I was recently invited as to be interviewed, along side Paulette Watson, at the London Women in Blockchain Talks and was thrilled to discover the event attracted so many first timers coming along to learn more about blockchain. In the audience were women from all backgrounds and age ranges, from a recent graduate to 20 years experience as a stock broker, to someone returning to work after a career break, across all sectors from education, healthcare, music, tech, fintech and more.
With the ability to connect these inquisitive women to talk to blockchain businesses, employers, founders and employees to get a real flavour and potentially hands on experience of working in the sector, we can make a difference.
This is hugely encouraging as we desperately need to attract more #WomeninBlockchain.
The engagement level showed the appetite for learning, and congratulations to the host Lavinia for making the event so welcoming. It’s vital that events like this one are available to attract more women who wish to learn about blockchain, to be able to connect them to ongoing communities and opportunities to network and discover more.
It would be great to see your favourite meet ups around blockchain and crypto in the comments section below, which are the best events to attend?
Supporting learning with experience
It struck me the desire for those in the room to be able to support their independent research and learning, with a community they can be a part of (both off line and online) could also be exponentially improved.
With the ability to connect these inquisitive women to talk to blockchain businesses, employers, founders and employees to get a real flavour and potentially hands on experience of working in the sector, we can make a difference.
A chance to see what types of companies are out there, the size of the teams, the roles, the sectors, discover how they have successfully transitioned into the sector, which route they took, how and where they educated themselves, which resources they found invaluable.
The calibre of female talent
I’m always so impressed with the women in blockchain that I get to talk to, invariably they have multiple degrees, speak multiple languages and have a resume to impress anyone, and that added desire to put their hand out to help others on their journey.
A quick poll of the women in our community showed their education levels:
Is your business in?
I believe it would support attracting and retaining women in blockchain if we could allow these curious and self motivated individuals to be connected to blockchain businesses. As such let’s gather a list all the businesses willing to open their doors to newcomers so we can match these women with real life experience.
This could be in the form of having a conversation with team members, sitting down with founders, doing internships, etc. I’d love to visibly see those firms that are in the space and female positive. It’s also a great opportunity for those companies to attract great talent to their projects/teams. So a win win.
If your business is in then let us know here.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdv8tJfW9L8UwINvxY3ukMoxWoDbAt1Jl5fvoOvAougVGTmnQ/viewform
If you know other businesses that would like to attract more women, or who are open to sharing their stories with these inquisitive minds, then please do share this post and if you’d like the link to the form you can find that here.