Lady Geek helps technology companies understand and sell to women.
I really believe there is so much brands can do to empower women to feel inspired by technology and games rather than daunted and intimidated which is what thousands of women I spoke to currently feel. My vision is that women dream about their 37inch HDTV before they go to bed. That technology makes a women’s heart beat faster….in a good way, not gradually sends them into the depths of despair because either the retail experience is so dire or the products and marketing are so Barbiefied.
To paraphrase Jean Paul Sartre, for many women, hell on earth is shopping for a HDTV or a new digital camera. And when you think about what you are buying, something that is going to transform your living room or capture images or those dearest to you, why should it be so god damn awful?
Mmh…the choice between some Jimmy Choos at £200 or the Xbox 360. At the moment, women are not swapping their Choos for the Xbox. Lady Geeks want to change that.
It’s clear that there are very few companies within the tech space who are effectively targeting women. Those that do fall in to the clichés and stereotypes and end up pinking up and dumbing down their products and end up as one woman said, ‘treating them like a special needs case.’ Those that don’t even have any communication strategy targeted at women are missing our on £0.6 billion that is just going begging for the taking.
Belinda is a Consultant Professor and a consultant for a well known advertising agency. She is regular writer for the Times and Management Today.
belinda@ladygeek.org.uk
Elisabeth Kelan is an academic scholar focusing on the intersections between work and gender. She currently works at the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business at the London Business School and also has her private consultancy Athena Associates.
Elisabeth has focused in recent years on gender relations in high-tech businesses, gender representations in popular management literature, gender in management education and the so-called “glass-ceiling”. She is an expert on gender, stereotypes, leadership and organisational culture. Her specialism is in the use of qualitative and ethnographic methods, which she applies to the study of gender and identity in organisations, gender and technology and performative gender theories. Elisabeth has presented her research internationally, published widely, and has received various awards for her research. Previously Elisabeth worked at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology as well as at the London School of Economics and Political Science where she also received her PhD.
http://www.elisabeth-kelan.net
Clara Gaggero is an award-winning designer.
Clara’s work is aimed at smart, multitasking, contemporary women. Her inventions range from futuristic cosmetics, to visible perfumes, to ergonomic urine-samplers. Innovative solutions and emotional substance are what is needed to break out of a clichéd market, saturated with unresolved answers to false problems. Through understanding women’s needs and dreams, Clara enriches lives with beauty, efficacy and allure.
After working for the prestigious Design Studio Ross Lovegrove and at the BBC Clara is now an Inclusive Technology research associate at the Royal College of Art , a visiting lecturer of the Design and Innovation course at Goldsmith College and one of the founder members and core components of the design collective,Vitamins.
Clara is a graduated from the Industrial Design Engineering MA course at the Royal College of Art (2007 MA Hons) and Design Engineering at the Politecnico of Torino in Italy, (2003 MA Hons).
Clara was awarded the Futurelab Innovate to Educate Award, the Helen Hamlyn Award for Creativity, the Future Foundation Award for Inclusive Design Process and the Help the Aged Award for Independent Living .
clara@claragaggero.com
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