SHE 2023: Highlighting the benefits of diversity

The event, which took place in Oslo on the 19^th of April, is Europe’s biggest gender equity conference. In her opening remarks, CEO at SHE Community, Astrid Rønning Skaugseth, emphasized the importance of diversity when it comes to tackling issues like poverty and climate change. To do so successfully, she said, we need to bring together people with a wide array of backgrounds and experiences.

More women

For Tietoevery, the SHE conference was a great opportunity to talk about why it is imperative to get more girls and women interested in IT and technology. Managing partner at Tietoevry, Evi Seljevoll, emphasized the importance of this as one of the panelists in an engaging talk on embedding social sustainability in the workplace.

“In the tech industry, we develop technology for the entire society. Therefore, it is crucial that we get more women to join our ranks. If not, we risk ending up with solutions that are more suited to men than women”, Seljevoll said from the stage.

Managing partner at Tietoevry, Evi Seljevoll, (second from the left) together with her fellow panelists: Kamilla Sultanova (left), Christin E. Bøsterud and Yvonne Thompson CBE.

The many benefits of recognizing the importance of diversity were a theme that several speakers touched upon throughout the day. From former Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg to author and activist Salamatu Kamara the message was clear: embracing diversity benefits everybody and is an important step on the path towards a more equitable future.

Knowing your biases

Until we get to that future, however, being aware of one's biases is key. This was one of the key themes in a workshop that Chief Designer at Tietoevry, Simon Kavanagh, together with Business Developer Mikaela Fri, gave at the conference. In it, they talked about how important it is that everyone who is working on developing new technology is cognizant of their own biases and the limitations of their experiences. If you are aware of this, you can try to bridge this gap by actively seeking out people with experiences and perspectives different than your own.

“It is obviously important to have policies in place, but that is not enough. Being aware of your own biases is crucial for developing good tech, and I am very happy that we got a chance to share this message with some of the participants at SHE,” says Kavanagh.

SHE, however, is not only about tech, and the various speakers and panel discussions touched upon a wide range of issues from the importance of more gender diversity in sports to the fact that embracing diversity also means embracing yourself for who you are.

“We are proud to have been a partner of this year’s SHE conference, and will take the insights from the event with us as we continue working on our ambitious diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda,” says Kia Haring, Head of Communications and Sustainability at Tietoevry.