In European companies, women occupy only 22 percent of technology positions, with IT qualifications accounting for only 17 percent. According to McKinsey’s analysis1 , by 2027, there will be a shortage of 1.4-3.9 million professionals in the technology sector in the EU-27 countries alone.
If Europe could double the representation of women in the technology workforce to 45 percent by 2027, it could eliminate the talent shortage and potentially benefit from a GDP growth of 260-600 billion euros.
In Hungary, only 13.5 percent2 of women have ICT qualifications, showing a decline compared to previous years. Hungary, therefore, lags behind the EU average in this area, putting its competitiveness at further risk.

Let’s take action against this!

1 McKinsey & Company – Women in tech: The best bet to solve Europe’s talent shortage, January 2023
2 Eurostat 2022

Encoded problem?

Let’s solve it together!
How can we increase the representation of women in STEM, and why is it important for everyone?

The results of qualitative and quantitative research conducted with Hungarian STEM students and graduates will be presented at our autumn conference, along with the trends in higher education over the past 10 years and best corporate practices—not only from Hungary.
We believe that in the competition for talent, it is essential for both companies and national economies to have a clear view on this matter.
Date: 19 October 2023., 9:00-13:00
Location: OTP M12 HQ
(Budapest, XIII. Váci út 135-139., between B-C buildings)

The Research

The Equaliser Foundation and the IVSZ – Association for the Digital Hungary jointly present their comprehensive 2023 research theme:
“How can the attractiveness of STEM professions and the companies operating in this field be increased for female workers?”
The main supporters of the research are E.ON and OTP Bank Nyrt.

PROGRAM

START
PROGRAM
SPEAKERS
08:00 Welcome, Networking
09:00 Keynote speech Dorka Varga (ethical hacker, Cambridge Mobile Telematics)
09:20 Welcome Ibolya Sári (OTP Bank)
09:35 Presentation of the Results of the Equaliser-IVSZ STEM Research Csongor Fényes (Inspira Research)
Tamás Géczi (Inspira Research)
9:55 Overview of STEM higher education trends Nóra Kudari (IVSZ)
10:05 How can we adapt to market demands?
– higher education panel discussion		 Nóra Kudari (IVSZ, moderator)
dr. Pál Bárkányi (ITSec Area)
dr. Charaf Hassan (BME Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics)
Péter Guzsaly (Skool)
Ágnes Tóth PhD (higher education expert)
10:45 Obstacles and Best Practices in STEM, based on 10 years of research Veronika Paksi PhD (NaTE)

11:00

Coffee Break
11:25 Video message from Columbia University Zsuzsa Márka (Columbia University)
11:30 Goals and Measures of the Hungarian Government Ágnes Hornung (Ministry of Culture and Innovation)
11:40 Women in Cybersecurity Anett Mádi-Nátor (Women4Cyber Alapítvány)

moderator:
Péter Baráth (RTL)
11:55 Company Best Practices and Recommendations for Enhancing Female Representation in STEM fields Péter Kemény (E.ON)
12:05 How can we support for women as employers?
– Corporate panel discussion		 Barbara Fazekas (Bobcats Coding, moderator)
Imre Branyiczki (EPAM Systems Kft.)
Gabriella Mátyás-Kollár (Morgan Stanley)
Rita Pálvölgyi (Nokia)
Mária Tóth (DXC Technology)
12:50 Closing Remarks Edina Heal (Equaliser Foundation)
The event is open to the press, but participation requires registration.
The event is free for our active members, but registration is required. For external visitors, personal attendance is possible with the purchase of a support ticket.

The cost of a support ticket is 11.990 HUF.

The conference will be streamed as a Zoom webinar, online participation is free for our members, but the registration is required. For external visitors, online attendance is possible with the purchase of a support ticket (2500 HUF).

REGISTRATION

SPEAKERS

Péter Baráth, Marketing communications director – RTL

Peter Barath has great experience in the fields of brand marketing and corporate communication in various levels both at agency and at the advertiser side. He had gained various executive and leadership experiences at top-level company management as well as at the public administration and NGO sector. As a professional he loves brands with a great purpose and prefers leaders with a clear vision. In June 2023, they joined the RTL team as the Director of Marketing and Communications, where their responsibilities include shaping and managing the company’s long-term brand strategy, overseeing the planning and execution of program campaigns, and providing marketing and communication support for RTL’s digital products.

11:40 | Women in Cybersecurity (moderator)

Bárkányi Pál PhD, chief executive officer, associate professor – ITSec Area Ltd.

An expert and businessman with decades of experience in IT security. He is unique in this field because he is one of the few people who understands government and other cyber space activities, which allows him to provide a broader range of advice and insight to both public and civil sector actors. In addition to his business activities, he works as a professor at several universities, where he helps students find IT careers and mentors them in their professional development.

10:05 | How can we adapt to market demands? – higher education panel discussion

Imre Branyiczki, Head of People Hungary & Serbia – EPAM Systems Kft.

Experienced People/HR professional, interested in applying evidence-based behavioral science to improve managerial and organizational performance. Prefer to solve problems on the basis of root-cause analysis. The current focus is on enabling psychological safety through developing trust and agility in the organization.

12.08 | How can we support for women as employers? – Corporate panel discussion

Ágnes Tóth PhD higher education expert, former president-CEO of Budapest Metropolitan University

Ágnes Tóth PhD is a higher education expert and former President and CEO of Budapest Metropolitan University. Her professional interests encompass the higher education market and the labor market. She is a TEDx speaker on the future of higher education. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics and has earned degrees in finance, mathematics, and computer science.

10:05 | How can we adapt to market demands? – higher education panel discussion

Csongor Fényes, researcher – INSPIRA Research

Sociologist, researcher at Inspira Research and a PhD candidate at ELTE-ÁJK. His professional interests are diverse, used to work as an intern at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, after graduation he took part in an international project as researcher and project manager in Sweden, which focused on the social integration among first- and second-generation newcomers. Later he worked as an international market research field manager and then as a qualitative researcher, where he mainly conducts research related to social and political topics. He continued his career as a market researcher, working mainly on qualitative projects. He is particularly passionate about understanding social processes; therefore, his PhD thesis is about civic and political socialisation of the youth. In his free time, he regularly publishes in scientific journals and conducts seminars at the ELTE.

9:30 | Presentation of the Results of the Equaliser-IVSZ STEM Research

Tamás Géczi, Managing Partner – INSPIRA Research

Tamás has more than 30 years of market and social research experience. Tamas has worked at all levels in market and opinion research, both in research and management positions. Between 1999 and 2008 he managed Millward Brown’s expansion in the CEE and Middle East region. Later he was the EMEA CEO of the brand and communication research division of Ipsos. Between 2011-2015 he was the CEO of Ipsos Hungary. Currently he is managing partner of Inspira Group, which has been established in 2015. Tamas is regular speaker of the Hungarian marketing and research conferences and guest lecturer of Hungarian universities at marketing, market research and data science courses.

9:30 | Presentation of the Results of the Equaliser-IVSZ STEM Research

Peter Guzsaly, partnership lead – Skool

Peter was one of the first to join the Skool team in 2014. As Partnership Manager, his main goal is to get as many technology companies as possible to become partners of the Foundation, ensuring that thousands more young girls and disadvantaged children are introduced to the creative and exciting world of the technology industry and digital art through their free of charge programmes every year.

10:05 | How can we adapt to market demands? – higher education panel discussion

Edina Heal, founder and leader – Equaliser Foundation

A senior executive experienced in managing change, fostering innovation, inspiring a diverse workforce, and creating motivated and effective teams. Forbes Magazine has selected her as one of the five most influential women in the business category. Her personal goal is to create equal opportunities for women and men.

9:25 | Background of the Research, Hungarian data and international insights
12:45 | Closing Remarks

Ágnes Hornung, State Secretary for Family Affairs – Ministry of Culture and Innovation

Ágnes Hornung was born in Budapest in 1980. She is married and the mother of two children.

She attended Pázmány Péter Catholic University, where she earned a law degree in 2003. In 2010, she graduated from Corvinus University with a master’s degree in law and economics. Additionally, she is a certified tax advisor. Following an internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd. (PwC) from 2004 to 2011 in a variety of tax consulting roles. In 2012, she began working as the fiscal attaché at the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the EU (Brussels) and swiftly progressed to the position of financial counsellor and head of the Economic and Financial Unit (ECOFIN), which she held until 2015.

Upon her return to Budapest, she was appointed by the Minister of Finance to serve as State Secretary for Financial Affairs. In 2019, she took on the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board of MKB Bank. She has advanced proficiency in the English language and is also fluent in Spanish and adept in French and German. In May 2022, President Katalin Novák appointed her as State Secretary for Family Affairs at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recommendation.

11:30 | Goals and measures of the Hungarian Government

Peter Kemény, Diversity and Integration Expert – EON Hungary Kft.

After gaining experience in the social and public administration sectors, I transitioned into the competitive sector and became the Diversity and Integration Expert at E.ON in 2012. Since then, I have been involved in strategies aimed at achieving gender equality, integrating employees with disabilities, supporting the Roma community, as well as fostering teamwork, corporate health programs, and sustainability issues. I firmly believe that developing diversity and integration is one of the best investments for any employer, and it is a fundamental element of a sustainable future.

In addition to my work, I serve as a curator for the Bárka Foundation, focusing on the social employment of intellectually disabled adults, and as a curator for the Romaster Foundation, working on the educational advancement of disadvantaged students.

11:55 | Company Best Practices and Recommendations for Strengthening Female Representation in STEM Fields

Nóra Kudari, projectmanager and working group manager, IVSZ

Nóra Kudari is a projectmanager and working group manager (IVSZ – Association for the Digital Economy), Chairwoman at Women in Technology Hungary Association (WiTH). She is Social Worker, she has worked for almost 15 years in the social field on projects for the labour market rehabilitation of disadvantaged people. She worked in NGO and public sector, but also in a multi company. She has been working as a project manager at the IVSZ for the past five six years, She was project manager several methodological survey, such as Femintech – Tedd Láthatóvá (the position of women in the ICT sector in Hungary) or the position of ICT professionals who are over 50 years old in the labour market in Hungary.

She has recently also presented at conferences on labour market issues. She is the manager of the new labour market working group, which is focusing on Hungary ICT labour market. She is also a member of the Digital Europe: Digital Skills Working Group, representing the IVSZ. In the framework of the WiTH, the position of women in the technology sector is addressed, and last year the “Women over 40 in the Digital Economy” award was established to raise awareness of the position and ageism of women in the labour market.

9:55 | Overview of STEM higher education trends
10:05 | How can we adapt to market demands? – higher education panel discussion (moderator)

Veronika Paksi (PhD, sociologist), Association for Hungarian Women in Sciences; HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences

Veronika Paksi (PhD, sociologist) is a board member of the Association for Hungarian Women in Sciences, works as a researcher at the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, and also teaches at University of Szeged. Her main research interests include issues of gender inequality in Research and Innovation, particularly in STEM fields; obstacles to academic careers; Gender Equality Plans; work-life balance and childbearing.

Recently, she has been participating in two Horizon Europe projects (UNTWIST and AGRIGEP) related to gender issues and Gender Equality Plans, as well as working in the Gender and Precarity Working Group in ‘European Universities – Critical Futures. The Roles of Universities in European Integration’ project supported by the Danish Research Council.

10:45 | Obstacles and Best Practices in STEM, base on 10 years of research

Rita Pálvölgyi, UN Women Collaboration Programme Lead – Nokia

Rita Pálvölgyi holds degrees from Humanities and Economics and has been working for Nokia for 20+ years in various regional and global management positions from IT to the customer organisation. As a certified PMP, Six Sigma and Design Thinking practitioner, she was in charge of driving business transformation and improvement programs in technical and finance areas, when 2 years ago Nokia signed a collaboration agreement with UN Women to promote gender diversity and women empowerment within the company and in the wider community, which Rita joined as one of its leaders. Within Nokia, it is a program to promote mindset change and facilitate the process of becoming more gender inclusive in all areas but especially in innovation. Outside of Nokia, it provides trainings and mentoring to women and girls around the global to reduce the gender digital divide and improve their life prospects.

12:05 | How can we support women as employers? – corporate panel discussion

Ibolya Sari, Managing Director, Digital Platform Development Directorate – OTP Bank

I have been working in finance for more than three decades, focusing mainly on the IT sector. I have studied and earned a diploma in Business Administration and Management. For 15 years I led the development of front-end systems at OTP and had a major role in its development as well as in the development of the digital sales channel. Since 2022 I have been leading the Digital Platform Development Directorate, which is responsible for advancing such aspects as base systems, core banking systems, card authorization system, data warehouse and document management systems.

9:15 – Welcome

Mária Tóth, Head of the application development – DXC

Graduated from ELTE as a mathematician-programmer and a computer science teacher, and later obtained an MBA at BME. I started my career as a software developer and architect. In 2018 joined HP, the predecessor of DXC, and since then I have been working as Head of the application development.

Based on to the success of the team, today we are a 250 strong crew, serving eight international and Hungarian clients. In parallel to my IT career, I also graduated as a psychologist at ELTE PPK. I also progressed further as a counseling psychologist at ELTE this year and extended my psychology knowledge in integrative and Jungian analytic methodology training, and I studied business coaching at the Kürt Academy. Women’s empowerment has always been a major interest of mine, and in the STEM field I have also gained first-hand experience what it means to be a woman and a mother in this environment. I dedicate myself and do my best to improve the status of women.

In 2023 my work was appreciated by Women In Technology (WiTH) in the category of ‘Increasing Recognition of Women’; at the Women Over 40 Role Model Awards. I love to run, and in my spare time I write professional articles, short stories, poetry, and read when I have some time left.

12:05 – How can we support women as employers? – company panel discussion

Sponsors and Partners

Sponsors of the Research

Sponsors of the Conference

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