Girls in Tech is proud to announce the fourth annual Catalyst Conference, a three-day event designed to celebrate women in this new age of innovation. The event will take place at Hotel Palomar in Phoenix, Arizona on April 17-19, 2016. Click here to purchase tickets!

“The Catalyst Conference was created to provide our attendees with an environment that allows for true and honest conversations about important issues including gender diversity in the workplace and how we can better support girls in tech.” said Adriana Gascoigne, Founder and CEO of Girls in Tech. “We look forward to hosting another great group of attendees with a solid lineup of workshops and conversations in Phoenix in April.”

The Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference will include inspiring keynotes from female leaders, as well as multi-media presentations and networking events. The conference also offers attendees exciting discussion and sage advice on innovation and technology, and will provide them with a platform to exchange ideas, connect with other influential women, and create lasting business relationships that could have considerable impact on the technology industry at large.

“As an advocate for innovation in government, I know how valuable it is to collaborate with techies outside my organization,” said Laura Williams, Catalyst speaker and eDiplomacy Officer, United States Department of State. “I’m looking forward to connecting with the women of Girls in Tech, hearing their stories, learning from their perspectives, and brainstorming new ideas.”

There are more than two dozen speakers confirmed for this year’s event, including:

• Amy Bunszel, Vice President, AutoCAD Products, Autodesk
• Leah Busque, Founder & CEO, TaskRabbit
• Sandy Carter, Social Business Evangelist & General Manager, Cloud Ecosystem & Developers, IBM
• Mercedes De Luca, COO, Basecamp
• Debra Jensen, CIO, Charlotte Russe
• Rashmi Kumar, Vice President of Information Technology, McKesson
• Fran Maier, Founder & Chair of the Board, TRUSTe and co-founder of Match.com
• Monique Morrow, CTO, New Frontiers Engineering, Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Cheryl Porro, Senior Vice President, Technology & Products, Salesforce
• Kara Swisher, Executive Editor & Co-Founder, Re/Code
• Jennifer Tejada, President & CEO of Keynote
• Kristen Wolberg, Vice President of Technology, PayPal

Featured discussion topics include:

• Fuel­ing the She-Economy: Why It Matters
• Build­ing Your Brand, Net­work­ing, and Show­cas­ing You
• Prac­ti­cal Prod­uct Mar­ket­ing: Engag­ing your Cus­tomers to Drive Advo­cacy and Growth
• Diver­sity and Inclu­sion: Lever­ag­ing The But­ter­fly Effect
• What it Takes to Build a Great Com­pany: Mis­takes Entre­pre­neurs Make That No One Talks About
  How the Accel­er­ated Learn­ing Model is Help­ing to Alter the Gen­der Dis­par­ity in the Tech­nol­ogy Work­force
• This is the second year that Girls in Tech has held their flagship event in Phoenix, acknowledging the area’s potential to harness and support women as they pursue tech and entrepreneurial endeavors.

“We’re excited to welcome the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference back to downtown for the second year in a row,” said Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. “Some of the world’s most innovative women in technology will come together in Phoenix to empower other women to lead and succeed in this critical field.”

Catalyst Conference is sponsored by Automattic, IBM, H&R Block Small Business, Wells Fargo, Axosoft, Infusionsoft, City of Phoenix and Downtown Phoenix, Inc. Athena Alliance is also a proud partner for the event. Television and radio show host Kym McNicholas will emcee the event.

For more information about speakers and schedule of events and to register to attend, please visit: http://phoenix.catalyst.girlsintech.org/

Click here to purchase tickets!