Technology, similar to comedy, has always been dominated by men. It’s perceived as a masculine pursuit both in respect of employment and even leisure activity. Yet, we know this isn’t reflective of today’s workplace culture and it’s time to change the narrative.
So, to celebrate International Women’s Day on Tuesday 12th March, we’ve take our brilliant and newest format, HERlarious, and joined forces with CloserStill Media, one of the world’s fastest growing exhibition businesses in the technology and healthcare sectors, to create a very special ‘women in tech’ event at ExCel London as part of Cloud Expo Europe 2019 and the innovative Techerati programme.
As ever, we’ve taken the tricks of the trade, gleaned from 16 years working on the frontline of comedy, and turned them into an interactive fun packed experience. Our special edition Techerati HERlarious is no exception and we have geared up a series of workshops, panel discussion and headline entertainment aimed at women in tech, and men too, who want to learn and have new experiences while having some fun.
Women have often been erased in respect of technology. Let us not forget that no fewer than 8,000 women worked in Bletchley Park during the Second World War making up 75% of the code-breaking workforce! Then there was a whole generation of women who benefited from the revolutionary F International, set up in 1962 transforming ‘home working’ and liberating thousands of brilliant women away from the kitchen sink and into the evolving virtual workplace.
Women have been the invisible workforce, but now they are fast being recognised as brilliant creators, coders, innovators and technicians right across the digital landscape.
At Techerati HERlarious 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.
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
Face the fear and get 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 and funniest techies, Deborah Leary OBE, founder and CEO of the award-winning Forensic Pathways.
P.S. Don’t just take our 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.’
Techerati HERlarious takes place on Tuesday 12th March at ExCel London. Details of the evening which combines workshops, networking, panel discussions and live comedy are on our event page here.
Stop press: we have a limited number of free places for comedians to attend and take part. Please email info@funnywomen.com putting ‘Techerati HERlarious’ in the header.
Follow #HERlarious on social media too.
