Investing in our AOers and supporting Women in Tech is super important to us, to give opportunities to learn, understand and overcome challenges, grow and break down barriers. That’s why 3 of our AOers recently got the chance to visit “Women in Tech [Unfiltered]”, a conference hosted by Manchester Tech Festival.
Manchester Tech Festival is a collection of conferences, meetups and fringe events specifically chosen to meet the needs of Manchester’s growing tech community. They bring the community together, with last years festival welcoming over 2000 techies including CTO’s, Founders, Software Engineers and Tech Graduates! It doesn’t stop there, MTF works throughout the year to support and bring the community together through monthly meetups and one-off specialised conferences.
Patrick (UX Manager), Gemma (Lead Front End Developer) and Charlotte (Project Manager) were our 3 lucky ticket winners and they had a brilliant day, here’s their thoughts and reflections…
I’ve been lucky to grow up surrounded by strong women: my mum, a former law partner and now chairwoman of the Church of Ireland; my wife, a brilliant Head and Neck surgeon; and at AO, I work daily with exceptional women in leadership.
I lead a UX design team that’s grown to a 50/50 gender split, something we built consciously. Diverse teams make better work. I’m not formally trained in DEI. I’m not a loud voice in the community. But I care and I want to learn more.
“I’m proud to work at AO, where the tech team sees real value in events like this. It’s not just about sending women but including men too. We need more open conversations about gender, empowerment, and allyship”
I love attending tech meetups and networking with the tech community in Manchester but opportunities are few and far between with two small children at home. I’ve always found the WIT community to be particularly welcoming and inclusive and the topics covered a lot more varied so I was keen to go along when I heard about this event. I gathered a tribe of fellow AOers who were also interested and seven of us ended up going along to find out more.
One of the key takeaways I took from the event were some of the stats shared. I learned that…
- 50% of women leave their tech role by mid career
- Women are 30% less likely to get hired when using AI tools
- Women accumulate 23.2 billion unpaid child support hours per year compared to 9.7 billion for men!
There were some amazing speakers at the event itself, but then after, we enjoyed a networking session, where we had the chance to chat over drinks, and connect (even on LinkedIn) with a group of like-minded individuals. The evening concluded with a fun visit to Slug & Lettuce and Dirty Martini!
The team got to see 10 amazing key speakers, 5 99-second lightning talks, and an LGBTQ+ panel, with subjects ranging from unconscious bias, data & AI, neurodiversity, FemTech, and harnessing hormones. A lot was covered, but Patrick, Gemma, and Charlotte left with tons of insight to share back with the team. Sharing these insights isn’t just about passing along information—it’s about sparking new ideas and driving collective growth. By exchanging what they’ve learned, they’re helping to create a more informed, inclusive, and innovative team and culture, that’s always moving forward together.
Take a look at the team’s picture of the day below!
