At Finovate, we are known for having companies demo their solution. Anyone can talk about their product, but showing how it works (especially in front of 1,000+ people) is difficult. Today, as we celebrate International Women’s Day– a day assigned by the United Nations— we wanted to do a demo of our own by showing three ways we are taking action on the theme for International Women’s Day, Invest in Women.

Here are three ways Finovate invests in women:

Scholarship program

We launched our scholarship program to spotlight underrepresented founders and startups tackling climate change, diversity, and financial inclusion through sustainable and equitable practices to support social and environmental change. Scholarship opportunities are available at all three Finovate events. In order to qualify for the women in fintech scholarship, the company must be either women-founded or women-owned and have less than $7 million in funding.

Equal representation on stage

Finovate’s speaker curator, Katie Gwyn-Williams, is committed to diversity, ensuring that each show features a balanced mix of male and female speakers, with at least 50% representation from each gender. As part of that she also makes a huge effort to ensure female representation on all panel discussions.

This is no small feat. Katie spends a lot of time and research to recruit the most knowledgeable females in the industry. That said, if you are a woman looking to represent your financial institution in a panel discussion, feel free to send a note her way; she’s currently recruiting for FinovateFall!

Women-centric events

Finovate is proud to feature a Women in Fintech gathering at every show. To be honest, I used to avoid sessions like these because they sounded too fluffy (who wants to talk about women when you can talk about fintech?). However, once I got over myself and began attending, I’ve found valuable discussions with actionable tips on how to uplift myself, my female colleagues, and even my daughter. Not only that, I’ve made meaningful connections with other women in the industry.

Why it matters

It is so easy to fall into discussions about the financial services industry’s insufficient efforts to invest in women. While many of the discussions are valid, let’s spend today promoting awareness about the change being made. Take action and talk about it to inspire others to make similar changes.