Otegha Uwagba

0:17Hi everyone see you my name is a tiger and I'm the founder of women who which is a platform for women who do creative work women work and creative industries which I launched last month so I'm just going to tell you a little bit about what it is why I set it up and how you can get involved if you're a woman so as I said it's a london-based platform trade working women and a little bit about me my background I'm a freelance writer and bank consultant so I started out working in advertising when I left uni I started working at by amv first of all.

0:57And then after that I moved to vice which was just up the road and it has like an in-house Krave agency and both those jobs are fun like I enjoyed working out sizing it's like a quite fun young in the street looks as interesting challenges and some good parts but I definitely found myself with itchy feet after a couple of years and to be honest I didn't necessarily feel that creatively fulfilled we're doesn't a reflection on my other places I worked it was just there wasn't necessarily doing what I wanted to do so it's fair to say that the inspiration for women who definitely came from a period of feeling quite lost career-wise but it then came out of it because I decided to combine the things that I'm most inspired by which is creativity and women I'm a huge feminist and work into a platform that could provide support and inspiration for working women everywhere so at the end of last year I went freelance in part to pursue writing which is something that I've always really enjoyed but never done professionally and and also to properly give women here ago which is an idea that I've kind of been sitting on the at least a year or two that I've never really had the time or honest the cuts it's really go for it I did and launched last month my main aims what is it I've sorted out really but my main aims really with it to allow women who I think separately will wake up and have the same thoughts in the morning to just sort of meet each other and collaborate and to share knowledge and ideas I think there's a real strength in numbers originally when I first thought of it it was just gonna be a website with me interviewing sort of cool interesting great women that I either knew or admired from afar and just checked them about their working strategies and their methods and it was basically just an excuse for me to buddy up with women that I thought real but I quickly realized when I talk to friends and just when I looked around how important it is to have like a real life aspect of these sorts of platforms so I decided to make it very much an online and offline endeavor and but I also want it to be sort of relaxed and fun like kind of like a third space between work and play and I think there are a lot of women's professional groups out there.

3:20And I felt like a lot them all really stuffy and boring and just quite grey I didn't want that.

3:24But I still want things to have a real practical slack which is why I made this.

3:30This is the little black book which is a career toolkit for working women in the creative industries and beyond you might seen it on there it's nice that website about a month ago. And I wrote and self-published this. And I mean the idea really came back to be honest because I was looking for something to commemorate the launch of women here and looking for something that would generate a bit of buzz of interest a bit of PR because there are a million websites out there and there are a million events out there.

4:04And I really want to stand out I knew I wanted to make a physical item and a friend suggested I write a bit which is great because I love writing and that he also suggested it quite close to the launch and but it kind of felt like a challenge that I had to write to you. So it was a lot of early mornings and late nights writing this but man to do it. So it's basically just sort of practical and physical advice and ideas for working women it covers everything from sort of how to manage your personal finances to how to affect to network effectively to where to go to learn new skills I think it's it's sort of assumed that once you start work. And we don't really need to like train or develop yourself but I'm a real believer in sort of further education even within a professional context so it was written based on my own experiences based on things that had worked for me and also things that we hadn't at times were really messed up.

5:06But it also features contributions from a bunch of creative women I either knew before or I reached out to you because I thought they'd have something good to say my favorite section whole book is this one money talks which is as yes it's all about money I think it's very important for women to get clued up on the subject of money within professional context here a lot stacks about the gender pay gap but you don't really get it a company with that much practical advice about what individuals can actually personally do to overcome it.

5:38So I wrote this section all about how to the go shoot for the pay riots a lot of research so it's a lot of people when to look seminars and and also about how to manage your professional finances especially if like me you're self-employed or if you'll answer I think it's very easy for when you do creative work for a living to shy away from there like commercial financial aspects of working life and there's a general reluctance to talk openly about money in professional context which I think is only exacerbated in the Cueva industries because there's sometimes a bit of snobbishness about this idea of like selling out wherever that means that's I think money management is as much a part of your job as the fun creative side and making sure that you're probably compensated for the work you do is really really important if you want to be happy and be able to create more work.

6:31So that's why I wrote that chapter the response to the book was insane I didn't really expect it.

6:38So the point that I had a holiday but the day after it went on.

6:42So these are just a couple of photos I'm gonna show you is that women have sort of sent me either on Instagram or Twitter from all over the world.

6:50So that I did initially pent one of about two hundred and fifty and it sold out in two days which like I said I really wasn't expecting so these are just some of the photos and I ended up shipping it all over the world as well all the way from the sort of the u.s. Of New York and LA ladies and madrid lots of Spanish fans can't figure out why but not just management they wanted to read this and poet just slightly itchy all over the world all over Europe all over the US and obviously London and the UK which was really gratifying and I really relates already was saying earlier about going to the post office I make three trips a week to the post office and they literally hate seeing me coming because it's me again with the sort of dick whittington bag of books on my shoulder but it's gratifying to see where in the world it's showing interest length and that's something.

7:47That's really cool about doing this one myself mister I can see that you just come. And I finally got my act together last week and restocked so the book is available for anyone who wants to buy it and why my name ever site another really key part of it as I was saying is the real life aspect and like I said I really wanted to make sure that.

8:08There was somewhere for womens actually meeting face-to-face in real life so huge part women here's the events that I have one and a pink to run so this was part of the launch event which was hosted at this gorgeous store not far from here called modern society or so people. And it was a panel discussion about creative sea versus commerce which okay that topic because I feel like that's one of the key conflicts at the heart of being the word creative especially in London which is super expensive but to be honest no matter where you live will work.

8:37So I just really wanted to talk about that.

8:39And I so from from the left-hand side my left is Pilar peace who's an art director and mother creative agency and also writes like a really amazing blog about the treatment of women in advertising both kind of as an industry and also in their portrayal and efforts next up is my very good friend Rashmi tani here's the founder and creative director of la giri jewelry I mean speech and everything from like Vogue Harper's Bazaar and she's just started all herself and is this one women army and then the third person on the panel was Lynette my Lander who is deputy editor idea magazine which I love so it was really picking women who operate on sort of like a broad range of a spectrum of that like creativity versus Commerce binary which it was real interesting discussion we talked about everything from the role of social media and the rise of the influence to the changing meaning of the word commercial within the creative circles and you know the work and models that work for creatives immersion creatives those that really don't so I'm planning this is just everyone there was a lot of these and I am so I'm planning more events for this autumn so stay tuned for news about those on the website and and then.

9:58This is the websites mentioned and so this is kind of a final piece of the jigsaw I kind of see this as built this myself using Squarespace and I kind of see this as a kind of online hub of women who so it's full of like editorial content articles that I've written myself it's kind of like an online version but so I talk about things sort of essentially advice to help you work better it's like a toolkit or resource for working women and particularly women who had quite a ministry so I cover stuff like takes us to work if you like me in work from home a lot and you know that gets really boring out through our and there's also quite hard to find some places that acquire and have a good supply of you know decent not too expensive coffee and so I cover things like interesting places work from how to look after yourself I think looking after your wellness is really important no matter what line of work you do so I talked about fat hips or networking I think it's really important about what level of your career at to always kind of get out there get to meet people especially when you work on great ministries and so much if I think what you do is quite personality based and so talk about that. And I also do interviews with interesting creative women but I know who so on the left is live Sydal who I think used to work here.

11:34And I know she's due out here. And it's nice that. And it's now the editor of trade magazine in the middle of zing Zang who is the UK editor of broadly which is vises female channel which much about a year ago.

11:47And then on the right as rush I mentioned before who's the jewelry designer and I've got plenty more in the works and she another had to be up earlier today with serene again who is the founder and CEO ckase magazine yeah a question I often get asked which is baffling to me and that I do is why women why sort of segregate out women into group.

12:12And I just said what the art I mean women here is obviously based on my own personal experiences but I think it's something I need to recognize that being a woman in the workplace no matter what field you work in is just a different experience from being a man it just is and I really wanted to create a platform that recognized that difference of experience whatever it entails and how it manifests itself let's not say that dice can't come to the events lots of my friends came to the Lord and the oversee the primary audience is women and why now I think anyone who does creative work who works in creative industries can't fail to notice how much changed over the past couple of years I think the way people work as changing the models that people are using are changing you know.

13:01I think there are people out there rewriting the traditional career paths and just doing really new and interesting stuff and so again I wanted to build like the platform that was quite forward-facing and three decades of those new models intrapreneurship within a creative contest something that I'm really interested in how do creatives monetize their ideas I've talked a lot about money but I do think it's really important because I think there is a tendency to think when you do creative work but because you enjoy doing it that you'll miss shouldn't be like compensated as fairly as if you were an accountant or a lawyer and like I said every I think that's serious.

13:40And so that's pretty much it as I said I've got some events lined up for this autumn so do you go onto the website Millen and sign up the mailing list to find out everything. That's coming up and check out the rest of website whilst you're at it and you know I'm really looking forward to watching this community grow and take shape the response I've had so far has been insane so do tell your friends get in touch if you've got you know an interesting idea for an event or cool venue I'm always looking interesting creative spaces to hold events in soda lemonade good one and and yeah thank you very much for listening to me torts but a real privilege to be invited speak here tonight because I love it's nice laugh you