Celebrating female creators, coders, innovators and technicians

Technology, similar to comedy, has always been a very male domain. It’s a masculine, alpha pursuit both in respect of employment and even leisure activity. Girls are not meant to be leaders in anything that requires the beady eye of a man…

OK so who ran Bletchley Park then? 8,000 women worked there during the Second World War making up 75 percent of the code breaking workforce. And then there was the revolutionary F International in 1962, which transformed ‘home working’ and released thousands of brilliant women from the kitchen sink and into the evolving virtual workplace.

Women have been the invisible workforce, propping up technological advancement with their attention to detail, dogged determination and sheer hard work. They are now fully evolved and fast being recognised as brilliant creators, coders, innovators and technicians right across the digital landscape.

Every year we celebrate International Women’s Day (8^th March) by joining forces with other like-minded organisations and I am super proud that my company Funny Women is working with Techerati to bring our own innovation in workplace comedy to the Techerati event series incorporating Cloud Expo Europe, Cloud & Cyber Security Expo, Big Data World, Blockchain Technology, Smart IoT and Data Centre World (12^th – 13^th March).

HERlarious is our newest diversificaton of all that we do to develop and promote new talent at Funny Women. We have taken the tricks of the trade, gleaned from 16 years working on the frontline of the ultimate ‘boys club’ of comedy, and turned them into an interactive fun packed experience. Our special edition Techerati HERlarious, which will be hosted in the Techerati Keynote Theatre from 17:30 on 12^th March, is no exception and we have geared up a series of workshops, a panel discussion and headline entertainment aimed at women in tech, and men too, who want to learn while having some fun.

We will help you explore how to express your ideas more confidently and freely, and get some insights and inspiration to build your career, start a business or reinvent yourself! Get valuable advice on how to ‘perform’, write great copy, bring your ideas to life and develop techniques to communicate more effectively. We will show you how to create your own ‘material’, tell your story and become more confident and memorable.

More information

At Techerati HERlarious you can take part in two out of a choice of four workshops:

• Stand Up to Stand Out – how to present yourself in a relaxed, humorous and memorable way
• Can you feel it?! Get your business ‘mojo’ running – self-care to be self-aware
• Speak up in public; how to resurrect yourself when you die on stage – facing up to the fear of getting your voice heard
• Owning your own diversity – feel empowered by owning your own culture, gender, age, ability and background.

All of our sessions are facilitated by women who work with us as comedians, producers, advisors and more. We share a sense of fun and a love of comedy. This is the glue that makes us different and memorable and we will unpack this in our lively panel discussion where our facilitators will be joined by some industry experts. This is all rounded off with a talk by one of Funny Women’s favourite techies, Deborah Leary OBE, founder and CEO of the award-winning Forensic Pathways.

I met Deb at a networking event ahead of our 10^th Anniversary and thought she had ‘funny bones’.  I challenged her to perform five minutes of stand up comedy for charity and she continues to thread her talks and performances as a speaker and advocate for women in tech with her dry wit and incomparable sense of humour.  See for yourself on Tuesday 12^th March!

P.S. Don’t just take my word for it!  Here’s what some of our past HERlarious participants said:

‘It was just the warmest, most welcoming experience. I also had no idea just how much we’d get from the workshops, they were truly spectacular. The whole event exceeded all my expectations. I knew it would be great but I was utterly blown away by just HOW amazing EVERY aspect was.’

‘The structure was seamless and worked really well to connect the attendees and open up networking confidence by uniting them through shared experiences of the workshops, which were brilliant: the chemistry between the women hosting these was infectious – they were really fun and insightful sessions.’

‘An amazing and really cleverly structured event which built immediate rapport amongst the attendees. Exercises were engaging but succinct and left you wanting more whilst still giving you time to learn and try out some tricks of the trade.’