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Thrive-WiSE Micro Conference  is a series of technical and cultural conferences for women+ engineers, technologists, and technical leadership and their allies, organized by women engineers and technologists at Thrive-WiSE .

Launched in 2014 as a way for women engineers to meet to share technical knowledge, network and advance in their careers, the conference has grown by over 200% and attracts over 2,000+ attendees from all over the world. 

Our next annual Micro Conference will be in 2025. Stay tuned for more updates.

Women+ includes all woman-identified people, whatever their journey.

 

Thrive-WiSE Micro Conference highlights include:

1600+

ATTENDEES

10

CONSECUTIVE YEARS

20+

COUNTRIES

80% ENG.

20% PxM

OUR PAST FEATURED KEYNOTES & SPEAKERS

Pamela Newkirk

Pamela Newkirk, PhD

Author, Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business NYU Journalism Professor

Farah Alibay

Farah Alibay

Senior Systems Engineer
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Radia Perlman

Radia Perlman

EMC Fellow
Dell EMC

Don Knuth

Don Knuth

American Computer Scientist & Professor Emeritus
Stanford University

Matt Abrahams

Matt Abrahams

Think Fast Talk Smart Podcast & Lecturer,
Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Beena Ammanath

Beena Ammanath

Technology Trust Ethics and AI Leader
Deloitte

Lorien Pratt

Dr. Lorien Pratt

Chief Scientist and Cofounder
Quantellia LLC

MICRO CONFERENCE AGENDA SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Thrive-WiSE Micro Conference is scheduled into a convenient 1-day program to maximize your opportunities to participate.

FRIDAY (SEPTEMBER 27, 2024)

08:00 AM – 03:45 PM PT (Single Track Sessions)

Agenda

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Breakfast

9:00 AM - 9:10 AM

Opening Plenary

Rupa Dachere, CEO, President & Founder, Thrive-WiSE

9:15 AM - 9:45 AM

Opening Keynote

Suguna Subramaniam,
VP of Payments and Fraud, Walmart

9:50 AM - 10:20 AM

Keynote

Dr. May Wang, Chief Technology Officer, IoT Security Palo Alto Networks

10:25 AM - 11:05 AM

Leadership Keynote Panel

Panelists:

Mo Fong, Adjunct Lecturer, Management Science & Engineering, Stanford

Soo- Kyung Kim, Assistant Professor, EWHA Womans University

Karen Myers, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Center, SRI

Aanchal Gupta, CVP, Office Product Group, Microsoft

Shaun Chaudhuri, Principal, The Westly Group

11:10 AM - 11:35 AM

Keynote

Sheryl Genco, Ph.D., VP Advanced Technology Group
Ericsson

11:40 AM - 12:10 PM

Community Keynote

Matt Abrahams
Author “Think Fast, Talk Smart”,
Award winning Podcast Host,
Lecturer, Stanford GSB

12:10 PM - 1:00 PM

Lunch

12:45 PM - 1:30 PM

Safe Space Session

Moderator:

Rupa Dachere, CEO, Thrive-WiSE

Panelists:

Nicole Brown, Sr. Director TPM & Chief-of-Staff to SVP Enterprise Business Services, Walmart

Deepa Karnad Dhurka,
Staff Software Engineer, Juniper Networks

Svetlana Perets,
Director Program Management, Astera Labs

1:35 PM - 2:15 PM

PxM Panel

Moderator:

Nicole Brown, Senior Director TPM & Chief of Staff to SVP Enterprise Business Services, Walmart

Panelists:

Dilruba Malik, Senior SQA Manager,
Palo Alto Networks

Lydia Zhang, President & Co-Founder,
Ridge Security Technology

Sanyogita Shamsunder, Chief Operations Officer, NextNav

Rati Agrawal,
Vice President of Engineering, Google

2:20 PM - 3:15 PM

Tech Panel

Moderator:

Ramneet Kaur, Advanced Computer Scientist, AI, SRI

 

Panelist:

Amélie Koran, Director, Red Team (AI and Omnichannel), Walmart Global Tech

 

Yu Fu, Sr. Principal Security Researcher, Palo Alto Networks

 

Min Du, Staff Machine Learning Engineer, NVIDIA

 

Prajakta Jagdale, Sr. Dir., Offensive Security & Incident Command, Palo Alto Networks

 

3:20 PM - 3:45 PM

Coffee Break

FRIDAY (SEPTEMBER 27, 2024)

03:50 PM – 05:00 PM PT (Parallel Track Sessions)

PxM Track

3:50 PM - 5:00 PM

PxM Workshop

Cortney Reinhart, Group Director, Corporate Affairs Tech, Walmart Global Tech

Tech Track

3:50 PM - 5:00 PM

Tech Hands-On Workshop

Nandhini Anantha Kalyanaraman ,
Sr. Technical Project Mgr., AccuKnox

Anurag Rajawat, Software Engineer, AccuKnox

Deepa Karnad Dhurka,
Staff Software Engineer, Juniper Networks

Gerd Zellweger, Scientist & Co-Founder, Feldera

Ben Pfaff, Engineer / Co-Founder, Feldera

FRIDAY (SEPTEMBER 27, 2024)

5:15 PM

Closing Agenda

5:15 PM

Closing

WE THANK OUR

SPONSORS

NetApp_logo_white

WHAT OUR PAST PARTICIPANTS ARE SAYING....

Kira Kuli, Attendee

Great keynote presentation today on #AISecurity,  #techconference

Kira Kuli

Attendee

Aanchal Gupta, CVP, Office Product Group, Microsoft

It was amazing to be on a panel with this fabulous group of people – Soo Kyung Kim Mo Fong Karen Myers Shaun Chaudhuri and discuss benefits and challenges of AI. Thank you to Rupa Dachere and the entire Thrive-WiSE team for a fantastic event!

Aanchal Gupta

CVP, Office Product Group, Microsoft

Radhika Dharurkar, Attendee & Volunteer

I had an incredible opportunity to connect with industry leaders, gain wisdom from Matt Abrahams and explore the latest trends in AI. A huge thank you to Rupa Dachere and Walmart Global Tech for giving me the chance to volunteer!

Radhika Dharurkar

Attendee & Volunteer

Ramneet Kaur, Advanced Computer Scientist, SRI

It was a privilege to participate in the micro-conference hosted by Thrive-Wise at SRI yesterday. I am genuinely inspired by the remarkable presentations and engaging discussions involving keynotes, panels, and fireside chats. The opportunity to connect with motivated women and allies is invaluable. My takeaway message from the conference – “Network is net worth”. Couldn’t agree more!

Ramneet Kaur

Advanced Computer Scientist, SRI

Atieh R. Khamesi, Attendee

I had the pleasure of attending the Thrive-WiSE Micro Conference at SRI in Menlo Park, CA, this past Friday, and I must say, it was much more than just a tech conference—it was a truly enriching learning experience! :seedling:I came away with far more insights than I expected, and it was incredible to be surrounded by so many brilliant women engineers, technologists, technical leaders, and allies.The keynote speakers and panelists were truly inspiring—exceptionally accomplished, courageous, vulnerable, and candid.

Atieh R. Khamesi

Attendee

Lydia Zhang, President & Co-Founder at Ridge Security Technology Inc.

The Thrive-WiSE Micro Conference, held at SRI last Friday, amplified the voices of this special group—women engineers—highlighting our visions, opinions, and concerns. A big thank you to Rupa Dachere for creating and sustaining this incredible non-profit organization and for hosting such a wonderful event.

Lydia Zhang

President & Co-Founder, Ridge Security Technology Inc.

Mo Fong, Adjunct Lecturer, Management Science & Engineering, Stanford

An exhilarating conversation at the microconference this year at SRI on the topic of AI Ethics, Sustainability and Leadership with my fellow panelists Aanchal Gupta CVP Microsoft, Karen Myers Director of AI Center at SRI, Shaun Chaudhuri Principal at Westley Group, and Soo Kyung Kim Department of AI at Ewha Womans University.Congrats to Rupa Dachere , CEO and Founder of Thrive-Wise! You wore so many hats including panel moderator and MC and still managed to find time to welcome everyone. The community you have built for women in tech is what will sustain us to thrive as we rise!

Mo Fong

Adjunct Lecturer, Management Science & Engineering, Stanford

Cortney Reinhart, Group Director, Walmart Global Technology

It was a joy to meet so many amazing women in tech at last week’s Thrive-WiSE micro conference. Understanding #GenAI and #Automation capabilities as potential solutions to solve user problems is critical to stay competitive.

Cortney Reinhart

Group Director, Walmart Global Technology

Nuzhat Shaikh, Attendee

I had the privilege of attending the Thrive-WiSE Micro Conference at SRI in Menlo Park, CA, and it turned out to be far more than just a tech conference—it was an enriching and insightful experience. I gained much more knowledge than expected, and it was inspiring to be surrounded by so many accomplished women engineers, technologists, leaders, and allies.

Nuzhat Shaikh

Attendee

May Wang, CTO, IoT Security, Palo Alto Networks 2024 Keynote Speaker

I was thrilled to share insights on “AI for Cybersecurity and Cybersecurity for AI,” a topic I could easily discuss for days. But what truly energized me was connecting with inspiring women tech leaders and allies. A heartfelt thank you to my dear friends—old and new—for speaking at the conference and for your invaluable insights.

May Wang

CTO, IoT Security, Palo Alto Networks

A. Welsh

What an amazing line up of world class leaders!

A. Welsh

Member

M.Gupta

The Intro to Rust workshop was very hands-on and taught me a worthwhile skill which I will be able to apply in my day-to-day job as a systems engineer. Moreover, I haven’t been very fortunate to know many female engineers, even fewer especially system engineers, and this conference really helped me meet and connect with other female engineers and learn from them.

M. Gupta

Member

S. Chauhan, Member

Listening to the stories of all the women in Science and Technology was very inspiring, it made me reflect at my life and gave me a path forward on how to approach building my own career. Networking with all the people in the conference helped shed light on the various fields where women are leaving a mark, now I know how to reach out and get the support I need, which was something I’ve struggled with in the past. The small tips that were shared in the talks, made an impact on the approach towards my goals. Thank you!

S. Chauhan

Member

MAY

THE CODE

BE WITH YOU . . .

“Unleash the Engineer Within You” is a registered trademark of Thrive-WiSE.