Impact Summit, the country’s largest celebration of values-led business, is set to welcome a group of international speakers. Traveling from Europe and the US, leading experts will join over 400 attendees at the SWG3 warehouse in Glasgow.
Revealed as this year’s headline speaker is April Wensel, Founder of San-Diego-based Compassionate Coding, an organisation bringing emotional intelligence and ethics to software development. Compassionate Coding have also come on board as a partner for this year’s summit, a relationship that highlights the ‘Tech for Good’ theme. The event’s other themes are ‘A Sustainable Future’ and ‘People Behind the Purpose’.
Wensel, who worked as a software developer for over a decade in Silicon Valley before founding Compassionate Coding in 2016 believes that these spaces are important for businesses today.
She said: “By bringing together passionate individuals doing inspiring, heart-centred work, events like Impact Summit give me hope for the future of business. I’m excited to share strategies for incorporating compassion into our technologies in order to consciously alleviate suffering and meaningfully improve lives.”
Wensel’s talk at Impact Summit marks the only Scottish date of her European speaking tour this spring.
Impact Summit, run by Edinburgh-based FutureX, has also secured the backing of wealth manager, Cazenove Capital, who act as part of the Schroders group. The company, who have a global investment portfolio, have recently set a focus on impact investing.
Bob Hair, Head of Edinburgh office at Cazenove Capital, said:
“As long-term stewards of our clients’ capital, we have been helping clients align their sustainability objectives with their investments for over 15 years. Many of our clients want to see their investments help shape better outcomes for society and, by sponsoring Impact Summit 19, we are helping to raise awareness of how investing for ‘People, Planet and Purpose’ can make a serious difference to society.”
Bruce Walker, Co-founder of FutureX, said:
“We’re thrilled to be working with organisations like Cazenove Capital and Compassionate Coding for this year’s Impact Summit. As the UK becomes an innovation leader in so many industries, it’s incredibly valuable to bring in these international perspectives and make Impact Summit an example of the kinds of collaborations needed to support a new vision of society.”
