G2PT161 - 161º Geek Girls Portugal - Lisboa

Geek Girls Portugal are back in Lisbon — this time at Tabaqueira, in partnership with Philip Morris International (PMI)!
After the success of our previous meetups, join us for another inspiring evening dedicated to learning, sharing, and networking with the amazing women driving tech forward.

This edition brings two thought-provoking talks exploring how communities and critical thinking can transform organizations and individuals alike.

📅 Date: Thursday, October 23rd
📍 Location: Tabaqueira / Philip Morris International, Lisbon (Edifício Cinzento)
⏰ Time: 18:00 – 20:30

This edition brings two thought-provoking talks exploring how communities and critical thinking can transform organizations and individuals alike.

Agenda

• 18:00 – Welcome coffee
• 18:30 – Introducing Tabaqueira / PMI with Katarina Larsson
• 18:40 – Introducing Geek Girls Portugal
• 18:50 – Talk 1: Transforming BE Engineering with Community of Practice
• 19:10 – Talk 2: What serves a needle without a head? – by Joana Correia
• 19:30 – Networking & coffee ☕

💡 About the Talks

🔸 Talk 1: Transforming BE Engineering with Community of Practice Have you ever felt lost in the sea of constantly changing technology, wishing for a source of guidance and best practices? Have you ever faced a TooManyRequestsException exception and wished for a community to turn to for answers? Welcome to the world of Communities of Practice (CoPs).

In this session, I will share my journey of leading the Backend Community of Practice at Philip Morris International. Through the Backend CoP, we managed to align 14 teams on coding best practices, along with a unified monitoring strategy, ensuring consistency and efficiency across Backend platforms. Along the way, we met each other, learnt about each other, and collaborated across different areas. Our mission is to shape the future of Backend Software Engineering within PMI, creating an environment where innovation thrives alongside quality, collaboration, and productivity.

Key Talking Points:

1.⁠ ⁠The Need for a Community of Practice: Understanding the gaps in guidance and best practices that led to the formation of our CoP.

2.⁠ ⁠Building the Foundation: Steps taken to establish a strong and inclusive community focused on backend engineering.

3.⁠ ⁠Driving Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Strategies and tools we use to encourage active participation and continuous learning.

4.⁠ ⁠Ensuring Quality and Productivity: How we balance innovation with maintaining high standards of quality and productivity.

5.⁠ ⁠Success Stories and Challenges: Real-life examples of how our CoP has made a difference, along with the hurdles we’ve overcome.

📢 Speaker: Carolina Guedes is a Backend Tech Lead and leader of the Backend Community of Practice at Philip Morris International (PMI). With over ten years of experience in backend engineering and a master’s in Biomedical Engineering, she’s passionate about building safe spaces for developers to collaborate, share knowledge, and define best practices in backend development and CI/CD. Previously, she led a team of 13+ Java developers at Spark NZ, helped develop the first version of MB Way, and founded Spark Women in Technology to empower women in tech.

🔸 Talk 2: What is the purpose of a Headless Needle? A needle without a head can be used to pin information, but it cannot be used to create clothes. The same applies to people! If we do not stimulate our critical thinking, we can never produce our best work.

With that in mind, I would like to share my journey of fostering this idea throughout my professional life and how I successfully created a book club within my company’s readers’ community. What better way to explore new ideas than by reading and discussing them freely?

📢 Speaker: Joana Correia is a software developer with nearly a decade of experience and a deep passion for creativity and innovation. She began her career in a different field but soon discovered her love for coding, which led her to develop a cross-platform mobile app in React Native and later explore the backend world, maintaining several microservices across multiple languages. Now back in mobile development, Joana continues to take on new challenges while mastering Kotlin, Kotlin Multiplatform, and Swift—driven by her belief that passion and determination make anything possible in tech.

✨ Why Join?

✅ Learn from inspiring women in tech
✅ Discover how communities of practice and critical thinking fuel innovation
✅ Network with like-minded professionals
✅ Be part of the Geek Girls Portugal community

📢 Spots are limited! Secure your spot now!

We can't wait to see you there! 💜

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Sobre Geek Girls Portugal...

Fundada em 2010, a Geek Girls Portugal é a primeira comunidade e rede portuguesas dedicadas a inspirar e capacitar as mulheres a destacar-se em carreiras tecnológicas.

A sua missão está focada no 1) o envolvimento, a inspiração e o empoderamento das mulheres, através de reuniões e workshops, 2) aumentar a consciencialização sobre as carreiras em tecnologia para as mulheres mais jovens através de sessões nas escolas, e 3) orientar e apoiar as carreiras profissionais das mulheres em tecnologia.

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Support:

Tabaqueira - Subsidiary of Philip Morris International in Portugal