in the news

Jodi Kovitz, founder of advocacy group #movethedial, said in an interview that while Canada is moving in the right direction when it comes to gender equality, the survey shows that progress is not happening fast enough.

#movethedial, a global movement dedicated to advancing the participation and leadership of all women in technology, today announced “Going All In” as the key theme for its 2019 Global Summit.

Kovitz wondered, how could young women in STEM possibly believe in something they couldn’t see? With #movethedial, she tackles this head-on, working towards closing the tech gender gap, turning industry leaders into mentors and leading by example.

“But #movethedial’s mission also includes objectives such as ensuring that industry panels routinely include women, and networking with large corporations and government agencies so tech firms headed by women can make inroads with their procurement teams.”

Molly Q. Ford, senior director of global diversity programs at Salesforce and Jodi Kovitz, founder and CEO of #MoveTheDial joined ELLE Canada’s managing editor Carli Whitwell for a panel discussion on how organizations can become more inclusive and what challenges still need to be overcome.

#movethedial tackled the issue of imposter syndrome in entrepreneurship during their Stories Toronto event on March 20th. Speakers shared the different ways imposter syndrome hit them and how they overcame it.

Women continue to be underrepresented in the tech sector. Kim Parlee speaks with two women looking to change that: Sladjana Jovanovic, VP of Online Technology at TD, and Jodi Kovitz, founder and CEO of #movethedial.

#movethedial was formed by Toronto lawyer Jodi Kovitz with the purpose of bringing more participation and leadership of women in the tech sector. Essentially “moving the dial” to help women get deserving opportunities. 

In honour of International Women's Day, we are celebrating five Torontonians who inspire us and who are each making a lasting impact in their own unique way.

On a typical early November morning in Toronto, I attended the first #MoveTheDial summit. I admit my expectations were quite high, as I had heard about what Jodi Kovitz and her team were trying to accomplish for women in tech, and was eager to cover the conference for Alpha Woman.

Jodi Kovitz was the CEO of Acetech Ontario, a Toronto-based community of technology CEOs, COOs and executives, now called Peerscale, when she became dismayed by the lack of women participating.

When Bo Young Lee graduated from New York University’s School of Business in 2003, she was a vegan yoga teacher that expected to spend her career working at non-profits. At the time, she found they were the few groups doing the type of work she aspired to do – implementing change and making organizations more inclusive.

The inaugural Move the Dial Summit took place in November, marking a milestone for a movement that’s focused on enhancing women’s efforts in technology. Held at the Telus Centre in Toronto, the Summit featured speakers like Google Canada’s country head Sabrina Geremia, seed-stage funders and Toronto advisors like Candice Faktor (Faktory Partners) and panellists with Toronto entrepreneurs like Eva Wong, who co-founded and is the COO of Borrowell. It housed national and international leaders like Diane Kazarian from PwC Canada as well as captivating conversationalists like Amber Mac and Bea Arthur.

The collective actions of thousands across movements like #metoo and #TimesUp has shown the world that being rich, powerful, and male does not give you a free pass. We believe that Dr. Ford felt more able to act on her civic duty because of and through the support of these movements. Similarly, we believe that the 20,000 Google employees that participated in the recent Google Walkout for Real Change were fueled by the power of these movements. We’ve made progress. But clearly not enough. 

A thousand professionals and students gathered for the inaugural #movethedial Global Summit on Nov. 7 in Toronto in pursuit of a common mission: Closing the gender diversity and inclusion gaps we still face in the technology sector and more broadly across our organizations.

The message was clear as Jodi Kovitz, chief executive and founder of #movethedial, took the stage: If we want to solve the diversity and inclusion equation in our organizations, we need to “go out of our way.” Ms. Kovitz elaborated that this could mean something as small as taking 30 seconds to share/promote a post on social media, or big as actively sponsoring someone – which entails putting your own reputation on the line for someone else’s career advancement – or financially backing a female founder.

Girls Who Code has announced its expansion into Canada, its first international market outside the U.S. and its home base of New York City. The non-profit is dedicated to closing the gender gap within technology by providing young girls with the opportunity to learn and be exposed to computer science.

The announcement for Girls Who Code’s expansion into Canada came at the #movethedial summit, an organization dedicated to empowering women within STEM industries.

Jodi Kovitz’s daughter was two years old when she developed a series of rare infections that required months of treatment at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

Her daughter pulled through and is now a healthy nine-year-old, but Ms. Kovitz has never forgotten the professional care her family received from the hospital’s staff. “We slept there a lot of nights and had 14 different specialists at any given time,” recalled Ms. Kovitz, who founded #movethedial, an organization dedicated to advancing women in the technology sector.

Recently I had the opportunity to take part in a keynote conversation at #movethedial's global summit in Toronto, where women from across the technology landscape gathered to discuss where the industry is headed, and the impact we can have on our collective future.

As I said at the event – I am a passionate believer that the innovative technologies we're creating today are laying the foundation for how we'll interact with each other and the world around us tomorrow. And, in order to ensure that the products and services we create are applicable and accessible to all, it's critical we engage people of all backgrounds, skillsets and mindsets in the process.

#movethedial, a global movement dedicated to advancing the participation and leadership of all women* in technology, is proudly introducing the #movethedial Connect platform at today’s inaugural #movethedial Global Summit. Connect will curate and facilitate authentic connections between women in tech who can benefit from the mentorship of accomplished global business leaders, and #movethedial champions.

US-based nonprofit Girls Who Code has expanded into Canada, its first international market.

The organization’s mandate is to encourage more girls between the ages of 13 to 18 to enter STEM through free after-school programs. The organization has reached 90,000 girls in the US since launching in 2012 and hopes to expand to 100 Clubs across Canada during its first year. Schools, libraries, universities, and other non-profit organizations can apply to start a free Club in Canada.

The atmosphere at MovetheDial’s first Global Summit was exuberant. The event brought together thousands of attendees to celebrate and amplify women in the technology space — and find out how to push for greater equality throughout the industry.

Hamilton was set to give a fireside chat at yesterday’s Move the Dial Summit, but she made time for interviews throughout the day and in between meetings. Now that Backstage Capital has invested in over 100 founders (though no Canadians — yet) and Hamilton has graced the cover of Fast Company, she has no shortage of demands on her time.

A U.S.-based non-profit focused on closing the gender gap in technology has announced it is expanding into Canada, opening clubs helping young girls learn to code.

Girls Who Code made the announcement Wednesday at the inaugural #MoveTheDial summit in Toronto, stating that it is bringing its after-school clubs program to Canada.

Senior executives from several major tech companies spoke about the importance of how allyship, including everyone in the conversation, and outlining values can help move the dial for more women and people of colour to be included in the tech workforce.

Jodi Kovitz is a big name in the Canadian technology space. Having run a not-for-profit organization, Peerscale (formerly AceTech Ontario) and founded #MovetheDial, Kovitz is firmly at the head of it acting as global CEO. Her latest venture, #MovetheDial, was created in January 2017 with the mission of increasing the participation and leadership of all women in technology. She’s HRD Canada’s keynote speaker at HR Leaders Summit in Toronto.

When it comes to young girls and women in tech, it begs the question: can we believe what we cannot see? That’s the premise behind #MoveTheDial, a global movement dedicated to increasing the participation and advancement of women in tech. In order to achieve this mission,

For Jodi Kovitz, fostering a more inclusive and diverse STEM ecosystem is less about talking about the problems, and more about action.

Diversity and inclusion in the workforce won’t happen because you wish it – you must take action, says #MoveTheDial Founder & CEO, Jodi Kovitz.

[Many] companies are now grappling with how to improve gender balance in the executive suite, on boards and in their recruitment efforts, while women with firms of their own are pressing to be taken seriously.

The dynamic has spawned a range of initiatives to help, or push, the industry to include women at all levels. Here are four Canadian examples:

Despite the continuing growth of Canada's technology industry, women are underrepresented in this critical area of the country's economy.

According to a recent report by TD Economics, while more women are entering fields related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), there's still a long way to go; less than a quarter of the well-paying jobs in these high-growth industries are held by women. Organizations like #movethedial are working to change this.