dynamo london

Quite right

It does seem that there is an imbalance in our industry based on the line up for idesign, this is a problem that has surfaced before on dynamo london: http://www.dynamolondon.org/topics/17 I can't think why, I know that it is certainly not deliberate.

Who would you like to see? I know that Nat Huner of Airside has very kindly stepped in to replace a late drop-out speaker at idesign today (unfortunately i'm not able to see her talk) but this is probably little solace.

It should be noted that if the audience was anything to go by then the male/female mix seemed well balanced (for the first half of the day at least).

This is a very important subject and one we should all be invovled in, if we are to be an inclusive and balanced industry.

One day...

Do you know about the Girl Geeks?

http://www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk/

There has been much discussion recently on the discussion list about (lack of) women and technology (not strictly design, but looking at the broader picture) with some interesting hypotheses for this, but more needs to be done by the whole industry to make women more visible and to encourage greater participation and promote inclusion.

I know there are plenty of good women working in these environments, but they are far less visible and often not in (and sometimes excluded from) the "right" networks.

I appreciate that when organising conferences these things are not deliberate, but rarely does gender balance cross the organisers' minds, especially when for events in this arena, the organisers are usually male!!

Indeed

I wonder why it does seem to be the case that so few women are 'active' or prominent members of the Interactive/Digital Design community. It seems that as many (sometimes more than their male counterparts) female designers graduate each year from Deisng courses across the country, but then seem to dissipate at career level. I certainly haven't come across many lady designers, in Digital Design studios (or Graphic Design studios for that matter) where I've worked. But I'm sure there are a few around. 'Active' and prominent females known independently in the Digital Design arena ... erm ... I'm quite bad at knowing this kind of stuff ... erm ... Amy Franceschini of http://www.futurefarmers.com/ springs to mind. Others?

Catherine McDermott

Ellie - Girl Geeks sounds like the next idesign event.

If it is helpful we can offer some space and facilities at the School of Design, Kingston University

C.McDermott@kingston.ac.uk

idesign, and speaker inclusion

As the person who put the programme together I welcome your constructive feedback about the presence of women on the iDesign stage. In fact we did have 4 female speakers: lynda from design week, eva from troika, nat from airside and helen from beep marketing. We also had 6 women showing their work in the exhibition. None of these women where included in the programme or exhibition because of their gender - they where all there on merit and relevance, because of their accomplishments, opinions and expertise.

As a woman and a content producer in this space I would welcome more prominent females on the podium, however it's not that the women aren't out there in the industry, nor that we don't make efforts to select our contributors from the broadest possible base, sometimes women can be more reluctant to get up and speak than their male counterparts.

I would welcome any recommendation of potential women speakers. I would also welcome any recommendations from other 'under represented' minorities.

However I have to say that speaking/exhibitor opportunities are purely on merit and relevance, not on gender, creed, race, ability religion or any other factor.

It's time for women to make more of a contribution

As a woman who has worked for many years in the industry it's easy to see why we are not as well represented as a group. I would agree with much of what Zoe said, but I do think there is a element of our industry that praises the funny, confident and sometimes cocky approach that many men naturally have (and that's not a negative comment btw). I would encourage women in the industry to shout more about what they've done!

I'm not sure it's as simple as that...

In order to generate enough of a profile to be invited to speak at an event, a person must have a level of experience and have risen to a position of authority - this usually requires longevity as well as talent. I don't see many women in those positions in the industry - not a representative proportion anyway.

Is it to do with maternity leave? Do women get to a certain level only to leave to have babies and then come back part-time - or not at all?

The lack of women was notable at dconstruct last month too - admittedly it has a technical background, but this year the theme was experience design - the number of female delegates was pitiful, although there were 3 women presenting. Still, on the plus side, at least there's never a queue for the loo...