High Tech Campus Eindhoven buzzed at top volume as hundreds of tech professionals came together for the Fe+male Tech Heroes Conference: Rethinking Leadership.
It was a full house of changemakers ready to challenge conventional wisdom about what leadership really means in today's tech and geopolitical landscape.
Keynote speaker Meike Nauta, Datacation
Fe+male Tech Heroes co-founders Ingelou Stol and Hilde de Vocht
FTH co-founders Ingelou Stol and Hilde de Vocht welcomed everyone to the conference and kicked it off with some exciting news items.
First, Fe+male Tech Herpes will be the main sponsor of PSV Women! As of the 2025-2026 season, PSV Women will be sponsored by a collection of companies under one common name: Fe+male Tech Heroes, which will be on the front of the jerseys.
The consortium consists of Cisco, Driessen Groep, Heijmans, High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Mansveld Techniek, Simac and Tibo-Veen. Together with PSV, they are taking on the challenge of attracting and recruiting more (female) tech talent.
Read the full announcement here.
Hilde and Ingelou also announced FTH will be rolling out their new branding in the coming weeks, giving the audience a preview of what’s to come: bold colors, fresh look and a bold new tagline: impossible to ignore. The FTH team had fun handing out the “impossible to ignore” buttons at the conference. Wear them with confidence!
The last announcement from the “good news show” is there will be a Fe+male Tech Heroes triathlon this fall at High Tech Campus. And, as women in the community tend to do, they already formed teams and signed up at the conference!
Read more and sign up here.
Keynote speaker Ingrid Tappin, CEO and founder of Diverse Leaders in Tech
The day kicked off with Ingrid Tappin, CEO of Diverse Leaders in Tech, whose keynote on "Identity Intelligence: Unlocking Your Leadership Superpower in Tech" immediately set the stage for deeper thinking. Rather than focusing on traditional leadership traits, Ingrid challenged attendees to consider a fundamental question: “Where do you lead from?”
Using her innovative IdQ™ quadrant model, she mapped out diverse leadership styles, from the outspoken challenger to the sensitive fixer, the visionary translator to the harmonizing teambuilder.
She asked the audience: "Have you ever been the only one in the room? The exception? You have led in these moments." We sometimes don’t acknowledge leadership within ourselves. And therein lies opportunities.
Maike Nauta explains AI use cases during her keynote address.
Meike Nauta from Datacation brought a refreshingly “human-centered” perspective to implementing AI. Her keynote emphasized the need to start AI conversations around real-world use cases and user needs. She encouraged everyone to adopt an AI mindset, spotting practical opportunities for implementation, and to shift from individual usage to team-wide thinking.
She explained that AI will find the easiest route from A to B and this can be a problem for the output. AI will also amplify any bias that is already rooted in the data, so we need to take a hard look at what’s in our data.
In the end, it comes down to how we can make AI fair, responsible and explainable. The goal should be hybrid intelligence where human judgment and machine capability work together.
Ambitious? Sure, but also achievable, according to Meike. "Power to the people, with the power of AI.”
Ingelou Stol, left, interviewed Beatrix Bos, Carbyon, for a Fireside Chat: “Powered by Purpose: A Fireside Chat about Entrepreneurship, Informal Leadership and Climate Action.”
The fireside chat between Ingelou Stol and Beatrix Bos from Carbyon focused on entrepreneurship and climate action. Beatrix's journey in carbon removal and sustainable energy systems illustrated how urgent global challenges can fuel innovative leadership approaches.
Beatrix has always been drawn to entrepreneurship by the challenge, the urgency of climate change and by the ability to do things differently. She says she was pushed into entrepreneurship by seeing the lack of others taking initiative in certain fields. Beatrix doesn’t have a C-suite role at Carbyon, but she believes in the role of informal leadership to make an impact on startup teams and amplify the startup’s mission.
Two thoughts resonated: "We need more spotlights on women in science.” (Indeed, that’s our mission at Fe+male Tech Heroes!) But also, this, “Be patient. Step by step, work towards the next milestone, even when ambitions are high and the mission is huge."
"The future is multigenerational: rethinking leadership" panel included, from left, Miriam van der Meer, Senergetics; Yolanda van Dinther, Thermo Fisher Scientific; and Joseph Zekry, ZekryTech and iBUILT.
The multigenerational panel discussion proved to be one of the day's most engaging sessions. With Ingelou Stol moderating, Miriam van der Meer (Generation Z), Yolanda van Dinther (Generation X), and Joseph Zekry (Generation Y) explored how different generations approach work, influence, collaboration and change in technology.
They challenged stereotypes while celebrating each generation's unique strengths:
Ingelou had a final question for the panel: If you could offer one piece of leadership advice to the next generation entering the tech field, what would it be?
Meron Mekkonen, Investment Analyst at LUMO Labs, led the workshop " Beyond the HERO: Leading without the spotlight."
The seven partner-led workshops were intimate spaces for deeper conversations.
Here are a couple of highlights:
Meron Mekonnen, Investment Associate from LUMO Labs, led “Beyond the HERO: Leading without the spotlight.” “What stood out was how open the room was, across genders and perspectives, to rethinking what leadership really means,” Meron said. “We unpacked some of the louder myths around visibility and explored leadership as something rooted in trust, shared power and impact. At LUMO, we believe the spotlight should be used with intention, not as a pedestal, but as a platform for human-centered leadership.”
The "fishbowl" format workshop used during the workshop "Not waiting for permission: You are already a leader."
Chiara Treglia, tini studio and TU/e Innovation Space, led “Not waiting for permission: You are already a leader.” She used an innovative fishbowl format that created rotating dialogue about unconscious leadership, safe space facilitation and the crucial distinction between managers and true leaders.
Other workshops included:
So much networking!
What made this conference extraordinary wasn't just the content. It was the energy that filled every corner of the venue. During breaks, the networking was described as "off-the-charts," with conversations continuing long into the evening networking drinks in the summer tent.
Attendees noted the openness of the room, seeing everyone from across genders, cultures, generations and perspectives.
The theme wasn't about incremental change; it was about fundamentally transforming how we view influence, impact and authentic leadership in tech. Change equals progress, and women in tech organizations need leaders who recognize potential in them before real change can take place.
Fe+male Tech Heroes crew and volunteers
From Ingrid's call to recognize our unique leadership moments to Meike's human-centered AI vision, from Beatrix's climate entrepreneurship to the multigenerational panel's wisdom exchange, every session reinforced a central theme: leadership isn't about titles, spotlights or traditional hierarchies.
It's about authenticity, purpose and the courage to lead from wherever you are, whether you're the only one in the room, building systems for the future or stepping into challenges that others avoid.
In a world that needs more thoughtful, inclusive and purpose-driven leaders, this conference proved the future of tech leadership is already here. It lies within females willing to put themselves out there. We just needed to recognize it. #impossibletoignore
See all the photos here.