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Knoxville Women in Tech Expo: Grow Better, Together

September 19, 2024

Event check-in begins at 7:30am
9am – 6pm
Knoxville Convention Center

Join a diverse group of talented women and invest in your personal & professional growth with a variety of motivating workshops, networking, keynote presentation, and more!

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Grow Yourself

Gain a Network

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Event Highlights

Your ticket includes:

Professional speakers sharing professional & personal growth advice
Breakfast
Lunch
Happy Hour
Networking with peers and local leaders
Professional headshot
Women in Tech swag
Prize giveaways from local vendors
Free copy of Show Your Worth: 8 Intentional Strategies for Women to Emerge as Leaders at Work by Shelmina Abji for the first 250 registrants

Women sitting at tables during the Women in Tech Expo keynote address at the Knoxville Convention Center

A group of women gathered around a table

A woman presenting to a group of people.

sponsor talking with an attendee at the Knoxville Women in Tech Expo

Know Before You Go

You can find parking maps and visitor FAQs on the Knoxville Convention Center website.

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Event Schedule

Keynote Address

9:20 AM – 10:20 AM

Shelmina Abji: Scale New Heights

Shelmina is the founder and CEO of Show Your Worth.ai, a gender equality advocate, former IBM Vice President, angel investor, and philanthropist. She started her career as a software engineer and then moved into sales, leading global teams to deliver over $1B in annual revenues and serving as a key decision-maker in hiring and promoting hundreds of professionals. Shelmina is also the author of Show Your Worth: 8 Intentional Strategies for Women to Emerge as Leaders at Work.

Watch Her TEDx Talk >

View Full Bio >

Breakout Session 1

10:40 AM – 11:25 AM

Create Your Own Seat at the Table

You do not have to be invited to sit down. Learn how to make your own chair at the table.
Melissa Centers is a board member, business consultant, and attorney who provides integrated strategic advice and support to boards of directors, founders, and companies of all sizes. When not helping clients with their most complex challenges, Melissa is a college professor at both the University of Tennessee and Pellissippi State where she teaches courses including business law, ethics and white collar crime, and business management.

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Online Security and Sanity Playbook for Teens and Adults

We’ll be discussing this topic from both perspectives — the parent and teen.

Christine Horwege is a Cybersecurity Consultant at CyberFathom

Maddie Flood is a student at Farragut High School

Building AI/ML Expertise and Communities of Excellence

Learn how to build AI/ML expertise and communities of excellence at your company.

Rachelle Palmer is the Director of Product Management at MongoDB and serves as an advisor to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Lunch

11:25 AM – 12:40 PM

Group Session

12:40 PM – 1:40 PM

Dr. Jennifer Golbeck: Building Trust Between Humans & AI to Supercharge Your Business

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a game-changer in the future of work, fostering trust between humans and machines is crucial for maximizing efficiency, ethical responsibility, and profitability. Learn how to assess and build trust between your team and AI systems, paving the way for seamless collaboration and giving your team a competitive edge.

Dr. Jennifer Golbeck is a computer scientist, Director of the Social Intelligence Lab, and a professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on analyzing and computing with social media and creating usable privacy and security systems.

View Full Bio >

Breakout Session 2

2:00 PM – 2:45 PM

A Grown Up's Guide to Kids Wiring

No matter the age or stage, kids are . . . hard. But understanding their wiring might change the way you look at (and speak to) every child that crosses your path from this day forward.

Jenny Boyett is the co-founder of The ColorWorks Group, a boutique publishing and training company teaching people how their natural wiring colors their communication. She served in the non-profit sector for 20 years focusing on business development, relationship management, and public relations. She’s a communicator, a trainer, and a mother to four daughters (three of them triplets!) She is a graduate of Georgia Southern University, a master facilitator for the Table Group, and a very passionate pickleball player.

Having Mad Rizz with Generative AI

Chris Wade Cantley is a Digital Innovations Manager Solution Architect at Deloitte

Bree Luc-Renaud is a Digital Experience CoE Leader at Deloitte

Panel Discussion: Keys to Retaining Top Talent

Sarah Miller is a Director of Human Resources, Residential Sales at Comcast

Sarah Sharp

Sarah Williams

Group Session

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Martha Weeks: The Reciprocity Ring: Build Your Network

Learn how the Reciprocity Ring exercise can make it easy to ask for and offer help. You might be surprised what a positive impact this dynamic group activity could have on your productivity, team culture, and mindset.

Martha Weeks is a leadership communications coach who teaches communications at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee (UT) and facilitates workshops and coaches at organizations including Google, Volkswagen, and Stanford Business School.

View Full Bio >

Happy Hour

Networking, Drinks & Fun!
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Shelmina is the founder and CEO of Show Your Worth.ai , a renowned global keynote speaker, gender equality advocate, TedX speaker, former IBM Vice President, angel investor, philanthropist and a distinguished alumni. She started with humble beginnings in Tanzania and went from being first in her family to graduate college to becoming one of the highest ranking women of color at IBM while raising her two children as a single mother since they were 2 and 4. She started her career as a Software Engineer and moved to sales and sales leadership. She has led global teams and delivered over $1B in revenues annually while consistently maintaining high client satisfaction as well as team morale. She was responsible for hiring, promoting and compensating thousands of professionals. She has mentored professionals at every level of their career.

She has delivered keynotes at Grace Hopper conference, Google, NASA, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, IBM, T-Mobile, Discover Financial Services, American Express, Deltek, Expedia, Boeing, Edward Jones, Assurant, Avalara, Fitch Ratings, Black Women in STEM, Ascend leadership convention, Harvard University and others.

Martha Weeks has been self-employed since the mid 1990s. She attributes her success, in part, to networking. Martha teaches communications at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee (UT) and facilitates workshops and coaches at organizations including Google, Volkswagen, and Stanford Business School. She graduated from UT with a degree in mathematics and got her MBA at the University of California-Berkeley. She spent most of her career in sales and marketing in Silicon Valley and Europe before returning to her hometown of Knoxville in 2017. Find out more on her website: marthaweeks.com

Melissa Centers is a board member, business consultant, and attorney who provides integrated strategic advice and support to boards of directors, founders, and companies of all sizes.

Before entering private practice, Melissa was the Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary at State Auto Insurance, a $2 billion publicly traded insurance company. Melissa was also the legal advisor and served on the board of directors for an insurtech-focused venture capital fund. She has held executive leadership and consulting roles in IT, operations, communications, crisis PR, marketing, human resources, and government affairs for companies like Chase, Verizon, Nationwide Insurance, and several other Fortune 500 organizations.

When not helping clients with their most complex challenges, Melissa is a college professor at both the University of Tennessee and Pellissippi State where she teaches courses including business law, ethics and white collar crime, and business management. She is an “Entrepreneur in Residence” for the Anderson Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (UT, Haslam College of Business), a leadership coach for the Professional MBA program at UT and serves on the Board of Directors of the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (where she is also a business mentor for programs like “The Works”) and the Real Good Kitchen Foundation.

Jen Golbeck is a computer scientist and a Professor at the University of Maryland. She has degrees in economics, computer science, and psychology from the University of Chicago and Harvard, and PhD in computer science from the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence, social media, and malicious online behavior. She frequently appears on NPR, MSNBC, and is the author of The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection.