Ladies, I Urge You to Give up Your Fear
Naomi Simson
B.Comm GAICD Non Exec Director, Entrepreneur, Business Owner, Keynote Speaker, Author
I found myself sitting in the auditorium of the NSW Parliament Building to participate in the Pearcey Foundation's 2013 Technology Entrepreneur of the Year awards. (I was there to be honoured by being named the 2013 winner).
The Tech industry is a place that I have spent nearly all of my career – before being an entrepreneur I had roles at IBM, Apple and a number of other IT entities. In fact RedBalloon made the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 six years in a row from 2006. But being acknowledged by your peers for your contribution to an entire industry is truly humbling. This Pearcey award – voted by the previous winners – is very special.
As I got up to speak, I noted that the audience looked vastly different to the ‘League of Extraordinary Women’ that I presented to just five days earlier. That audience was all women, and very colourful. The Pearcey audience, by comparison, was nearly all men – with not much colour at all.
At the women's event I had asked for a show of hands to find out how many of those female business owners were in the tech space. Only three of the 350 women present put up their hands. I asked them to put up both hands so that it appeared to be more than was actually there. But there was no fooling anyone.
Last week I was at a tech entrepreneur dinner – of the 25 guests present, there were only two women. And last night at Parliament house? Well the photo speaks for itself really.
Where are the women in IT? Where are the women in tech entrepreneurship?
I implored the women at their event to ‘get out of their comfort zone; scale their businesses; reach broad global markets'. Technology will need to be a part of how they bring their product or service to the world.
The reality is that we live in a global village – but the only way to access this market cost-effectively is through technology. So why so few women when technology is now in the centre of pretty much every startup.
I had great role models. My mother worked on the first computers in Australia in the Maths department at Monash University in the 1960s. She went on to have a fulfilling career for more than 30 years in IT. She worked for a great Australian tech entrepreneur for the last 15 years of her career. (And my mother would say of Lyndsey, ‘If she can do it you can do it’). Lyndsey Cattermole AM founded Aspect Computing when I was in primary school.
Here is the point – I had great role models! I thought it was normal for a woman to enter the technology space. I had no fear of it as it was familiar to me.
This award allows me to be that for others – to be a role model who women can look to and say “if she can do it, I can do it.†And ladies, I urge you to embrace technology. To learn, listen and discover. Quite simply, it is the future – and if we ever want to have a 50 per cent voice in board rooms we better start by giving up our fear of technology.
Naomi Simson is the founding director of Australian online tech success story RedBalloon. She has written more than 800 blog posts at NaomiSimson.com, is a professional speaker, author of Live what you Love (pre-order now) and now TV personality on Channel 10’s Shark Tank (airing January 2015). Get to know her further on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
Marketing Coach & Mentor ?? Founder of The Influential Woman and IW Unleashed, the community membership for mission minded entrepreneurial women
10 å¹´I've just finished attending a Google+ hangout on podcasting and couldn't believe the ratio of men to women. As a real techie geek, I never usually notice these things, but I can hear some of my clients asking, "where are the women podcasters on iTunes, videographers on YouTube etc," and so I decided to open my eyes and ears. And it's true. Often where women are running the show, the question a lot of women ask is "how can I get someone else to do this for me?" I'm going to admit, sometimes men like to delve deep like their running an engineering company, but there is no real excuse with the myriad of technology training around today for women to be deliberately ignorant of the tools on offer to help them grow their businesses. My experience has been that when women get a hold of technology, they make it work because they just need it to do it's thing and don't feel they have to take it apart to see how it works. C'mon women, the world is waiting for your ingenuity and the innovative ways you can make technology sing!
Director General, Saritsa Foundation- A Mobile University for DRR and Climate Change
11 å¹´Naomi, Greetings from Saritsa Foundation India. Thank you for your wise counsel. It is important to share that i am committed to empower women, girls including visually impaired women, and women with other disabilities to prepare to minimize loss of lives in disasters like fire, earthquake, flood, terrorism, cyclones and many other hazards where women and girls are most vulnerable and loose lives and face traumas. JOIN ME IN THE MISSION.. Please also visit this link.https://www.slideshare.net/SaritsaFoundation2000/saritsa-foundation-buildds-capacity-of-visually-imapired-girls-of-kamla-mehta-school-for-blinds-on-eve-of-international-disaster-reduction-day-2013?utm_source=slideshow&utm_medium=ssemail&utm_campaign=post_upload With kind regards - Colonel Nagar M Verma
Owner at TheReportstore.com and CostMe.ca
11 å¹´Sometimes it just might be best to start your own technology firm. I started mine in October of 1986 (yes, dating myself), but it seemed the only logical thing to do. Wasn't going to wait around till someone offered me yet another "job" doing all the work for which the "man/owner" took all the credit. So I installed Sage Accounting Systems - in Manufacturing environments. And here I am, all these years later, starting yet another technical company - an online webstore. Having to learn the ins/outs of the internet game. And believe me, it's all that. Coders are notoriously prima-donnas. If I had to do it all over again, I would learn that too. Now I have my daughters that are coming into the game, and learning it from the ground up. Very hopeful. Watch this space! Yes, you can do anything in this world, where 9 out of 10 are men. What are we all so afraid of?
Senior Engineer, Lifecycle Architecture and Engineering at Verizon Business
11 å¹´Some of the best engineers and managers I have had the privilege of working with were women; I am very happy that - at least where I have worked within Verizon - we have a talented workforce of men and women who all work hard to support our customers and each other. I am also making sure my 7 year old daughter is keenly aware of this as she is already leaning to the technical side (I love it!) and she will grow up knowing she can pursue whatever career she wants to (even if that job is one of the hardest, stay at home mom!)
Sarah Wright Director
11 å¹´Hi. I'd love some of your advice I have launched an app to help with over 60s digital inclusion and it doesn't seem to be selling? I'd love some feedback if you would be kind enough to take a look? Kind regards Sarah