About the event
Hvatningardagur/
Vertonet Inspiration Day
Gamla Bíó
5. maí 2026
Vertonet Inspiration Day is our biggest annual event —bringing together voices from the tech industry in a space built on inclusion, equality, and community. It’s a day to connect, get inspired, and imagine what’s next for tech in Iceland.
We are coming together at Vertonet Hvatningardagur 2026 to talk about what it means to navigate the evolving world of technology with courage and clarity. How do we carve our own paths while lifting others along the way? And what does thriving in tech truly look like today?
Be inspired by professionals who have faced barriers, embraced change, and led with vision- redefining what leadership in tech can be.
Join us for a day of stories, strategy and solidarity as we build confidence, community, and the future of IT in Iceland, together.
Vertonet welcomes all women and non-binaries in tech. Men are warmly welcomed too—we value and encourage their presence as allies.
13:00
Venue opens
13:30
Chair of Vertonet, opens the conference
13:40
Oktavía Hrund Guðrúnar Jóns, Founder - future 404, the MC of the event, introduces the agenda
13:45
Jordanne Given, Radar Systems Engineer - MSRS
Radar, Reykjavík and Everything in Between
Eleven years ago Jordanne started as a modern apprentice in Edinburgh with no traditional route into tech and no clear plan. Today she's a Radar and Systems Engineer working across two companies on GPS-denied navigation and maritime domain awareness — based in Reykjavik, Iceland. This talk is about the decisions that got her there: the uncertain ones, the unconventional ones, and what she'd tell her younger self about building a career without a blueprint.
14:05
Anna Kristín Halfdanardottir, Software Engineer - Gangverk
Pull Up Your Own Chair
A little over four years ago I was a junior frontend developer. Today I lead an engineering discipline, teach at a university, and have led projects across industries from luxury auctions to healthcare. Nobody promoted me into any of it — I just started doing the work before anyone asked me to and was unafraid to learn new things.
This talk is about what happened in between: volunteering to lead when no one else would, saying "I'll own that" before I fully knew how, and learning that the feeling of not being ready never actually goes away — so it's useless as a reason to wait.
I'll share the moments I almost didn't step up, what changed when I did, and the practical habits that got me from "is it okay if I...?" to "I'm going to." If you're waiting for someone to tell you you're ready, this talk is your sign to stop.
14:25
Nataliia Baburina, Executive & Leadership Coach - Sense & Action
Resilience is a Skill: Finding My Way When Nothing Felt Stable
After moving to Iceland with my child following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I found myself in constant uncertainty, leaving behind my family, a stable life, and a secure job, and soon facing layoffs and the challenge of starting over in a new job market.
In this talk, I share my personal experience of going through instability and the small, practical things that helped me keep moving.
Through this journey, I began to see resilience not as something you either have or don’t, but as a skill shaped by constraints, acceptance, and action.
At one point, I made a decision without any guarantees and chose to move forward anyway, and as a result, things I once saw as “someday” became part of my life much sooner than I expected.
At its core, this talk is about a simple idea: it’s not what happens to you that matters most, but who you choose to become and how you choose to respond.
14:45
Coffee break
15:05
Anna C W de Matos, CEO - Circular Library Network
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Fundraising as a Non-AI Company in 2026
This talk explores what fundraising looks like in 2026 for startups that aren’t built around AI. While capital is flowing heavily into AI-first companies, non-AI founders face a different set of expectations, biases, and opportunities. We’ll break down the good (where strong fundamentals still win), the bad (how investor attention has shifted), and the ugly (the common pitfalls and misconceptions founders encounter). Expect practical insights, candid lessons, and strategies for standing out in a market that currently favors the AI narrative.
15:25
Emiliya Ivanova-Nikolova, Founder & CEO - Íslandsdóttir.is
Why Good Ideas Don’t Get Funded
A good idea is not always enough to get funded. In this talk, Emiliya will share the practical reasons genuinely promising projects still get rejected, based on real patterns she has seen through her work with startups and innovation-driven companies. She will unpack the gap between having a strong idea and presenting a fundable case, from unclear positioning and weak proof to timing and mixed messaging. She will also touch on how a “no” can be used as valuable data to strengthen the business rather than just as a setback.
15:45
Ingunn Róbertsdóttir, Digital Product Designer - Leviosa
Things I Never Posted
I have a notes app full of half-written thoughts, a ceramics hobby I definitely didn't plan, and a lot of feelings about AI that I've been too tired to post about. This talk is all of that. The grief, burnout, loneliness, and the slow unglamorous process of finding your footing again. Turns out the messy version of the story is the most useful one to tell.
16:05
Panel Discussion
16:35
Vertonet’s Incentive Award 2024
Every year, Vertonet selects a recipient for an incentive award, recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions to making the IT sector an attractive career choice for women and non-binaries.
16:50
Cocktail - Networking
Let's take the opportunity to mingle and network over light refreshments
Meet The Speakers
Anna C W de Matos
CEO - Circular Library Network
Anna C W de Matos is the CEO and Founder of the Circular Library Network (CLN) and the Munasafn RVK Tool Library in Reykjavík. With a background in conservation and restoration, Anna is passionate about practical circular solutions that empower communities.
Since launching Iceland’s first tool-sharing library in 2018, she has grown CLN into a scalable platform that combines modular hardware, smart tech, and a peer-to-peer community to support shared-use initiatives around the world.
Anna is a recognized voice in circular innovation, committed to making sustainability accessible, collaborative, and impactful.
Anna Kristín Hálfdánardóttir
Software Engineer - Gangverk
Anna Kristín is a software engineer at Gangverk, a software consultancy based in Reykjavík. With experience spanning luxury retail to healthcare, she holds a BSc in Software Engineering from the University of Iceland and an MSc in Human-Centered AI from DTU in Denmark.
Her career has taken her across frontend, backend, databases, infrastructure, sales - and everything in between. Known for saying "I'll do it" before fully knowing what "it" involves, she thrives on jumping into new challenges.
Outside her main role, Anna Kristín teaches BSc final projects in software engineering at Reykjavík University and builds hobby projects ranging from analyzing Icelandic parliament voting patterns with graph databases to stock market analysis.
Nataliia Baburina
CEO - Sense & Action ehf
Executive & Leadership Coach
Nataliia Baburina is an Executive and Leadership Coach (PCC, ICF), team coach, and facilitator from Ukraine, currently building her life and work in Iceland under humanitarian protection. She is the founder of Sense & Action ehf, a practice built around a simple idea: in uncertainty, you don't wait for clarity - you make sense of where you are and take the next step.
Nataliia works with individuals and teams navigating transitions, building something new, or rethinking their direction. She helps them turn uncertainty into movement by focusing on what's available and creating momentum without waiting for perfect conditions.
Her approach is shaped by her own experience - relocating to Iceland with her child in 2022, going through layoffs, career shifts, and starting over in a new country. She chose to act without guarantees and build something new along the way. Because in uncertain environments, clarity doesn't come before action. It emerges from it.
Ingunn Róbertsdóttir
Digital Product Designer - Leviosa
Ingunn is a digital product designer with about eight years of experience. She currently works at a small startup in Reykjavík, where she's the only designer on an otherwise very developer-shaped team.
A few years ago, Ingunn burned out at a job. The years that followed were about learning how to breathe again - good people, unexpected places, and slowly starting to believe what others already saw in her. Today, she has a much clearer sense of who she is, and what she's not willing to give up again.
When she's not staring at Figma, Ingunn makes ceramics and seeks out pools of water. She often sings - badly on some days and beautifully on others. She collects art and strange objects from places she's been, and is generally more interested in the honest version of people's career stories than the polished one.
Emiliya Ivanova-Nikolova
Founder & CEO, Funding Expert - Íslandsdóttir.is
Emiliya Ivanova-Nikolova is the Co-founder and CEO of Íslandsdóttir ehf., where she advises startups and innovation-driven companies in Iceland on funding strategy, business development, and how to present ideas in a clear and credible way. She helps founders turn strong ideas into fundable cases and make better decisions around growth, grants, and investor readiness.
With over 25 years of experience spanning law, business advisory, public institutions, and international funding, Emiliya holds two Master's degrees - in International Law from Sofia University and International Business from the Academy of Economy in Bulgaria. Before Iceland, she held senior legal roles in Bulgaria, including at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
Since moving to Iceland in 2014, she has worked closely with founders, SMEs, and innovation teams, focusing on Icelandic development funds and European programs. She is also active in mentoring networks, including the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs and the Association of Business Women in Iceland (FKA).
Jordanne Given
Senior Systems Engineer - Maritime Director-MSRS
Jordanne Given is a Radar and Systems Engineer working across two companies at the sharp end of maritime technology — GPS-denied navigation and maritime domain awareness.
Her career began eleven years ago in Edinburgh, where she joined Leonardo as a modern apprentice, studying part-time while gaining hands-on experience in surveillance radar systems. She went on to accumulate over 2,000 hours as a radar operator and build deep expertise in mission system development and radar integration, working with clients across the UK, US, Europe, and Asia. Eighteen months ago, she moved from Edinburgh to Reykjavík, where she now leads technically complex projects across international teams.
Jordanne is a strong believer that there's no single right way into a technical career. The apprenticeship path gave her real engineering experience from day one — a perspective she now applies to some of the most interesting challenges in maritime technology, while making the case that the sector needs more diverse voices at the table.
Oktavía Hrund Guðrúnar Jóns
Founder & Director -
future 404
Conference moderator
Oktavía Hrund Guðrúnar Jóns is a strategic advisor, future curator, and culture collaborator with two decades of experience designing inclusive cultures and spaces at the intersection of technology, innovation, and social change.
As founder of the future404 think tank, Oktavía advises startups, NGOs, and companies on strategy, change management, resilience, and participatory tech futures; helping people and organizations see the path ahead more clearly, make bold choices, and move forward with purpose.
Oktavía embodies this years theme blending system-thinking, bold consensus-building, and a passion for co-creating futures that serve people beyond systems.