ITCS Cologne

89% of IT departments still report a female minority. At ReDI School, we reserve at least 50% of our cohort spots for women, because access alone doesn’t close the gap. The real barrier is often the moment before someone starts, the self-doubt that says „this isn’t for me.“ That’s the thinking behind our newest AI program. It is built not to teach prompting or tools from the get-go, but to build basic understanding and confidence before anyone touches AI. We’ve seen what happens when that first step is taken care of: a graduate who came from a completely different industry, walked into ITCS in 2023, joined ReDI right after, and is here today to tell her own story of what happened next.

Join us to see how ReDI keeps closing the gender gap in tech, one first step at a time, as we work toward reaching 1 million people with AI literacy by 2030.

IT is fun! IT offers countless creative and varied opportunities!

But unfortunately, hardly anyone outside our bubble realises that IT is now so much more than the outdated image of the pale nerd in the basement.

We need a talent pool that is as broad and diverse as possible in order to create the digital products and applications of the future.

In this session, Silke Kanes shares her perspective as a long-standing ‘female alien’ in IT and leadership (from programming right up to the board!), discussing what we can all do to bring about change.

Back in Year 5, Dr Jennifer Sünder asked herself a big question: “What happens if you keep dividing a piece of chewing gum?”

This curiosity gave rise to a desire to understand the world – and her path led her into physics. At the time, she would never have thought it possible that it would eventually lead her into IT.

In this personal interview, she talks about her journey from physics to IT and how a question she asked as a child led to a passion for technology.

However, her career change into IT marked the start of a second journey for her. Her own experiences, her daughter and her curiosity about social issues have changed her perspective. She began to ask herself: Who actually develops the technologies that will shape our future? And why are women still so under-represented in that field?

It shows why the tech world is about much more than just programming, why there is room for a wide variety of talents within it, and why diverse perspectives lead to better solutions. Women make up around half of the world’s population, yet they are still significantly under-represented in many areas of the tech world. When women are missing, their perspectives are missing too – and with them, the chance to shape our future together.

AI isn’t coming for your job the way headlines say.

Real threat: quiet, invisible but really critical skill atrophy, decayed critical thinking, false confidence from polished fake AI output you don't actually understand.

This talk breaks down what’s actually happening in the market today: how AI ruins careers when you’re a passenger, not the pilot.

You’ll leave knowing signs you’re already at risk, and how to flip the seat, become pilot, AI your copilot so you move faster toward fulfilled career, not slower.

This talk is for anyone using AI at work today and wondering if it’s helping or quietly hollowing out their edge.

Anyone who watches a baby learn quickly understands that progress rarely happens only after complete preparation. While it feels like new possibilities are constantly opening up around SAP and AI, it is becoming increasingly clear: those who only start when everything is understood often start too late.

AI does not simply replace "jobs", but changes tasks, roles and career opportunities. The deciding factor will be whether people only use AI to complete routine work faster, or whether they combine AI with contextual knowledge, judgement, collaboration and networks.

Everyone's asking the wrong question. The useful one: how do you learn to lead AI instead of competing with it? We'll cut the hype, name the skills that actually matter, and get concrete about standing out when everyone has access to the same tools.