IWE: Workshop for Women in Digital
It’s Gabby, reporting in from Internet Week Europe. As our regular readers will have seen, the editorial team at LBB is running around London this week, attending as many events as possible and trying to capture in a few short words all that we have seen and heard. This mammoth task has involved some intricate planning, but has been worth every minute. The team’s buzzing after each presentation and there’s a real feeling of excitement in the office.
This morning I attended the Razorfish and SheSays Workshop for Women in Digital. Hosted by the agency’s Communications Director, Joslyn Tinker, Creative Director, Malin Hanås and SheSays Director, Emma Sexton, the workshop invited women with zero to three year's experience working in digital to come and listen to come practical advice, some top-tips and to bring their portfolio to share with the group.
Over the course of the hour each of the hostesses gave a short presentation. Joslyn Tinker spoke of the importance of networking, citing from ‘Mrs Moneypenny’s Career Advice for Ambitious Women’ a guide to being circumspect about the people that we network with: 1) Do I like this person? 2) Do I admire this person? 3) Do I trust this person? She then talked the group through the how to successfully filter through into others networks: a) Be Authentic (be yourself); b) Help someone else (without any personal gain); c) Be nice (not always as easy as it sounds); d) Bring a friend (Introduce someone you already love and trust into your network) and e) Keep a database (‘keep in touch’). Joslyn then went on to discuss Dr Lynda Gratton’s book ‘The Shift’ where dividing your network into two categories is discussed: Your Posse (those close to you that you trust, that you can be honest with and that you can openly and safely share with) and the Big Ideas network (those that are possibly more senior, journalists, trend analysts, people who bring inspiration) After the theory, she went on to discuss the assets you need to make yourself a great networker and the formula it involves being ‘Part pack-rat, part librarian and part Good Samaritan’. Joslyn’s summarised with the following ‘that networking sustains us, elevates us, inspires us. It can be your safety net and your springboard’.
Razorfish’s Creative Director, Malin Hanås took the audience through her advice on what makes a successful digital portfolio and what she personally looks for. Heading up six main points: 1) Be varied – it doesn’t have to be just fashionable, you need to show versatility. That campaign for the insurance company may be boring, but can be valuable; 2) Be specific – what did you exactly do in the project? 3)Be accessible – make your portfolio available online, on phone, on tablet, you never know where and how a CD will find the time, where they’ll be to go through your work; don’t limit yourself; 4) Be good-looking – not you, the portfolio. Make it timeless, bring out the work and make sure it isn’t so trendy that in six months time it’s outdated; 5) Keep high-res images of everything you work on – you’ll never know when you’ll need them and whether they’ll be available to you; 6) Be yourself – pop that image of your happy face on the site, this CD wants to know who’s she’s seeing – do write about who you are. Keep it short, keep it interesting and make sure it’s relevant.
After all the speakers, the group broke off into pairs and showed each other their work, whilst the hostesses came and spoke to each couple and offered snippets of advice and perception.
Want to attend the next event? Yes, this is ongoing… SheSays is a global creative network for women (www.weareshesays.com) that holds events in most major cities where young female creatives can come, share, listen and meet with some of the industries top women. They also have an award called The Gold Stillettos- the first wearable award and they’ve just launched Shout (www.everybodyshout.com) a collaboration platform that allows individuals the chance to work with great clients and other amazing women.
Many thanks to Razorfish for hosting the event, it was truly inspiring and applause to SheSays for their fantastic work – LBB highly recommends checking these guys out.
