FIT Congress 2022: Empowering Sustainable Business

Discussions, workshops, award ceremony
FIT Congress 2022: Empowering Sustainable Business

Networking, networking, networking, that was the focus of the FIT congress of the Vogel Akademie. More than 130 women met on May 31 in Hamburg to network, exchange ideas, encourage each other and get new impulses. The highlight was the presentation of the WIN awards.

Women can achieve anything if they only want to. The right mindset is the guarantee for success, according to the credo of this year’s FIT congress of the Vogel IT Akademie in Hamburg. The more than 130 participants received impulses for a successful attitude in exciting keynotes, panel discussions and workshops.

Already in the first keynote of the day, Susann Herrmann, Managing Director at Bosch, emphasized successful leadership with heart and values. In addition to her personal experiences, she encourages the participants to have the courage to remain true to themselves.

Diana Coso, Interim Executive Vice President at UL, emphasized the importance of one’s own compass of values in an interview with Daniela Schilling on the topic of “Power, and what that does to us”. Coso not only addressed the gender-specific effect of power in society, but also addressed the relevance of one’s own values and of control bodies that ensure that power is not abused.

A woman in power is also Uta Knöchel, head of Information Technology at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport. With several practical examples, she described the challenges of her work.

Women’s power for more sustainability

The panel discussion on Digital Transformation & Leadership in the context of sustainability was about the power of each individual. The panel was chaired by Nicole Dufft of Fibonacci & Friends. Participants were Kathrin Hahn, Managing Director at BWI, Didem Uzun, Business Development AI & Data Analytics at Lufthansa Industry Solutions, Victoria Riess, Senior Strategy Manager Tech at Riess Consulting and Simone Heitmann, Purchasing at Computacenter.

Afterwards, the participants had the opportunity to delve into topics in workshops and think tanks. For example, Jutta Gräfensteiner, Director Sustainability at Cisco Germany, talked about the contribution of companies to sustainability. Sabine Domes, Vice President at Cancom, together with her connected colleague Petra Trost-Guerter, Executive President, developed a personal travel plan for the digital future with the participants. And Haike Thurau, Service Management Academies & D&I Manager Germany at Computacenter, gave tips on the active promotion of women.

Promoting and coaching women is also the personal mission of Stefanie Kemp, Country Leader at Oracle Germany. Her keynote speech on her career was the crowning conclusion of the day’s program. Her give away: “If from the very beginning you decide not to fight, because you are afraid to lose or fail, then you have already lost. From the very beginning!“

Gala evening and award ceremony

After a varied day, it was time for the participants to throw themselves into evening clothes and then get carried away again at the dinner speech by Monika Sattler. Sattler was the first woman to win the Vuelta a España, a cycling race across Spain. In over 21 stages, not only 3,300 kilometers, but also thousands of vertical meters are covered by bike. It was not about the competition: she wanted to set an example and encourage women in particular to face great challenges.

The highlight of the evening was the award ceremony for the “Women of the Year” on the agenda. All pictures, impressions and award categories can be found here in the picture gallery:

Categories and winners:

There were 90 candidates for election this year. With more than 25,000 votes, readers have decided who is on the podium in the seven categories. Here are the winners:

START UP: The award is given to applicants who have founded a successful startup company in the last five years.

• PLATINUM: Michelle Skodowski, Co Founder &COO, BOTfriends

• GOLD: Anna Franziska Michel, CEO & Founder, yoona.ai

• SILVER: Anna Koch, Managing Director, Itlogware

YOUNG LEADER: The award is given to female managers who are a maximum of 35 years old.

• PLATINUM:Samira Dengler, Service Manager, Computacenter

• GOLD: Jessica Weigelt, Head of Performance & Transformation, BWI

• SILVER: Daniela Datzer, Head of Marketing, NTT DATA Germany

Outstanding Diversity Commitment: The award is given to applicants for whom diversity is more than just a word and who are committed to equal opportunities / diversity in their company or with an initiative.

• PLATINUM: Fereshta Yazdani, Technology Consultant / Data Scientist, Lufthansa Industry

• GOLD: Dr. Julia Freudenberg, Managing Director, Hacker School

• SILVER: Enya Neumann, Head of Sales Cloud Tech Academy DACH, ADN

Digital Transformation – Business Innovator The award is given to applicants who have initiated or driven forward the digital transformation in their company and thus demonstrably make a valuable contribution to the competitiveness of the company.

• PLATINUM: Sandra Jörg, CEO, Blackpin

• GOLD: Melanie Schüle,Managing Director, Bechtle Clouds

• SILVER: Daria Zimnukhova, HR Specialist: Talent Development, Fujitsu

Digital Transformation – Technical Innovation: The award is given to applicants who have successfully applied new technological approaches and solutions developed in their company, their professional environment or with customers.

• PLATINUM: Xenia Sausele, Channel Development Manager, Ionos Cloud

• GOLD: Dr. Darina Goldin, Director Data Science, Bayes Esports

• SILVER: Didem Uzun, Business Development AI &DA, Lufthansa Industry Solutions

Leadership – Teamleader: The award is given to applicants who have positively shaped the company with innovative working methods and / or their leadership style, driven the business forward and thus assumed a role model function.

• PLATINUM: Katharina Jessa, Director Small & Medium Enterprises, Cisco Systems

• GOLD: Christina Decker, Head of Channel &Alliances, Germany, Trend Micro Germany

• SILVER: Christina Bräutigam, Head of Controlling, optINC (former Vintin – a part of MCL Group)

Leadership – Executive Manager / CxO: The award is given to applicants who have positively shaped the company with innovative working methods and / or their leadership style, driven the business forward and thus assumed a role model function.

• PLATINUM: Barbara Koch, Managing Director Tech Data Germany & VP Advanced Solutions

• GOLD: Simone Heitmann, Computacenter

• SILVER: Petra Jaschhof, CIO, BWI

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