
Your Town for Female Empowerment
13th June 2023
at ruhrSUMMIT | Jahrhunderthalle Bochum
Gründerallianz Ruhr x ruhrSUMMIT 2023
Welcome to HERHOOD
As part of the ruhrSUMMIT 2023 metropolitan concept, Gründerallianz Ruhr hosts your town for female empowerment.
At HERHOOD, we offer female founders and women in leadership a platform to talk about their challenges and solutions, create a safe space to network and enhance the visibility of female rolemodels. True to this year’s motto, PASSION.POWER.PEOPLE, we welcome women with important perspectives on female leadership and entrepreneurship on our HER Stage.
WE WANT YOU!
BECOME OUR NEXT STARTUP SWEETHEART
Female Founders watch out – the 90s are knocking at the door and make our hearts beat fast
We all remember the TV gems of our youth with Kai Pflaume. But at HERHOOD we play this kind of matching game a different way!We are looking for our Startup Sweetheart live in the HERHOOD at ruhrSUMMIT 2023. Three female founders will get the chance for a business blind date for profound advices with a female investor who carries startups at heart. Don’t worry – we are already well experienced with this kind of match making from HODcon 2022 and promise – it won’t get cheesy.
Apply until 1st June 2023 and catch the chance to convince us live at ruhrSUMMIT.
News
Live on her stage
Speaker
You can expect high-quality keynotes and inspiring panel discussions with real-world perspectives from women in leadership, academia and the startup scene. With the guest format #HowSheDidIt, hosted by Janna Prager, you will also get insights into outstanding success stories of female founders.
All keynotes and panels will be held in German language.

Magdalena Rogl
Lead Diversity & Inclusion @ Microsoft
read more
As part of Generation Y, Magdalena Rogl has been in the online world for over 15 years. In 2016, she moved from the media industry to corporate communications at Microsoft Germany. Her ongoing commitment to equality, inclusion and diversity became her main task at the company in 2021 as Diversity & Inclusion Lead.
For her extraordinary career path from working child care work to the digital industry, Magdalena was honored with the Digital Female Leader Award and as one of the “25 Women Revolutionizing Our Economy”, among other awards.
Magdalena is a value ambassador for the non-profit education initiative GermanDream and a role model at BayFid, the young talent development program of the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs.
In October 2022, her first book “MitGefühl – Warum Emotionen im Job unverzichtbar sind” was published.
Thus, we are happy to welcome Magdalena with her Keynote on Emotional Leadership:
Emotions and work are two terms that still have nothing to do with each other for many people. Yet awareness of our own and others’ emotions can make us more successful and happier. For this, we need emotional intelligence – and unlike IQ, we can train our EQ and thus develop resilience. If we as a society and as teams want to make full use of our possibilities and abilities, we have a responsibility to change outdated structures so that all people feel emotionally safe and can use their feelings.

Dr. Léa Steinacker
Co-Founder & CIO @ ada Learning GmbH
read more
Dr. Léa Steinacker is an award-winning journalist, entrepreneur, and social scientist with a PhD in the social dimensions of artificially intelligent systems (AI). Her work focuses on how technology interacts with people, practices, and the planet. She has published on topics like automated facial recognition, synthetic voice generation, quantum computing, and her original framework of Code Capital. With her expertise in emerging technologies and their wide-ranging effects, she is a Lecturer at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, teaching courses such as “Social and Economic Impacts of Artificial Intelligence”. In 2018, Léa co-founded and is now the Chief Innovation Officer of ada learning, a leadership development community that equips workers from diverse organizations for the future through content, live experiences, and practical innovation projects. Since its inception, ada has connected and worked with thousands of fellows from DAX organzations, SMEs, governments and NGOs. Previously, Léa served as the Chief Innovation Officer of WirtschaftsWoche, Germany’s leading business magazine, where she covered the future of work and socio-technological change. Prior to joining Handelsblatt Media Group, she worked with social justice NGOs in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was selected as a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader, one of Medium Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 journalists, a BCG Thought Leader, and an Atlantik Brücke Young Leader. In 2011, she was awarded the Henry Richardson Labouisse Prize. Léa holds degrees from Princeton University (A.B.), the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (MPP), and the University of St. Gallen (PhD).

Nora Breuker
Founder @ Runaway Redhead
read more
As the founder of Runaway Redhead, Nora Breuker supports companies, organizations and initiatives in building their online and offline communities and supports them in developing digital marketing strategies.
In her adopted hometown, the Ruhr region, she has built up “Digital Innovation Ruhr”, one of the largest meetup communities for IT, marketing and startups in the region.
Nora was also co-founder of the Los Angeles-based social startup “From Fat to Finish Line” and still leads one of the largest online communities for overweight runners there. For many years now, Nora has been on stage, mentoring startups and encouraging other women to start their own businesses.

Janna prager
Host of #HowSheDidIt
read more
Coming Soon

Birthe Bruckhoff
Hub-Manager @ BMR
read more
Birthe Bruckhoff is head of the Innovation & Knowledge Transfer competence field at Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH. She holds a degree in spatial planning and has been active in various areas for BMR since 2007. In the competence field Innovation & Knowledge Transfer, her topics and projects focus on supporting companies with networking activities, promoting innovative capacity and targeted matching formats. Special emphasis is placed on the start-up scene and the creative industries.

Vanessa Westphal
Founder @ Choosy
read more
Vanessa Westphal is co-founder of the Bochum-based Tech Startup Choosy. Choosy aims to help individuals improve eating habits and thereby tackles two of the most significant topics of our time with tech: planetary & human health.
Vanessa is an entrepreneur, innovator and thought leader. She studied electrical engineering and holds an MLA in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University. After nearly 10 years in the corporate environment, she has (co-)founded two companies and combines knowledge from the corporate & startup world. She has built an incubator, led an intrapreneurship program and coached (corporate) founders. She advocates for more female founders and leaders, especially in tech, and will join our “How to Feminize The Startup Ecosystem Ruhr” Panel discussion.

Can-Su Koutentaki
Co-Founder @ AVAILY
read more
Can-Su is a very solution-oriented person with a passion for shaping the working world of tomorrow. With her expertise in new work and digital solutions, she helps companies develop innovative approaches to overcome challenges and achieve their goals.Before joining as CEO & Co-Founder of the startup AVAILY, she gained experience in various startups after her studies in economics – from business centers to gastronomy concepts to construction site digitalization.Always true to her passion, using agile and newwork methods to inspire people for digital solutions.
At AVAILY, she is responsible for the further development of the business model as well as for sales activities and internal structures. Always with the goal in mind to bring Newwork to life and enable decentralized work according to individual quality standards, as a professional environment increases the acceptance for hybrid work.

Alicia Reimer
Projektmanager @ Antropia
read more
Alicia Reimer has been working in the fields of innovation management and entrepreneurship for over five years. During this time, she has worked in Marketing & Communications at digihub – an accelerator for digital business models.
She is currently completing her Master of Arts in Innopreneurship while working as a community and project manager at Anthropia gGmbH. There she also moderates pitch events and gives workshops in the areas of personas, prototyping, ideation and business modeling, among others.
Due to Anthropia’s orientation towards impact-oriented business, her focus is especially on startup consulting for social and sustainable startups. Furthermore, she is committed to networking and cooperations within the Rhine-Ruhr area.

Svenja Bremer
Founder @ WHO:IN
read more
Svenja Bremer is the founder of WHO:IN, the digital ecosystem for female founders. The independent online portal aims to bring clarity to the startup jungle and actively connect all startup actors. It takes up the entire start-up offer of Germany and prepares it in such a way that beginning foundresses arrive directly at the desired information and above all at the correct partners inside.
Before founding her own company, she worked for several years in various positions at KfW, as an independent start-up consultant, and as a management consultant for the Chamber of Crafts. Svenja holds her Master in Business Consulting & Digital Management and loves to combine strategies, analysis and creativity on a daily basis.
As an approachable and open-minded visionary, she would like to familiarize many more women with the start-up topic, motivate them to decide to start a business and support them in building a successful business. In doing so, it is very important to her not to make any distinction between the different “types of founders”. The start-up path of a craftswoman, for example, may be different from that of an innovative start-up, but the hurdles and challenges are often the same.

Beate von Miquel
Executive Director of the Marie Jahoda Centre for International Gender Studies
read more
Beate’s passion is equal opportunities for women in science, politics and business. She leads the project Female Academic Entrepreneurs at Ruhr-University Bochum (FACE@RUB) and is executive director of the Marie Jahoda Centre for International Gender Studies. She is also president of Deutscher Frauenrat, the National Council of German Women’s Organizations.

Conny Steenblock
Freie Universität Berlin
read more
As a PhD candidate, researcher and lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin, Conny Steenblock is passionate about the intersection of Entrepreneurship, Digital Innovation and Female Leadership. Her current research focuses on the dynamics, changes and initiatives within entrepreneurial ecosystems that aim to leverage the potential of women in (tech) leadership positions. She is part of the doctoral program of Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft.
Before her academic career, Conny gained professional experience in the Deutsche Bahn AG leadership academy and equine-assisted coaching. She is always fascinated by innovative approaches to leadership development and enjoys sharing her personal insights and research findings.

Dr. Shabnam Fahimi-Weber
Co-Founder @ DUBIDOC
read more
Shabnam Fahimi-Weber, MD, is an ENT physician, founder and managing partner of the ENT Center Ruhr in Essen. Her experience in everyday practice and her strong affinity for digitalization topics led her in 2016 to found dubidoc, a software for modular digitalization in the healthcare system with a focus on the automation of processes in medical practices.The digital transformation of healthcare occupies Dr. med. Fahimi-Weber as a speaker, lecturer and author of various books on the topic of digitalization in medicine. She is also the founder and managing director ofENT-Research GmbH, a company that conducts clinical studies.In her role as a board member of the “Digitization” working group of the German ENT Society and board member of HNOnet Deutschland, she promotes the advancement of digital topics in the field of ENT.In addition to medicine, Dr. Fahimi-Weber is involved in various social projects on an honorary basis. In 2016, she founded the association “Sprache-verbindet-Essen” (Language-connects-Essen), which she has led as chairwoman ever since.

Martina Schuster
Co-Founder @ ai.dopt
read more
Coming Soon

Nine Heine
Co-Founder @ shit2power
read more
Coming Soon

Vanessa Meyer
Co-Founder @ KNOWbody
read more
Vanessa Meyer founded KNOWBODY in the summer of 2020 together with Carolin Strehmel and Fabian Diga and developed the eponymous app for sexual education with her team. She has been dealing with areas of social tension for many years, founded a university initiative for social entrepreneurship, for example, put her focus on political education early on, and since KNOWBODY has been concentrating fully on revolutionizing sex education in schools.

Özge Efendi
Co-Founder @ BliBlaBlub Verlag
read more
Özge Efendi is a PHD student at TU Dortmund University and founder of the inclusive children’s book publisher bli bla blub. In December, the publisher published the first book “Pupskraut & Erbsenmus” with great success. Further Own Voices books are currently in the planning stage. Özge not only advocates for more diversity in the book industry, but also gives lectures and workshops.

Julia Kahle
Co-Founder @ heynannily
read more
Julia Kahle is Co-Founder at heynannyly – the digital solution for short-term and secure care placement as an employer benefit. Verified, insured and bookable within one day.
Julia finds her drive in her enthusiasm for progress and work-life balance. For the past 11 years, she has been testing for herself what it means to be a working mom – with all the challenges that entails.
More serenity and flexibility in caring for children at off-peak times and when “something just comes up” – that is the mission of Julia and her co-founder Anna. Happy workingMoms / workingDads and happy children. Together, they close the care gaps in companies for their employees and thus reduce absenteeism.
Previously, she was responsible for employer branding and recruiting for a long time and knows that it is time to create real employee benefits and to take responsibility as an employer of choice.

Pamela Kelbch
Managing Partner & Angel Investor @ PDT Invest GmbH
read more
With her passion for connecting people and organizations into thriving ecosystems, Pamela founded allynet GmbH during her parental leave. At the helm since 2010, she steered her company through the dynamic journey of founding, scaling, and achieving a successful exit.Before founding her own company, Pamela held various leadership and management positions, including corporate consulting, division management, and leading third-party economic policy projects in the public sector.With PDT Invest GmbH, she invests as an angel investor in startups across diverse industries, prioritizing teams that embrace diversity with at least one female founding member. #mission #25to25
Vanessa Meyer founded KNOWBODY in the summer of 2020 together with Carolin Strehmel and Fabian Diga and developed the eponymous app for sexual education with her team. She has been dealing with areas of social tension for many years, founded a university initiative for social entrepreneurship, for example, put her focus on political education early on, and since KNOWBODY has been concentrating fully on revolutionizing sex education in schools.
Özge Efendi is a PHD student at TU Dortmund University and founder of the inclusive children’s book publisher bli bla blub. In December, the publisher published the first book “Pupskraut & Erbsenmus” with great success. Further Own Voices books are currently in the planning stage. Özge not only advocates for more diversity in the book industry, but also gives lectures and workshops.

Rebekka Bracht
Startup Ecosystems & Corporate Partnerships @ Gründerallianz Ruhr
read more
Rebekka is a bridgebuilder at heart: working as a Manager Startup Ecosystems & Corporate Partnerships at the Initiaivkreis Ruhr, she connects startups with international corporates. Besides her professional work she is a mentor for (future) startups and helps with her expertise in the mentoring of the Junger Initiativkreis. Her professional background is based on her studies to Entrepreneurship Ecosystems at the Ruhr University Bochum. Her strong belief is that a vivid and healthy startup ecosystem can only develop within a diverse infrastructure.

Dr. Britta Julia Dombrowe
Programm Lead Startup Activities @ Gründerallianz Ruhr
read more
Dr Britta Julia Dombrowe, Program Lead Startup Activities, has been taking care of all start-up topics of the Initiativkreis Ruhr since 2016: including the Gründerallianz Ruhr, the HANDS ON DATA CONFERENCE and many cooperations in the startup ecosystem like the Salon des Créateurs or the Ruhrsummit.
The Initiativkreis Ruhr is one of the strongest regional business alliances in Germany and unites over 70 member companies with the aim of keeping the region livable and lovable. The Initiativkreis Ruhr has been setting up projects in the areas of culture, education and business for over 30 years. Coming from art history,
Britta Dombrowe worked for public television for many years before moving to corporate communications at Evonik Industries. The changing region and the combination of cultural and economic issues have always aroused her interest. “I am not a child of the Ruhr area. Maybe that’s why I find the contradictions of the region so fascinating: winding towers and tech, green idyll next to a social hotspot, high culture and football – and 5 million people right in the middle.”

Jacqueline Kos
Lead Communications @ Gründerallianz Ruhr
read more
“You can’t not communicate” was already said by the well-known communication expert Paul Watzlawik and has become one of Jacqueline Kos’ guiding principles over the last few years. But how did it get there?
Despite a close connection to music, the generalist discarded her goal of going into the music industry shortly before graduating from the Ruhr University in Bochum with a degree in German language and literature and history. After her traineeship as a PR editor, she dared to jump into a female-led startup for ergonomic gaming furniture. Here, she quickly took on responsibility for building up communications and developing the brand’s storytelling. Further experience in large companies followed and eventually led her back to her home in Essen.
Since October 2022, Jacqueline has strengthened the team of Gründerallianz Ruhr as Communication Lead and holds the helm over the communication measures of the initiative. The topic of female entrepreneurship is important to her for various reasons, especially when it comes to finding solutions for the challenges facing society as a whole in the future. She is therefore all the more pleased to be able to play a key role in the programm development for HERHOOD this year and to guide through the HER Stage program as a host.

Kevin Kessler
Startup Ecosystem Manager @ Gründerallianz Ruhr
read more
Programm
her stage
11:00
WARM WELCOME
Dr. Britta Julia Dombrowe, Lead Startup Program Activities | Initiativkreis Ruhr
11.05
Keynote: From bold idea to reality – How artificial intelligence is changing us
Dr. Léa Steinacker | Co-Founder & CIO at ada Learning GmbH
Dr. Léa Steinacker will highlight the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence and their far-reaching consequences. She uses concrete use cases to show how this type of automation is disrupting workflows and communication, and how important it is to shape this future with diverse perspectives.
11.35
#HowSheDidIt | Janna Prager
We are happy to welcome Janna Prager, hosting her popular panel on female success stories from the Startup Ecosystem Ruhr.
until 13:00
BREAK
13:00
KEYNOTE: Emotional Leadership
Magdalena Rogl | Lead Diversity & Inclusion at Microsoft Germany
Awareness of our own and others’ emotions can make us more successful and happier. For this, we need emotional intelligence – and unlike IQ, we can train our EQ and thus develop resilience. If we as a society and as teams want to make full use of our possibilities and abilities, we have a responsibility to change outdated structures so that all people feel emotionally safe and can use their feelings.
13:30
PANEL: How To Create Resilient Female Networks | Dr. Britta Julia Dombrowe
Be it in a social context, such as family or friends, that support us, or on a professional level – everyone relies on resilient networks. But for female founders, building and expanding as well as accessing resilient networks continues to be a hurdle that needs to be overcome. With this panel, we address this challenge and talk about different experiences and approaches.
14:10
PANEL: How To Feminize The Startup Ecosystem Ruhr | REBEKKA BRACHT
Although the share of female startups has increased on a national average, we are lagging behind in the Ruhr region: Only 12.1% of startups were led by female founders in 2022, and we are still far from parity on a national level. How can we motivate women in the Ruhr region to be more courageous in founding startups? And how can we make the Ruhr region more accessible to female founders?
14:50
LIVE PITCH: GRÜNDERALLIANZ RUHR X BRYCK: FEMALE BOOSTER
Attention to all investors, business angels and corporates! In April five startups are taking part in the Gründerallianz Ruhr x BRYCK: Female Booster to push their startups to the next level, together with experienced mentors and industry experts. On HER Stage they will show off what they are capable of and why you should count them in for the future.
15:50
Female Booster Award
With taking part in the Gründerallianz Ruhr x BRYCK: Female Booster, the female led startups have the opportunity to be awarded by the Initiativkreis Ruhr. With celebrating the great final of the Female Booster, the winning startup will be awarded live at ruhrSUMMIT 2023 on HER Stage.
16:05
Startup Sweetheart
The slightly different way of match making. You probably remember the famous tv blind dating show. On HER Stage we will give female led startups the chance for a business blind date with a female investor. You think you got the potential? Apply here.
Program
Open Sessions
In our Open Sessions, experienced female founders, investors and experts will be available to answer your questions on the topics of “Start”, “Invest” and “Grow”. Just drop by at HERHOOD and take a seat in the dedicated slot.

13 th June 2023
BE PART OF THE RUHRSUMMIT 2023
Visit the ruhrMETROPOLIS at ruhrSUMMIT 2023 on 13th June 2023 at Jahrhunderhatte | Bochum.
GründerAllianz RUHR x BRYCK:
FEMALE BOOSTER
With business models at socially decisive interfaces such as education, social affairs, medicine and health, female startups tie in with traditional topics resulting from the montan industry. As a result, they often deal with challenges that pay into a livable future. In order to carry the founding spirit of the past into the future and to include innovations by women in social, economic and ecological transformation processes, Gründerallianz Ruhr and BRYCK teamed up, to promote female startups with their Gründerallianz Ruhr x BRYCK: Female Booster.
To give them the stage they deserve, our Female Booster startups will be part of our HERHOOD program at ruhrSUMMIT 2023 and get a chance to show you what they are capable of in their pitches live on HER Stage.
Contact
Program Management

JACQUELINE KOS
Communication & Program Contents

Ciro deL Core
Event Management & Organisation