Penélope Gonçalves

Penélope is a community builder with a strong curiosity to find what makes people tick. She's co-founder of local.foundation, a platform dedicated to mapping and enhancing the startup ecosystem between regions, globally. She also works as Technical & Team Lead at Contentserv where she drives innovation in the PIM market.

An active participant in Algarve's tech scene, she embraces co-creation and collaboration through Geek Sessions Faro, a 15-years old tech community that started as a dream to make the region as active as city hubs like Lisbon or London.

Having studied in many cities in Portugal and worked with multicultural teams, she learned early that people are most interesting when solving problems collaboratively.

Penélope has organized and facilitated events from Geek Sessions, 351 Community, Geek Girls Portugal, Agile Connect, and impactful hackathons like Techstars Startup Weekend and Shift Faro, and is a TedX speaker. Her work has been recognized as PWIT Top 5 Best Community Leads & Top 3 Best Developers, and as a Unicorn Factory's Rising Female Awards finalist.