Gemma Germains

0:12[Applause]

0:17hi everyone I normally didn't really piss take talks and so I've done a talk called what NWA can teach my 10 year old and I once gave a talk to about 300 responsive web design dudes about whether or not my vagina smell and this isn't a piss-take talk it's a really serious talk and it's really light on laws and I'm really sorry but I'm not because it is really important subject matter and so just gonna go like that I've not made any slides I hate news like it's nothing really hate talk about the work I've run a design studio for the last three years I've worked in the creative industries for 15 years done two Arctic Monkeys albums really really bored I'm not gonna show you any of my work. But if you wanna have a look on our website at the moment and that's it you know we get by everyone gets paid it's great I sort of kicked off with International Women's Day and so I'm one of between 3 and 11 percent of women in a leadership capacity capacity in the industry and I sit on lot two panels and I sit on panels that are organized by women and they're attended by women and it's women actioning their point it's women asking for time off to attend the events it's women who are juggling their domestic responsibilities to come and sit on these panels and we're all gonna sit together. And we're gonna try and solve a problem of diversity in the industry and what I realized was that we as you know female leaders are between 3 and 11 percent in this 97% of the industry the industry's decision-makers who aren't attending these panels and they aren't attending me so so this through between 3 and 11 percent of the people who have any form of power of fixing things are left to solve 100% of the issues I'm really pissed off with it a couple of other reasons couldn't really be after working took summer off and stopped working in May came back in September and was sort of very inspired to write one of those really wonky medium.com articles about what I learned from it someone without the internet I wrote it and published it.

2:37And immediately as I wrote it out it's like that's just sounded like such a dick and the reason I sounded like a dick was because there were two key factors why I was able to take some off-brand gave me a lot of money for doing not an awful lot of work. And I didn't have to use that money to pay a mortgage or to pay my rent or to pay my tax bill didn't have to pay nursery fees and because about five years ago the father-in-law bought me a house so for all my moaning about having a disadvantaged situation in the industry and how hard it is for me as a mother and moo boo-boo I'm a woman and I don't have to pay mortgage every month so I win and that really influenced the article that I wrote for it's nice that I'm hoping that you've read the article because it's been really boring for me to go over it now and one thing really happened was that I received an awful lot of emails from people of color who used the article as a jumping-off point to tell me about their experiences of working as a minority in the creative industries I really didn't know how to deal with that it made me very aware of my own personal relationship with race so if I had even been asked to do slides which I wasn't the title would have been called I'm not racist oh god black dad have got black dad and he moved in with me when I was five and he has made me question my relationship with race from a very early age but sort of in one of those ways where it's like an irritating little flag we're actually once it gets a little bit sad and a little bit heavy it's all don't really have to engage in it in the way that my dad and my black brothers and sisters probably hafting and and my black dad is very much my get out of racist jail free card I can say I'm not racist about black dad and no one's ever been a question me and but there's a big difference between us going racism's bad and actually arse doing something to actively combat racism and up until the point where I wrote and published the article hadn't really done and so I sent myself a little bit of a toolkit to try and use my tiny little 5002 follower influence to affect us more change about diversity in the industry that's going to talk to you about today. And so first thing that I did as a studio was there I audited our relationship with race we in this guise and have been operating for three years. And in that time I've commissioned one company which is co-owned by a person of color and I have given work to one person of color that excite I don't know how many clients have gotten at the moment shitloads clients really healthy turnover I've commissioned two people of color in the last three years and have to be very honest about those figures because it's very much jumping-off point for what trying to do at the moment so changing my algorithm and one part of the audit was for me to look at the different voices that I engage with at the studio really sort of active on social media and have really enjoyed the opportunity to have conversations on social media but actually when I looked at it I wasn't really speaking to anyone who wasn't white and middle class and a bit like me.

6:05So I have undergone an opportunity of really trying to change my firm mic filter bubble say what you like about Twitter and Google and Instagram once you get on a little track they will just throw suggestions at you. And if you want to have a look at well my studio on Twitter you can see that we've started making active decision to follow and engage with people of color people in tech people in UX people in design people in leadership really like I know connect and active opportunities try and change our algorithm algorithm and we've started funding initiatives not in a huge way we are looking for ways to give our money one of the initiatives that we have started funding is black girl tech and another one that we have started funding is tear dusk and we are looking for ways to pay people who are already actively engaged in their community to continue their work it's not a lot of money it will be a lot more money in January hopefully when I've paid my astronomical corporation tax bill but it's a little baby steps in the right way.

7:11And if you go on PayPal dot me forward slash black girl tech you can give a fiver and you can fund this kind of work into encouraging your more young women of color into stem industries and the final thing that I started doing is giving my time as well one of the things that have always always always done is mentored young people. And we as an in-studio at a very very staunch attitude on internships we've got a very stern attitude on giving young talent the tools to sort of make their own way in the industry without having to sort of follow the path of the agencies if there's no a lot of time talking it off.

7:54So we mentor and we give our time. And we give portfolio reviews and sometimes I just sit there we go to know what you need to speak to this person need to speak this person try and make as many introductions as possible well made has always been vocally a very feminist agency we work from the start.

8:11And we've been quite disruptive even though I'm you know and one of three directors and the other two of fellows we have always been very very feminist and what realizes that. And now have to reposition my studio to be to do is actively seek to improve diversity in the industry and not just for women really sort of what this process and there's only been like wow like three or four weeks in to publish the article that really made me sort of look at my own practices in the industry spent so much time moaning about how hard it is for me I failed to realize actually when actually stable I'm able-bodied and racially I'm in the majority so instead of me moaning about how it is having kids and how nobody you know I pick get paid less than other people I think really need to recognize that I've had a bit of a leg up I need to start off in that leg up to people who may need it well I'm really sorry that wasn't the funniest talk I've ever given you know if you're interested you can go online and look for what NWA can teach you my 10 year old that's a good one and thank you for listening for me today. I really appreciate it [Applause]