Female Forward

FNF Madrid and Alicante Futura connect the female talent of the region in the first congress of women executives in the Mediterranean.

Last Thursday, December 15, the first congress of executive women 'Euthenia 2022: The Mediterranean Executive Women Conference' was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante (MACA). This event, promoted by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom together with Alicante Futura and with the collaboration of Casa Mediterráneo, was held with the aim of connecting female talent in the region. Euthenia 2022 was inaugurated by the Mayor of Alicante, Luis Barcala; the President delegate of the Local Development Agency of the Alicante City Council, Mari Carmen de España; Odilia Abreu, Senior Project Manager of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Madrid (FNF Madrid) and Eva Díaz, Coordinator of Euthenia.

Likewise, the congress was attended by more than 150 professionals and experts from the digitalization and new technologies sector, including María Arribas, CMO at QALEON; Gracia Sánchez del Real, CEO of Infinity Group; Celia Sánchez, CEO of 1MillionBot and Marcela Fernández, President of AEPA who, through different panels and topics, have addressed issues related to the labor and technological field of women in the current scenario.

Through Euthenia 2022, the aim is to promote and give visibility to different measures towards work-life balance, as well as to favor the hiring of women in general or in certain groups and the support and financing of entrepreneurial women's projects. "This congress opens the doors to share, debate and reflect on best practices, experiences and solutions that enhance the value and results of women's work. All this from the institutional consensus and economic freedom as the one we are promoting for our society with the maximum guarantees and securities in the legal framework in terms of equality," according to Mari Carmen de España.

Programme

Regarding the program, during the day there have been different round tables distributed in four panels related to the labor and technological field of women in this context.

On the one hand, the successful panel focused its debate on the different challenges faced by Mediterranean women in the technology sector. Participants included Sefora Marcelle Kodjo, President of the Board of Directors at SEPHIS Foundation; Lola Franco Valero, Partner at Scale Up; Rokhaya Solange Mbengue Ndir, Head of Relations with the digital ecosystem at Sonatel; and Esther Sánchez, Director of Innovation and Digital Factory at Vodafone.

During the second block, labor inclusiveness and the promotion of more egalitarian environments for women were addressed. In this corporate panel, María Arribas, CMO at QAELON; Paula Álvarez-Couceiro, Foresight and Strategic Division Analyst at Navantia; Maira Barcellos, Director of Nielsen in Spain and Portugal and Ana Martín, General Manager of Ingeniería Biomédica, shared their vision.

On the other hand, the third panel discussion dealt with gender disparity in technology, where Beatriz Arias, Director of Operations in Fixed Networks Europe, Gracia Sánchez del Real, CEO of Infinity Group and Fatoumata Niang Niox, Executive Director at JokkoLabs, spoke about education and its importance as a tool to combat the gender gap.

The last of the panels focused on the political sphere and digitalization at the local level as an attraction for international talent. In this round table Inés Soyah, Coordinator at the Wsterwelle Startup Haus Foundation, Mari Carmen de España and Marcela Fernández, discussed the attraction of female talent in those jobs in the technology sector in large cities.

This 1st Congress 'Euthenia 2022: The Mediterranean Executive Women Conference', has been closed with the presentations of Celia Sanchez, CEO of 1MillionBot; Beatriz Arias, COO at Redes Fijas de Europa and Eva Diaz, CEO of Apogeo Digital and founder of Shaping the New, who have presented their success stories as pioneering women in the technology sector.