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No one belongs here more than you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"FTH<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Boom Chicago host Katie Nixon and the Fe+male Tech Heroes crew <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evening concluded with finalists, award winners, jury members, and the Fe+male Tech Heroes teams on stage, followed by a serious party \u2013 food, drinks, and dancing \u2013 that closed down the Campus. The final consensus was the attendees had been part of a women-in-tech movement that is about to get much bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as Alex Tavassoli noted, \u201cWho wouldn\u2019t want to be part of this great organization?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cheryl and Terry Boyd For a first-time event, the Fe+male Tech Heroes Awards Show set a new standard for glitz and glamour in a tech ecosystem that can be rather sedate. It also had full participation from foundational partners with representatives from the largest companies, including ASML, TNO, and TU Eindhoven. Winners of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2589,"featured_media":493400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[61725],"location":[6763],"article_type":[43139],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-463627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-female-tech-heroes-2","location-netherlands","article_type-features"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"The first Fe+Male Tech Heroes awards show had emotion, amazement, shouting, cheering, and prolonged standing ovations.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Team IO","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/erikdevries\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Screenshot-2023-11-10-at-17.15.14.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Fe+male Tech Heroes<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Fe+male Tech Heroes<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 10, 2023","modified":"Updated on November 10, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 10, 2023 5:20 pm","modified":"Updated on November 10, 2023 5:20 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463627"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=463627"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=463627"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=463627"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=463627"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=463627"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=463627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}