Join us on March 5th in Toronto for a celebration of International Women’s Day.
📅 Date: Wednesday, March 5th, 2025
⏰ Time: 8:00AM - 1:00PM ET
📍 Location: Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel,123 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, M5H 2M9
Join us on March 5th in Toronto for an Advancing Women’s Leadership in Canada’s Digital Economy event in celebration of International Women’s Day and the critical contributions of women in the digital economy. This event marks the beginning of a transformative journey to bridge the leadership gap in C-suite, board, and senior executive roles.
Discover actionable strategies and resources designed to help businesses hire, retain, and promote women within their organizations. Engage with industry leaders, gain insights from our latest research, and participate in thought-provoking discussions that will inspire change.
Whether you're a business leader, HR professional, or advocate for gender equality, this is an event you won't want to miss—register now!
An Inspiring Panel Discussion and Presentations: Hear from industry leaders and learn from ICTC research, unveiling actionable insights and strategies to promote women in leadership while gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities women are facing in the digital economy.
Exclusive Program Insights: Learn about ICTC’s transformative approach to bridging the gap to leadership roles for women.
Networking Opportunities: Connect with business leaders, HR professionals, and gender equity advocates.
- 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM: Registration, Networking & Breakfast
- 8:50 AM - 9:10 AM: Welcoming Remarks by ICTC
- 9:10 AM - 10:00 AM: ICTC Research Presentation
- 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Advancing Women’s Leadership in Canada’s Digital Economy Presentation
- 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM: Coffee Break
- 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM: Panel Discussion: “Innovation, Leadership, and Equity: Women Driving Change in Tech”
- 12:15 PM - 12:30 PM: Q&A Session
- 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM: Lunch & Networking
Saima Fancy – Moderator, MC
Saima Fancy has spent a career at the intersection of privacy, security, and technology with a specific focus on the emergence of generative and agentic Al. Saima's cross-functional experience in engineering, data privacy, and cybersecurity has spanned over two decades and she is an internationally recognized advocate for responsible Al practices. Her work is focused on protecting consumer privacy rights and promote commercial collaborations to drive the development of data privacy and security preserving Al solutions. Saima's work includes advising on evolving and emerging technical systems and helping organizations maintain compliance with ever-evolving privacy, cybersecurity, and AI laws.
Bianca Baumann - Panelist
Bianca Baumann is a seasoned L&D strategist with more than 15 years of experience. She is passionate about consulting on effective new solutions to serve learners’ needs. She’s developed processes, methodologies, and frameworks to help organizations meet their growth targets with the help of innovative L&D approaches. Bianca has helped dozens of organizations with their workforce transformations, as well as onboarding and reskilling programs. She has also spearheaded multiple projects in the marketing, automotive, financial, and events industries, creating award-winning programs along the way. Bianca speaks at international conferences and is a facilitator at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She’s the author of “Think Like a Marketer, Learn Like and L&D Pro – Strategies To Ignite Learning.”
Nouhaila Chelkhaoui - Panelist
Nouhaila Chelkhaoui is the Founder & CEO of Scale Without Borders, the largest network in North America helping newcomers and immigrants find success in tech; and employers and partners access immigrant tech talent. An immigrant herself from Morocco, Nouhaila came to Canada as an international student at 17. Following an exciting career in tech, including working at a startup and spending several years at the DMZ helping women founders scale, Nouhaila decided to walk the talk by going all in as a founder. When she's not working, she can be found in some corner of the world on some adventure, or just enjoying long walks or runs in nature. Nouhaila has lived in 4 countries and also speaks 3.5 languages.
Huda Idrees - Panelist
Huda is the Founder and CEO of Dot Health, a real-time personal health data platform. With a background in engineering from the University of Toronto and a prolific career at some of Toronto's best known startups including Wattpad, Wave, and Wealthsimple. Her latest venture is transforming the way people access and control their own health information for good. Huda's work has been featured in a number of media outlets including Vogue, The Globe and Mail, CBC, Toronto Life, Toronto Star, Metro Morning, The Current, and The Walrus. She has won numerous awards including Excellence Canada's Board of Governors’ Special Recognition of Achievement Award in 2019, YWCA Toronto's Young Woman of Distinction in 2019, Bay Street Bull's 30x30 in 2018, University of Toronto Engineering Early Career Award in 2018, amongst others. Huda has helped advise the Canadian Federal and Provincial Health Ministries on strategy, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for TechGirls Canada and the Sinai Health System.
Diana Virgovicova - Panelist
Diana Virgovicova is the founder and CEO of Xatoms, an award-winning water deep-tech company that leverages patented quantum chemistry and AI technology to discover new materials capable of using sunlight to eliminate some of the toughest contaminants from water. Diana was born and raised in a small village in Slovakia, and at 14, she backpacked through Asia with her mother. It was during this trip that she witnessed black rivers and decided to find a solution.
At 17, Diana discovered her first material, winning the world’s most prestigious water award directly from the Swedish Royal Family. This achievement was followed by a fully funded Lester B. Pearson Scholarship to study computer engineering at the University of Toronto. In 2023, Diana was named Canada's Youth Entrepreneur of the Year, and Xatoms received its first funding from Alexis Ohanian, the founder of Reddit.
Xatoms is currently executing three pilots in Kenya, South Africa, and collaborating with filtration companies across the US to ensure more people have access to clean water. These pilots are currently providing clean water to more than 106,000 people. Diana was the historic winner at the recent Startupfest, taking home $500k after winning in three categories.
Diana is the youngest Emerging Leader in Canada's Clean50 for 2025 and has spoken at over 20 global conferences, including the UN, G20, and the World Water Forum in Bali. Diana was also named Forbes 30 under 30 North America in the manufacturing and new materials category.
We respectfully acknowledge that Toronto is situated on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands.
