Nearly 160 people gathered at Arm’s Cambridge headquarters for Women in TechWorks’ ‘Engineering Intelligently’ event – with a waiting list of 150+ reflecting strong demand for women-focused tech leadership events
Women in TechWorks has held its inaugural ‘Engineering Intelligently’ event at Arm’s Cambridge headquarters, bringing together around 160 attendees for a day of keynotes, workshops, networking, and discussion.
A waiting list of over 150 further registrations, which organisers said far exceeded their expectations, underscored the level of demand for events that place women at the centre of the technology conversation.
The day drew together women and allies at every career stage alongside professionals from finance, HR, and business functions. The atmosphere throughout was open and collaborative, with attendees actively sharing knowledge, experiences, and connections well beyond the formal sessions.
“I am proud of what we have achieved here today,” said Charles Sturman, CEO of TechWorks.
“The UK has a strong research, innovation and engineering base, but we need more skilled technology and business leaders to help companies scale. This initiative helps address that gap by encouraging more women with the interest and ability to build careers in tech to enter the sector, stay in the sector and progress into leadership – bringing with them valuable diversity of thought, experience and perspective.”
The event was opened by Jillian Hughes, Founder of Women in TechWorks, who set the tone for the day with a personal and direct address. Hughes reflected on a career spanning 35 years; beginning as one of just two female apprentices in an intake of 25 in Greenock, Scotland.
“If you told the apprentice version of me that I’d be standing up here 35 years on, opening up this event at Arm today, I would have just laughed,” Hughes told the room.
Hughes spoke of the scale of technological change brought by AI, and the importance of ensuring women are not left behind.
“We are living through one of the most significant technology transformations of our generation,” she said. “The UK is very good at developing technology – however, developing technology alone is not enough to be on that global competitive stage. We need the talent and the skills to do so, and women remain underrepresented in the technology sector. To succeed, we need to harness the full spectrum of talent.”
Charlotte Eaton, Chief People Officer at Arm, delivered the day’s keynote, drawing on more than two decades of experience across banking, FMCG, and technology. Eaton structured her address around five themes – courage, relationship building, range, brand, and adaptability – drawing on specific moments from her own career to illustrate each.
On courage, she described hesitating outside a senior executive’s office early in her career, unable to summon the confidence to knock. “Confidence rarely arrives before the action,” she told the audience. “It normally arrives following it. In that moment I derived a value I have carried with me for more than two decades: I never put anyone above me, and I never put anyone below me in my mindset.”
Eaton, who returned to Arm in 2024, describes herself as a ‘boomeranger’ and spoke candidly about the importance of unlearning as much as learning. “A lot of what it takes to progress is knowing what you have to let go along the way,” she said. She addressed the gender gap in tech directly, calling it “a marathon, not a sprint” while encouraging women not to wait for conditions to be perfect before stepping forward. “In times of significant change, including technological shifts, opportunities will arise. When those openings come, are you ready to step forward?”
She closed with a message that resonated with the room: “Undoubtedly technology will continue to evolve. But humanity remains our edge. It is the sparkle of human potential that will continue to be the multiplier for us. Progress has always been a collective effort – and to change the shape of the context for the generations that come will take all of us.”
The morning programme featured sessions on mentoring, leadership, and retention – examining what organisations must do to attract and keep women in technology careers.
Mahdieh Ghoddusi, Director of Delivery at the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), presented the foundation’s initiatives to address the gender imbalance in electronics. With programmes engaging students from age nine through to university level, including Primary Electronics and Girls into Electronics, which has supported 1,500 girls to date, Ghoddusi highlighted the importance of early intervention.
Survey data revealed that almost half of women studying electronics felt the field was not for them, pointing to the need for sustained support throughout education and early careers. The UKESF scholarship scheme has supported nearly 1,000 students with industry work experience over 15 years.
The afternoon sessions explored the future of work, with a discussion on ‘AI Trends in the Workplace’ followed by ‘From Strategy to Systems: Executive Leadership in an AI Era’, covering how leaders are navigating rapid AI-driven transformation while building inclusive teams.
For many attendees, the most notable aspect of the day was simply being in a technology environment where women were the majority. Networking across the morning break, lunch, and the afternoon was active and purposeful, with women at every career stage engaging openly by sharing stories and offering advice and contacts.
The event also drew male attendees and allies, several of whom signed up as mentors. Hughes noted that many men in attendance commented that seeing so many women in a tech setting was itself a new experience – a reminder of how far the industry still has to travel.
Reflecting on the day, Hughes said: “I have been absolutely overwhelmed – not just by the number of attendees in person and online, but by how many people are interacting with each other who have not met before, the quality of speakers, and the key takeaways. I hope that one of the main takeaways is: be bold, be brave, and don’t assume that ambitions are obvious. There’s a buzz about the place, there’s a genuine want for an event like this; people want to be here, and I’ve already been asked about the next one. Arm has been really supportive, and I’m overwhelmed by the sponsors, speakers, partners, attendees, and of course, the TechWorks staff. This event is not about displacing men – we absolutely need men as allies, and I’m delighted to see men here today signed up as mentors already.”
The waiting list of over 150 is expected to inform the planning of future events, with TechWorks signalling intent to expand the Women in TechWorks programme in response to the demand.
