Rewrite HERstory
LIBRAE SYMPOSIUM APRIL 30th 2026
A space for honest stories, real conversations, and the kind of advice you wish you heard sooner.
Connect with women in the field who’ve been where you are and are ready to share what they’ve learned.
What will attendees learn?
Normalize Failure
Turn setbacks into strategies in interactive workshops and sessions.
Discover your identity
Learn tools for identity, confidence, and resilience from honest stories from diverse professionals.
Owning your seat
Build peer connections and leave with a personal commitment to take action.
Symposium Program
Registration & Coffee
Welcome & Opening
Keynote 1
Keynote 2
Break (15 min)
Workshop round 1
Lunch & Reflection
Workshop round 2
Interactive MythBuster Session
Break (15 min)
Fail Forward Session
Closure with HERstory cards
Networking Drinks
Workshop Details
01 Empowered Identity
The “Empowered Identity” workshop explores how your sense of identity shapes the way you show up at work — the behaviours you default to, the space you take up, and the limits you unconsciously place on yourself. Through guided reflection and practical exercises, participants uncover the internal beliefs and workplace “rules” that influence their choices. They leave with clear insights into their own patterns and small, actionable shifts to step into more presence, clarity, and ownership in their professional environments.
02 Set Your Big Goals and Your Powerful Profile Will Follow
How do you identify the right career for yourself? How do you land the perfect role? It starts with developing your goals, for the short and long term. In this session, we will work on identifying our biggest goals, and then pinpoint the steps you can take now to start the journey. Then we will connect your self-definition with those goals, ensuring that you walk out with a powerful profile that will help you land that perfect role, or take the right next step.
03 Combat Your Imposter
“Combat Your Imposter” workshop focuses on understanding and disarming impostor feelings. Participants explore what impostor syndrome is, how it shows up for them, how it affects their behaviour, and what they can do in those moments. The session should give them practical tools and reframes to recognise the pattern and respond more kindly and constructively.
04 From Setback to Strategy
This workshop supports women in STEM to turn failure into a learning asset. We were thinking that, through guided journalling, participants take a setback and work through it step by step into skill and strength. They finish by creating a short explanatory story that they could use in an interview.
05 Engineering Confidence
“Engineering Confidence” workshop dives into the internal and external factors that shape confidence. Participants identify situations where their confidence drops, unpack the drivers behind it, and then design small, realistic actions that can strengthen their confidence over time.
06 Leadership & Authenticity
This workshop explores how to lead a team and make decisions under pressure without feeling or being perceived as “bossy”. Participants reflect on their own leadership style, can practice clear communication, boundary setting, or speaking up, and discuss real scenarios from STEM environments.
Meet Your Workshop Facilitators
Chaya Mistry
Disrupting your Imposter Syndrome
Current role: Founder & Human Leadership & Communication Coach, Humanly
Educational background: BSc Psychology
Passion: Helping people lead and communicate with authenticity, compassion and humanity.
After 13 years in one of the world’s largest STEM companies, Chaya realised that high performance without humanity is unsustainable. Leaving her corporate career in 2019 to build Humanly from the ground up taught her that authenticity, compassion, and honest communication are not “soft skills” but the foundation of thriving teams and leaders. The mistakes, hard knocks, and the experience of raising two daughters continue to shape how she supports others in becoming more human, inside and out.
Peggy van Ommeren
Leadership & Authenticity
Current role: Female Leadership Trainer at In het Maanlicht
Educational background: Bachelor Supply Chain Management
Passion: she loves to sing, sail and renovate houses.
Originally trained as an engineer, Peggy spent over fifteen years in the corporate world, including at Heineken, before founding In het Maanlicht in 2014. Her cancer diagnosis in 2010 became a major turning point, leading her to rethink leadership, life, and what it means to work in alignment with yourself. Today, she helps women combine strength and intuition to lead authentically and with confidence.
Lauren Valbert
From Goals to a Powerful Profile
Current role: Founder of Training 2.0 | Trainer, facilitator, moderator, and workshop leader
Educational Background: Theater/English
Passion: Increasing the representation of women on stage and in media
After decades working with companies, startups, and innovation programs, Lauren increasingly noticed how often women’s voices were missing from stages and public conversations. This inspired her to focus her work on helping professionals communicate with confidence and visibility. Her recent book “Imposter” reflects this mission, helping readers recognize and overcome imposter syndrome so they can step forward and be heard.
Charlotte Sprangers
Empowered Identity
Current role: Founder, Executive Coach & Trainer -STEM- at Insight Training
Educational Background: Human Resources Management & Post Bachelor Professional Communication
Passion: Tennis, Skiing, Food & Coffee
With over 20 years of experience as an Executive Coach in STEM organisations, I focus on creating impact that lasts. Through a lifelong curiosity about human behavior and a drive to understand the (psychological) logic behind it, I’ve developed a clear blueprint for successfully navigating the workplace. Inspired by my daughter, a STEM student, and as a feminist at hart I’ve made it my moral ambition to support young female talent navigate their career.
Isabel Fonesca
Engineering Confidence
Current role: Executive & Leadership Coach, Founder of Nextfem Leaders and host of the Nextfem Leaders Podcast.
Educational background: Master in Finance
A passion: Supporting women in corporate leadership to make an impact with their careers without losing themselves or their wellbeing in the process.
I spent over a decade in my career putting all my effort into technical expertise and leaving it to luck for people to actually notice my work. It took moving to a new country and starting over as an entrepreneur to realize that excellent work without visibility is just a well-kept secret. That moment changed everything for me, and for the hundreds of women I have supported since to stop hiding and start leading their careers with confidence, clarity and authenticity.
Tunde Horvath
Setback to Strategy
Current role: Creator of the Elemental Cycle Founder, Through the In-Between, Master Certified Coach (MCC) since 2012
Educational background: PhD Student at the VU School of Business and Economics (since 2026) Executive Master in Change (with distinction), INSEAD (2023 - 2025)
Passion: Exploring dreams - both the ones we have at night and the ones we bring to life through imagination.
As a child, I escaped a chaotic home by disappearing into fairy tale books. Years later in a group full of senior leaders, I shared the story of Parsifal, and how he failed to ask the Fisher King: 'What ails you?’ The room went quiet as they recognised their blind spot through the story. That's when I knew: ancient stories do for leaders what they did for me - reduce stress, open the imagination, and remind us that impossible tasks can be accomplished when we're open to receiving help.
Practical Details
WHO?
For women in STEM who want to grow with more confidence and clarity.
Whether you’re exploring your path, navigating challenges, or looking for a sense of direction, this day offers space to learn from others, share experiences, and take your next step forward.
WHEN?
Date: 30th April 2026
Time: 09:30 - 18:00
WHERE?
ECC Leiden
Haagse Schouwweg 10, 2332 KG Leiden
COST?
We request €29,99 for the full day program. Tickets are available until 24 April 2026
Meet our partners who make Rewrite HERstory possible
Interested in partnering with Librae to make HERstory a success?
Partnership opportunities for HERstory Symposium are still available. Please reach out to Anne or Lucy for more details at partners@librae.network
Register for Rewrite HERstory
Come to be inspired, find your direction, and experience community in action during this impact-filled day.
Highlights from Librae’s Lustrum Conference last year!
Photo credits: Shalia Islam
Video credits: Olivia Meng
How you can prepare for a successful Symposium?
01. Come as you are.
You don’t need to have everything figured out. Show up open, curious, and ready to learn from others.
02. Think about what you want to get out of the day.
Take a moment beforehand to reflect on what you’re hoping for: confidence, direction, or connection (or all of the above!). Having a small intention will help you get more out of each session.
03. Be open to conversation
Some of the most valuable moments happen between sessions. Say hello, ask questions, and don’t be afraid to start a conversation. You’re all here for the same reason.
04. Give yourself permission to reflect
Not everything needs to be decided in one day. Take notes, sit with what resonates, and allow insights to unfold after the event.