The Signal: Women in Tech, AI, Finance & Healthtech
Where the real intelligence travels
Come and join us at Sydney's most commercially credible women in AI, Finance, and DigitalTech have never been in together.
Introducing The Signal: Women in AI, Finance & DigitalTech.
The Signal is a curated evening summit for 150 female founders and C-suite executives at the intersection of AI, Finance, and DigitalTech.
Produced by Konnectile — the B2B premium events company behind the Kon Series — this is not a networking night or an inspiration panel. It is a high-conviction, commercially sharp evening designed for the women who are building, funding, and deploying the most significant technology in Australia right now.
#TheSignal. #WomenInTech #Konnectile #HealthcareAI
WHAT'S ON THE NIGHT
→ 10 × 2-minute lightning talks — the most commercially inconvenient truths across AI, Finance, and DigitalTech
→ 3 × 5-minute founder pitches with live Q&A — Sydney's sharpest female founders, each with a corporate past and a reason they left.
→ 35-minute open panel Q&A — moderated by Mirela Xhota, Founder & CEO, Konnectile
→ Welcome cocktails, Dinner, and great conversations.
WHO IS IN THE ROOM:
CEOs · CMOs · CTOs · CFOs and senior executives from FinTech, banking, SaaS, and enterprise technology. AI founders who left careers at global institutions to build the products their former employers wouldn't prioritise. Finance leaders navigating AI deployment in regulated environments. DigitalTech executives at the intersection of transformation, infrastructure, and commercial growth.
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CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
★ Wendy Mak, — confirmed panellist
Chief Marketing Officer, MUFG Pension & Market Services.
Wendy Mak
CMO | Lifestyle Influencer | MC & Speaker
A first-generation Australian who migrated solo at just 16, Wendy now straddles boardrooms and social platforms as both a corporate executive and midlife influencer on Instagram.
Her social community and platform focus on fashion, beauty, and fitness for women over 40 – helping women achieve their “glow up” in midlife. Wendy has also started up her own fashion styling business and published a book, “The Capsule Wardrobe,” in Australia and the US.
In Wendy’s corporate career, she is Chief Marketing Officer at MUFG Pension & Market Services, a division of MUFG, a global financial group. Wendy has also held roles as Chief Product Officer for digital products, running a P&L and frontline business development team, making her a highly commercial and entrepreneurial marketer.
A tech-savvy marketing leader who is pro-AI and pro-robotics, but also pro-consumer disclosure, her expertise spans growth, transformation, digital products, and ESG. Her mission is also clear: champion true cultural and ethnic diversity at the executive and boardroom table - while keeping it real about how we lead, work, and live.
Find Wendy on Instagram: Instagram
Check out Wendy's website: Wendy Mak
Connect on LinkedIn: Wendy Mak | LinkedIn
Emily Sauter, Founder, A New Way Forward; ex MD, at Accenture
Emily Sauter brings two decades of consulting experience at the intersection of technology and human potential. She has worked globally with Fortune 500 organisations and iconic Australian corporate brands, and was closely involved in early AI implementation projects — where she observed firsthand the cost of optimisation without humanity.
That experience led her to build a practice dedicated to something different: helping leaders navigate the AI era with clarity, compassion, and courage — grounded in neuroscience, psychology, and mindfulness, not just strategy.
She opens this evening with a provocation the room needs before the questions begin: we don't need less human as AI scales. We need more.
🔗 linkedin.com/in/emily-e-sauter-futureofwork
Founder & Head of Growth, Konnectile · Host & Moderator, · Investor Relations Manager at Planet Protector Group
"Opening, Welcome & Panel Moderation"
Mirela Xhota is the Founder & Head of Growth of Konnectile, a Sydney-based business community and technology partnerships group operating across six professional verticals and an annual summit.
With 18 years at the intersection of media, technology and commercial strategy, Mirela has held senior roles at some of the world's most respected organisations — Financial Times, Thomson Reuters, Freshworks, First Advantage, Decidr and inTruth. Her career has been defined by one consistent capability: turning complex ideas into market-leading commercial outcomes.
As a GTM leader, she has architected and executed revenue growth strategies across international markets, built and scaled high-performing teams, and secured landmark multimillion-dollar partnerships for technology companies navigating rapid change.
She founded Konnectile on a conviction that has only grown sharper in the AI era: that in a world of limitless automation, the scarcest and most valuable business resource is a conversation worth having.
Beyond Konnectile, Mirela is an active mentor and angel investor in the startup ecosystem — providing capital and network access to early-stage founders. She also serves as an expert advisor to Guidepoint, Dialectica and AlphaSights, where she contributes critical insight on technology trends and commercial strategy.
She founded Konnectile on a single conviction: that in an era of limitless automation, the scarcest and most valuable business resource is a conversation worth having.
#Host & #MC Moderator #Konnectile #Founder #Salesleader #AngelInvestor
Yvonne Hilsz, Founder, Women in Sales, Judge -Founder's Pitch Night.
Yvonne Hilsz is an award-winning Sales and Leadership Strategist, speaker, trainer and coach who helps leaders, teams and sales professionals build confidence, lift performance and create meaningful commercial growth.
With more than 20 years’ experience across sales, leadership and business development, Yvonne has worked with leading brands across retail, automotive, professional services, government, wine, luxury and corporate sectors.
She is the Founder of Women In Sales, a movement and membership created to help ambitious women sell more, earn more and impact more by building confidence, owning their value and strengthening their commercial capability.
Yvonne was awarded Coach of the Year in 2025 and Business Services in 2025, recognising her impact as a coach, strategist and trusted advisor to leaders, teams and women in sales.
Known for her commercial sharpness, high-energy delivery and ability to turn insight into practical action, Yvonne helps audiences challenge how they think, lead and sell so they can create stronger results with greater confidence.
Event tickets are now live on Humanitix and Luma. 🎟️
Register now to take advantage of our women-only event.
🎬 Curious to see what Konnectile offers?
Konnectile is a global conglomerate headquartered in Sydney, built for the age of intelligence. We exist to redefine how businesses scale -combining world-class technology infrastructure with the communities where the people running high-growth businesses come together, challenge each other, and grow.
We operate across two connected pillars.
We deliver enterprise-grade digital solutions through a curated network of global strategic partnerships -spanning payments, compliance, identity verification, sales enablement, software development, and business operations. Purpose-built for scale. Designed to be secure.
Technology arm: Our partners include Techvify, Nuvei Technologies, Comply Advantage, Thryv, Jumio, Ostride Labs, Relevance AI, Plan and Publish, to name a few.
Events & Community:
The Kon Series is Konnectile's premium B2B events and community platform - curated gatherings, roundtables, awards, and experiences for the professionals powering the next generation of high-growth businesses.
If it resonates, feel free to show the post some love on LinkedIn (like, comment, or reshare).
★ Further speakers to be announced — follow the event for updates
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WHY THIS EVENT IS DIFFERENT
AI, Finance, and Digital Tech are not three separate industries in 2026. The CFO deploying AI risk decisioning is navigating the same regulatory landscape as the technology director building enterprise AI infrastructure. The DigitalTech founder who left a corporate role is solving the same commercial problem as the finance executive who stayed. These conversations belong in one room. The Signal puts them there. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Event Format:
Doors open: 5:00 PM
Programme: 5:45 PM – 7:45 PM
Cocktails & dinner: 7:45 PM – 9:00 PM
Venue: Castlereagh Boutique Hotel, 169 Castlereagh St, Sydney CBD
TICKETS General Admission [Early bird ticket] — $147 Includes full event access, welcome cocktails, and grazing boards throughout the evening.
Capacity is strictly limited to 150. Waitlist enabled. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ABOUT KONNECTILE
Konnectile is a Sydney-based B2B premium events business producing curated executive events — panels, summits, roundtables, and private networking experiences — for founders, operators, and technology leaders across Australia and APAC.
Questions: [email protected]
Website: konnectile.com