Opening speech by Marjo Miettinen | Women in Tech Forum 2019

Dear dear women, dear friends, and of course ladies and gentlemen. We have approximately 10 men here, so we are very happy for those 10 men. I'm very honored, I'm humble, and very happy to be here and stand in front of you, and also you sitting here in Finlandia Hall and you watching the livestream. You are now very, very warmly welcome to the whole Women in Tech team and by the Federation of Finnish Tech Industries. It is actually the biggest association in Finland, and as Andrea told, I am the first woman in this association as a chairman of the board, and the association is 115 years old. That is quite great. So Women in Tech started here in Finland in 2012. Then Andrea, one of the founders for Women in Tech, had this great idea to bring women together for networking, and of course we needed some more muscles and got Federation of Finnish Tech Industries to help us. I want to thank the association for this help. In the beginning, we were five ladies: Andrea, Rose, Pirjo, Kirsi, there Mary, Baker, Aker, PP, a simple man, and me. And I have to say, I have never had so much fun in the meetings when we had these five power ladies together in the same room. The fact is that we need technology more and more, but still men are developing the technology we use. In 2013, when we started with the first forum, I remember how worried we were when we opened the forum registration link. We had a huge amount of free seats available, 500 seats. Do we get enough people interested in our event? No worries. Two days and it was fully booked. And as we heard Andrea saying, also this year it was a record: only 12 minutes and 1,200 seats were booked. And I'm so humble and happy about this number. So in spite of this forum, we have several different events ongoing this week and also around the whole year: cooperation with universities, breakfast meetings, women pizza events, etc. Women in Tech networks want to be about the bigger diversity discussion, which is not only men and women discussion, and we will continue to do this together with other organizations. We have a purpose: we believe that diversity leads to better innovation and enables solving the big problems of the world. Then we have objectives: Women in Tech Finland wants a more diverse technical society. We want to speed up the cultural shift in Finland and encourage women to work in tech industry. We have an idea to offer inspiring events for people from different backgrounds with an interest towards technology and making an impact. We give insights on relevant topics and the future technology business. We provide information about the value of diversity, inclusion, and equality, and raise discussion in our society of the whole subject. And of course we offer role models and cooperate with other actors in the field, such as networks, projects, educational bodies. This year our theme is 'Impact Our Future', which comes directly from our purpose: when we have diverse, multi-skilled teams innovating with latest technologies, we will be able to create solutions that have a global impact. So we really need better innovation to solve our global big problems. We are very pleased to have our keynote speakers Sarita, Laura, and Marisa with us in Helsinki, and we all look forward to learning more about their experiences. Now I take this opportunity to encourage you all to make bold and untraditional choices in order to pursue your interests and dreams. Do not hesitate to start studies or take a job in a technology field. Possibilities to carry out ambitious goals and to enter into positions of driving force are many-sided. Not to forget that well-performing women are still more easily noticed in a male-dominated business than men. These opportunities are worth being exploited. If men have shown their competence in demanding technology-related positions, no doubt women can reach at least the same level. I wish you all a rewarding day. Stay curious, make contacts to people whom you haven't met before, innovate, and have fun in the spirit of Women in Tech. Really fun day this day. Thank you.