UXCrunch / Female Product lead: Is AI pushing women and underrepresented groups out of tech?
This month, UXCrunch is partnering with the Female Product Lead community to explore a big question:
Is AI pushing women and underrepresented groups out of tech?
There isn't a tidy answer; the data points to an uncomfortable one, and that's exactly why it's worth a proper conversation. As AI reshapes product work, we're hearing real anxiety about relevance and what leadership looks like next.
This event asks the hard questions directly: for product and tech leaders who already feel they have to fight for a seat in the room, what does AI anxiety look like? We want to hear from those navigating, and helping others navigate, these turbulent waters. Join us for an honest conversation with people living this every day.
This is part of a series of events exploring AI through the lens of inclusive product leadership, FPL's mission. We're creating practical, honest spaces to build confidence, capability and community around the shifts shaping our field, helping our members not just respond to change, but lead through it.
Agenda
18:00 Door open, Pizza, soft drinks & networking
18:45 Welcome & intro
19:00 Panel & Questions
20:15 Closing Remarks
20:30 End of the event - head to the pub!
📍 Location: Lloyds Banking Group
Our Partners
A huge thank you to the partners helping make UXCrunch a reality.
Host & Venue Partner
Lloyds Banking Group
Owned & Presented by
Format-3.co
Supported by
Gale & Co
P.S Ticket sales will be stopped 24 hours ahead of the event
Meet the panel
Flavilla Fongang
CEO of Sixth Hive
Flavilla Fongang is a multi-award-winning behaviour brand strategist, serial entrepreneur and international keynote speaker. Computer Weekly named her the UK's number 1 most influential woman in tech. Mercedes-Benz awarded her the 'She's Mercedes' businesswoman award alongside women including Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. She is the founder of Sixth Hive, the opportunity engine helping professionals, organisations and networks turn relationships into measurable outcomes through intent data, intelligent matching and AI-powered execution. She is also the founder of Global Tech Advocates - Black Women in Tech, the largest European non-profit dedicated to Black professional women in technology. She is an Entrepreneurship Expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre for Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, a UN brand partner, and a business author.
Caroline Clark
Founder & Leadership Coach, Expansum
Caroline Clark is a leadership coach who works with women in tech navigating career-defining transitions. A former Product Director with over 13 years launching new products across travel, e-commerce and health tech, she brings first-hand experience of the challenges facing women in technical leadership. In 2024, she founded Lo-Fi AI, a women-first community dedicated to hands-on AI skill-building, born from a simple observation: the people most impacted by AI disruption often face the most structural barriers to engaging with it. Caroline now runs Expansum, a leadership development platform helping senior leaders break through the belief systems holding them back.
Louise Bartlett
Founder, Beatnik Design
Louise Bartlett is an award-winning brand and digital designer with 27 years in tech, from dot-com San Francisco to UK government digital services. She has long been an advocate for women in business. Through Brand & Bloom, her newest project at Beatnik Design, she builds AI marketing systems for female founders over 50, so experienced women can use AI instead of being left behind by it.
Oluwaseye Ogunfido
Founder, CEO Autistic Black Coders
Oluwaseye is a London-based autistic and neurodivergent entrepreneur, software developer, and Founder & CEO of Autistic Black Coders (ABC). After 15 years in retail and a 2022 coding bootcamp, he founded ABC in 2023 to break down barriers facing Black autistic and neurodivergent people in tech. ABC exists because many in the autistic community are under-employed or do not have the ability to connect with the right jobs and entry points into tech roles. ABC aims to change this by providing access to bootcamps, apprenticeships, mentoring and entrepreneur support. ABC helps people build lasting careers, leadership and businesses — that these amazing individuals might otherwise struggle to access.
Our moderator: Karen Manhas
Enterprise UX @ Tesco
Karen Manhas is a Senior UX Designer specialising in enterprise products, business transformation and complex problem spaces. Across telecoms, pharma, energy, sports media and retail, she's known for bringing clarity to ambiguity: challenging assumptions and getting to the root of what users and businesses actually need. She is part of the team behind Ladies that UX London and supports Female Product Lead through fundraising activities. She brings that same curiosity to tonight's conversation on AI, anxiety and inclusive leadership.
Our Vision at UX Crunch
Bringing the best thinkers, speakers and leaders from across design together in intimate meet-up environments where real conversations can happen.
Vision for The Female Product Lead
We are building toward our vision of truly inclusive product and tech leadership. Our fully volunteer-run, not-for-profit community runs free events and programming to help women and underrepresented groups find real connection, learn and thrive.
Why We Charge for Tickets
Our vision is to bring the best speakers to a premium meet-up environment with a high bar for the overall experience, including great food, drinks and production.
Ticket revenue helps cover:
• Refreshments and drinks
• Speaker travel and expenses
• Event marketing and operations
• Venue and production costs
We strongly believe in community and are committed to reinvesting everything UXCrunch makes back into future events.
The more support the community gives, the bigger and better the events can become.