Mexico City, March 10, 2023.- International Women’s Day has become a time period of reflection around the achievements and progress made in terms of gender equality. In addition, it offers an opportunity to generate spaces for analysis and conversations where the voices of women leaders themselves guide the way. Thus #M8 as an individual day along with March as Women’s History Month present important openings for continued communication promoting necessary social transformations paving the road to equity.

With this in mind, NEORIS, one of the world’s leading digital accelerators, created the initiative #RaiseYourVoice. This year, a key component of this effort was holding the first NEOWomen event in Monterrey, Mexico on Friday, March 10, with conversations by prominent women who support and promote inclusion, diversity and female empowerment. The aim was to inspire and promote the personal and professional growth of all women, both within the company and those who are members of the general public.

“I was excited to participate in this initiative reinforcing our commitment to female talent and to have the chance to hear the stories of inspiring women and talk about different work equality initiatives. Today, I celebrate empowerment, a value that gives the #NEOWoman a voice in society, but, above all, I am pleased it also gives us the power to promote equality within our own business culture,” commented Cristina Valles, Country Manager for NEORIS Spain.

Valles was in charge of opening the meeting which also included the participation of Martha Herrera González, Secretary of Equality and Inclusion for the Government of the State of Nuevo León in Mexico; Beatriz Ramos, Business Strategy and Marketing consultant; Ivonne Mejía, Chief Partner Officer at Microsoft Mexico; Paola Becerra, CX Leader for SAP LAC; Sandra Shaddick, Consul General of Canada in Monterrey; Claudia de Koster Silva, IT Director for The Home Depot Mexico; Gabriela Mitri, the Founder Corporate Communicologist of Speakher Co; Claudia Landeros, Executive Coach and specialist in Talent Development and Change Management for NEORIS; and Juliana Fernández, Global Director of Financial Operations at NEORIS.

During her participation, Beatriz Ramos declared “events like this have significance to the extent that there is a connection, to the extent we have the opportunity to truly generate dialogue and share both what worries us and is also of direct concern to us.” The executive also pointed out the need to "work so that one day International Women's Day does not exist as that one day where we commemorate our lack of equity every other day.”

Gabriela Mitri invited attendees to recognize each other and strengthen their own communication efforts. The purpose behind this, Mitri explained, was that, “recognizing ourselves can make the difference between the life we have and the one we want. Giving ourselves credit, acknowledging our individual value, and celebrating ourselves every day are all critical to our personal and professional success.”

#RaiseYourVoice is an initiative created in 2019 by NEORIS that distinguishes the work of women committed to gender equality who are both leaders and exemplars on the subject and its concurrent struggles. Among the goals is to take NEORIS’ own organizational culture to a new level, impacting at the same time the broader current global perspective on gender. For this 2023 inaugural event, the NEOWomen presentation brought together 10 successful women from various fields such as technology, retail and government, among others, to inspire and reflect on gender equality, personal value and female empowerment. More than 100 people attended in person and nearly 300 virtually.

To mark the event and the intentions behind it, Martín Mendez, the CEO of NEORIS, took the opportunity to send a message highlighting the views of the company on this urgent topic. “Among our great values and aspirations, we want to strengthen the position of women in our own organization, in the technology industry as whole and throughout the societies where we operate. I celebrate the growth, professionalism and dedication of the women who are joining us today in this event. Each one of them serves as an example to all of us and they are our very reason for continuing to promote these spaces that strengthen not only our company, but society in general, with new ideas and aspirations for everyone,” Mendez stated.

According to a recent LinkedIn study, the female presence in high positions in recent years in Latin America’s technology industry increased by 18%. This was part of an overall growth in the region in female hiring for technical positions, which included technology directors at 60% and website developers at 43%. This powerful momentum demonstrates the need to continue to generate programs like #RaiseYourVoice, an initiative committed to helping empower female talent and the voice of all those women who on a daily basis manage to breakdown stigmas and stereotypes. It fits within a general plan to give all women the ability to build and tell their own story freely, no matter what field or region they are in.

News of the NEOWomen event was published in the following media:

• Neuromagazine

• NotiMx

• Geek and Life