We are so happy and proud to share that this year will be the 12th time that we are organising our International Women’s Day Conference.
Please mark your calendars for the 8th of March 8:00 a.m. to 17:00. The event will be held in Hungarian and English, with online interpretation.

Where do we see our children in 2034?

Women’s Day Conference for Men and Women

We currently live in a society sunk into apathy, but despite this, we must look ahead. When divisiveness prevails, it becomes even more crucial to strengthen equity between genders and enhance collaborative planning. The positive vision for our children’s future is the most powerful shared interest and goal for both women and men.
During the conference, we will explore topics such as parenthood, child-rearing, changing gender roles, diverse generational needs, through personal stories, round-table discussions and debates with our experts and guests.
Time: 8th March, 2024, 8 am – 5 pm
Location: Magyar Telekom HQ (1097 Budapest, Könyves Kálmán krt. 36.)
START
PROGRAM
SPEAKERS
08:00 Welcome, networking
09:00 Opening – program, technical information Antónia Mészáros (UNICEF Hungary), moderator of the event
09:10 Keynote presentation Zsuzsa Tóth (Magyar Telekom)
09:30 Against family patterns Éva Danó (Várva Várt Alapítvány)
09:50 Let’s play with open cards! – Parental ‘out of the box’ mindset in the 21st century. Moni Lisa Tibenszky (Felelős Szülők Iskolája)
10:10 Equaliser Foundation / IBS cooperation
(empowered by The Coca-Cola Company)		 ▪️  Edina Heal (Egyenlítő Alapítvány)
▪️  Judit Szalóky Tóth (The Coca-Cola Company)
▪️  Márton Rácz dr. (International Business School)

10:30

coffee break
10:45 How to teach acceptance to our children? Ágota Bíró (Engame Academy)
11:00 Is it possible for everyone to truly win? Balázs Berecz (Access4you)
11:15 What kind of future do the children long for? Krisztián Steigervald (generation researcher)
11:30 Generation Weak: Explaining Gen Z’s mental health crisis Luca Nyáry (writer,  journalist, activist)
11:45 Resilience is the key to future success Orsolya Temesvári dr. (Resilience Coach, Trainer, Speaker)
12:00 Roundtable on changing gender roles Attila Beneda dr. (Deputy State Secretary for Family Affairs)
Barbara Fazekas (Bobcats Coding)
János Horváth (MVÜK Zrt.)
Zsófia Koczka (freelance architect)
Antónia Mészáros (UNICEF Hungary) – moderátor

13:00

lunch break
13:45 Will Gen Z break down the door?!
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  Dorottya Varga (Cambridge Mobile Telematics)
▪️  Erika Zita (KPMG in Hungary)
▪️  Eszter Varju-Jones (Tesco Business Solutions Hungary)
13:45 Workplace equality and the SME sector?
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  Fruzsina Dénes (5P Consulting)
▪️  Andrea Dintsér (Yourstory.hu)
▪️  Szabolcs Vida (Újház Zrt.)
13:45 Men also want more spirituality. But how?
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  László Léder (Apa Akadémia)
▪️  Ottó Vincze (sports diplomat, former member of the Hungarian Football Team)
▪️  Zsuzsanna Illés (KPMG Global Services Hungary)
13:45 Will equality be a trend in the next 10 years?
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  Judit Jakab (Magyar Telekom)
▪️  Júlia Klinger (BlackRock)

14:50

break, rotation
15:00 What we don’t notice: taboos, everyday sexism, and microaggressions
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  Burtejin Zorigt PhD (Political Scientist, Gender Equality Expert)
▪️  Péter Kemény (E.ON Hungária)
▪️  Melinda Zsiga (kétszeres kickbox világbajnoki bronzérmes)
15:00 Enough of token women: we need real-life role models!
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  Annamária Vértessy-Koller (BlackRock)
▪️  Olga Békéssy (Női Váltó)
▪️  Zsuzsa Beke (Gedeon Richter Plc.)
15:00 Female perspectives in technology and the digital space!
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  Rita Frang (Tesco)
▪️  Zsófia Gergely (Magyar Telekom)
15:00 The alpha and omega of everything: couple equity
(roundtable + facilitated discussion)		 ▪️  Enikő Józsa (Morgan Stanley)
▪️  Dávid Szél (consulting psychologist)
▪️  Rozália Miklós (MSCI)

15:50

break
16:00 Surprise program details coming soon
16:30 Closing thoughts Edina Heal (Egyenlítő Alapítvány)
During the day we will provide catering.
The event is free for the active membership of the Foundation and open to the press, but registration is required.
For external visitors, personal attendance is possible with the purchase of a support ticket (19.000 HUF).
The value of the suppor ticket is donated to the Equaliser Foundation in the form of a contribution through the “Adjukössze” donation platform. Therefore, for the ticket exchange, we cannot provide an invoice, but in the case of corporate transactions, we can issue a donation receipt as a foundation with public utility.
The conference will be streamed as a Zoom webinar, online participation is possible with the purchase of a support ticket (5.000 HUF).

Registration

SPEAKERS

Deputy CEO @Engame Akadémia

A female leader dedicated to diversity and inclusion, experienced in the education, NGO and Tech sectors (British Council, Emarsys,SAP) mainly in an international setting. She is passionate about learning and development and participated in several international projects as a trainer and executive coach.

leader @ MVÜK Női vezetői Klub

Director of Engineering @ BlackRock

Annamaria Vertessy-Koller, Director of Engineering, is the EMEA Head of Digital Experiences Dev & Delivery, located at Budapest. In this capacity she is responsible for software development for BlackRock public websites (both BlackRock.com and iShares.com) all over the world – it means more than 120 sites and tens of millions of visitors per year. She is also a member of the Budapest Office Executive Committee.

Annamaria graduated in Computer Science and Mathematics at Eötvös Loránd University. In her personal life she is a mother of two amazing young girls and deeply and emotionally committed to help young girls get involved in the world of computer coding.

Executive Director @ UNICEF Hungary

Antónia Mészáros is the Executive Director of UNICEF Hungary, previously a journalist, tv anchor and documentary film director. She has worked in news, current affairs and documentaries in Hungarian media, as well as British Public Broadcasting.  During her seven years at the BBC, she has worked at the prestigious prime time current affairs strand Panorama, Newsnight, Correspondent and other well known programmes. She covered wars, filmed in hostile environments and worked also as an investigative journalist. Antónia continued making documentaries for the BBC after her return to her native Hungary, in parallel to her on screen work for Hungarian Public Television. One of her films was selected „best of the year” by BBC World, another premiered in a cinema in front of King Charles. In 2006 she wrote a book about Eastern European migration to the UK. Over the years she has been selected as a European Young Leader, an Aspen Young Leader and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and completed executive education courses at Harvard and Oxford University.

Moderator of the event and roundtables

Deputy State Secretary for Family Affairs @ the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary

Founder, Managing Director @ Access4you

Balázs Berecz, economist, founder and managing director of Access4you. The social impact company – which will be 5 years old this year – was born from his experiences as a wheelchair user. Together with his partners, he has developed a concept that makes a real social impact by making it commercially interesting for businesses: access4you® is an international certification mark that provides detailed and reliable information on the accessibility of the built environment for people with mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive impairments to make their daily lives easier and for property owners/operators/tenants to achieve their business goals.

Balázs firmly believes that the first step in (re)inclusion of people with disabilities is accessibility and reliable, detailed information about it, without which none of the efforts to support inclusion can be achieved. The challenge his company focuses on is global, as evidenced by the fact that there are now 23 countries where Access4you locations are present. Balázs thinks it is important for more people to understand that accessibility is not only for people with disabilities. It can benefit people who push a pram, for the elderly people with reduced mobility, and for people who are temporarily disabled due to an accident or illness. Accessibility is, therefore good for everyone.

CEO & co-founder, Bobcats Coding

Barbara Fazekas is an entrepreneur and education expert. Currently, she is focusing on her latest venture, Bobcats Coding, which is a digital product development company that places 30% of its profits into an educational investment fund. Over the past 12 years, she has worked on numerous education projects and in schools in certification or leadership roles. In recent years, as the Sales and Marketing Director at the Budapest Metropolitan University, she has focused on attracting more international students to Hungarian higher education. Throughout her career, she has been the founder and CEO of the Green Fox Academy, and served as a board member of the Hungarian IT Association between 2017 and 2022. In her personal life, she is a wife, mother, black belt Taekwondo master, and Ironman 70.3 Finisher.

Burtejin Zorigt

Political Scientist, Gender Equality Expert

consultant psychologist

Dávid Szél is a consulting psychologist. He regularly writes articles and conducts lectures, trainings, and workshops on family, gender roles, emancipation, generational issues, and family heritage. He has published five books so far (“Apapara” [2015, 2021], “Túl a parán” [2018], “Útközben – Egy életközepi válság Skype-terápiája” [2019], “Tabuk és dilemmák a gyermeknevelésben” [2021], “Tabuk és dilemmák a kamaszok nevelésében” [2023]”).

ethical hacker, Security Engineer @ Cambridge Mobile Telematics

Dorottya Varga is currently in the 11th grade and competes in karate. This is already remarkable, but in addition to this, Dorka also works as an ethical hacker and security engineer at Cambridge Mobile Telematics. She spends her free time reading.

 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.

Head of CE Customer & Product Operations @ Tesco Business Solutions Hungary

My name is Eszter Varju-Jones. I have been with Tesco for 20 years. I started as a fresh graduate and spent 15 years in different positions in the commercial buying area such as regional buyer, project manager and capability expert. For 5 years now I have been part of Tesco Business Solutions, based in the Budapest hub, leading the Commercial Buying operations division. I am truly grateful for having the opportunity to be building up this division right from the start: during the past 5 years, my team has grown from 8 to 120 colleagues, supporting the Central European buying teams from 2 locations: Budapest, Hungary and Bengaluru, India.

Pastor, Regional manager @ Várva Várt Foundation

Éva Danó comes from a Roma family with six children, but she chose a different path than the one tradition would have imposed on her. Education became important to her, and she obtained degrees in social work and theology. She is committed to helping young people and those she encounters in her work see their opportunities for advancement and recovery.

She devotes a lot of energy to sensitizing both Roma and non-Roma communities to try to get them to know, understand, and accept each other. After several years in state child protection work, she switched to the non-profit sector. She currently works as a regional manager at a foundation where her responsibilities include crisis intervention, prevention, and managing local groups operating in six counties across the country.

Managing Director, Senior Trainer, Coach @ 5P Consulting Leadership & Talent Hungary

Director of Marketing and Communications @ KPMG

Gabriella Liptay, Director of Marketing and Communications at KPMG, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Equalizer Foundation (Egyenlítő Alapítvány), Curator of Skool and Non-profit Information and Training Center (NIOK), Member of the Board of the Hungarian Advertising Association (Magyar Reklámszövetség), Mentor of HBLF, the Managers Association and the Equalization Foundation, and initiator and shaper of several cultural and creative-industrial projects.

Since 2017, Gabriella Liptay has been Director of Marketing and Communications at KPMG Hungary.
She specialises in brand building, communication strategy development, development and transformation of related business processes and organisations, and bringing culture and business actors on a common platform. Prior to KPMG, he worked in senior positions mainly in telecommunications, creative industries, tourism and culture.

CEO / Owner @ MVÜK Zrt.

 Diversity & Inclusion Expert @ Magyar Telekom

Team Lead & Associate @ BlackRock

Julia, Team Lead and Associate – has been working at BlackRock for 3 and a half years, supporting Insight’s largest client within Aladdin Client Business: handling client and data management, as well as reporting activities. During the COVID period, she joined BlackRock in September 2020 and quickly embraced the BlackRock culture. For the past two years, she has been a leader in the Women’s Initiative Network, dedicated to the personal and professional development of women, representing an inclusive community that supports women and their allies, creates growth opportunities, assists returning mothers, and promotes awareness of diversity. Recently, in early 2023, Julia took over the leadership of a team of four and became a Team Lead. Before BlackRock, she began her career in the financial services sector at IBM Global Financing, working with German clients and business partners. With a strong connection to Germany, having grown up in Hamburg, her international experiences have significantly influenced her personality, resulting in an open-minded, empathetic, and inclusive mindset, combined with a proactive attitude and a positive personality.

Generation Researcher

Krisztián Steigervald has been involved in generational research since 1999, initially as a researcher and later as a consultant. He currently contributes to the operations of numerous companies as a trainer, mentor, and speaker. He has authored two successful books: “The Battle of Generations,” first published in 2020 and now in its eighth edition, and “The Battle of Generations for Attention,” which reached its fourth edition in 2023. He regularly gives presentations not only in the B2B sector but also to teaching staff, kindergarten teachers, students, and parents alike.

leader @ Apa Akadémia

writer

two-time bronze medalist in kickboxing world championships, Hungarian boxing champion (2nd place)

Zsiga Melinda went from being a state care child to a recognized athlete. Her biological mother gave up on her at birth, and she was raised by three different families thereafter. For a long time, she felt unwanted, as if everyone had given up on her. She tries to process her childhood traumas through sports. Through her successes and her attitude, she has become an example for many.

In addition to her sporting achievements, Melinda actively advocates for the idea that people, regardless of their background, can be equally successful and valuable. In 2023, her advocacy was recognized with the Audience Award of the TASZ (Society for Freedom Rights) SZABAD Prize

Educational journalist, Sports mental trainer, Life coach, Founder and leader @ School of Responsible Parents

Moni Lisa Tibenszky founded the School of Responsible Parents 14 years ago as a personal mission, which has now grown into a community of hundreds of thousands. She considers her main task to be a change in mindset, a change in perspective in child-rearing, education, mental and physical health. To this end, they hold hundreds of lectures and trainings nationwide, where they provide directions for parents, educators, and professionals in the helping professions with the participation of renowned and well-known experts.

As an educational journalist, she has published hundreds of articles and edited and moderated nearly as many video programs, all of which are available on the website www.felelosszulokiskolaja.hu or on the Responsible Parents School Facebook page.

As a sports mental trainer and life coach, Lisa also works in individual sessions and trainings, focusing on self-awareness, building self-confidence, and stress management.

She is a member of the Thinkers’ Circle of the Edispon platform* and an ambassador for Hospital School’s charity.

founder @ Női Váltó

Resilience Coach,  Trainer,  Speaker

I had to familiarize myself with the concept of resilience long before I even knew what the word meant. Now I know that this skill is a must-have for people in the 21st century. In 2018, I had a terrible car accident, leaving me paralyzed from the neck down and forcing me to live in a wheelchair. It took me five years to realize that we all possess the ability to adapt to whatever life throws at us – we just need to be mindful of the way we see ourselves, and the world around us. Finding hope in the hopelessness, I figured out how to transform a tragedy to opportunity, and rebuild my life from scratch. Today I’m grateful for being able to help individuals and teams to overcome their difficulties, and explore their strengths rising from the most challenging experiences. My mission is to contribute to a society where asking for help comes naturally, and where we look at the difficulties as stepping stones towards our development.

Former member of the Hungarian Football Team, Sports diplomat, father of 2 kids

Diversity and Integration Expert @ EON Hungária Zrt.

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.

Head of Maintenance Hungary @ Tesco

Managing Director @ MSCII am 35 years old, the mother of a few-month-old daughter, a 2.5-year-old and a 6-year-old boy. I have been working for 10 years at MSCI, a provider of investment decision supporting tools for the global investment community. I am currently the Managing Director, and I also lead MSCI’s Budapest office of more than 500 people. In my global role, I have a team of 50 people from all over the world, from Hong Kong to India to America. At the same time, as the head of the Budapest office, my main task is the growth in Hungary, the retention and motivation of Budapest colleagues. I regularly represent MSCI at conferences, CEO forums, events of HBLF, AmCham and other organizations. I am often asked how I manage my day-to-day responsibilities as a working mother when I hold full-time, high-responsibility management positions, and still manage to find time for free tie activities and sports. I would like that to stop being a question and become natural. To get there, we need to talk about everyday challenges and support each other.

Zita has proven over nearly 20 years in fast-changing and challenging Hungarian and multinational organisations that a strong HR mindset and team drives business growth. Zita Erős is familiar with the advisory industry and the big4s. She began her career as a business consultant, and then continued to build on her project management experience in the field of HR and she also supported the implementation of the corporate strategy, introduced several engagement programs., she also gained expertise in other industries during her career, such as managing HR transformation. She is also an experienced trainer and coach, supporting the development of colleagues, teams, leaders and organisations.

AI Solution Sales / Presales Consultant @ Magyar Telekom

freelance architect

Head of Communication and Public Affairs @ Gedeon Richter Plc.

Budapest Center Head @ KPMG Global Services Hungary

Zsuzsanna Illés, the Budapest Center Head of KPMG Global Services Hungary, is an accomplished leader with over 20 years of experience in Fortune 500 multinational companies. Her expertise lies in leading teams, setting strategies, fostering collaboration, and driving operational execution. Zsuzsanna’s background in the finance industry has equipped her with a unique blend of skills in operations management, people development, and quality improvement methodologies. In her current role, Zsuzsanna is responsible for establishing KPMG Global Services Hungary as the preferred employer for tax compliance professionals. She manages delivery teams and promotes a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring exceptional client service and operational efficiency.

Chief People Officer @ Magyar Telekom

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