About one year after organizing their very first event, the SWE Barcelona Affiliate hosted a fully in-person professional development and networking event in December 2022. The event featured a track for professionals as well as a track for students, and offered ample time for networking throughout the day.
Presentations included:
- Roundtable Discussion on Sustainability: The panel moderated by Laura Evangelio (Dow Chemical) included Elena Jimenez, Sales Manager from Emerson Automation, who explained Emerson’s sustainability initiatives and Carolina Gregorio, EMEA regional sustainability manager for Dow Chemical who explained their sustainability targets and what the company is doing to achieve them.
- Keynote Talk on Dyslexia and Neurodiversity: Presented by Leticia Arias from Charles Rivers Laboratories, where she explained the difficulties she had to study engineering and how she overcame them despite the obstacles.
- SWENext panel discussion: Candela, Irene, Angela, Daniela, Aurora and Sofia, participated in a roundtable moderated by Celia – all SWENexters from the first SWENext Club in Spain. Their first task, as a newly created club, was to organize this roundtable, to speak about why girls lose interest in STEM from 15 years of age. They also asked why are the companies interested in reaching gender equality and what can companies do to help them make an informed choice when it comes to choosing STEM careers. The SWENext Club Counselor is Almudena Ruiz (Caterpillar).
- Career Information Hub: This special session gave participants in the student track the opportunity to learn about careers with various organizations, including presentations from women from Alba Synchrotron, AVEVA, Dow Chemicals, Emerson, FM Global, HP, and Keysight Technologies.
- Panel Associations was moderated by Elena Pastuschuck (AVEVA). Panelists were Yolanda Trujillo, General Secretary from the Young Women’s Federation, Maite Paramio Nieto President of the Association of Technologists and Researchers and Ana Gonzalez Pascual Board Member, STEM of the International Society of Automation, Spain. It also included Marta Perez Dorao, Chair of Inspiring Girls and Co founder of Women in Business. They explained the work of their associations and we all discussed collaboration possibilities between companies and associations.
“The professional networking was very interesting and I loved the inclusion talk about dyslexia. It had us all crying!” – Attendee
“I went to the event because I was a speaker … What I wasn’t expecting was to find such an interesting organization and the group of inspiring women and leaders I found.” – Speaker
“I definitely found the talk about dyslexia very inspiring and rewarding. It gave me new perspectives to apply to my daily job and personal life.” – Attendee
University Students from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Universidad de Santiago and secondary students from Deutsche Schule Barcelona attended company presentations and heard stories of women who are making the difference.
To learn more about the SWE Barcelona Affiliate and their upcoming activities, please contact barcelona@swe.org or check out barcelona.swe.org
Don’t forget that SWE will be hosting a WE Local conference in Barcelona on the 25th and 26th of May 2023. Learn more at welocal.swe.org/barcelona!
