Meet James. Part human, part machine.

It’s predicted that humanity will change more in the next 20 years than it has in the last 300.

Meet James, a 25-year-old biological scientist who has an advanced cybernetic prosthetic arm with a built-in drone and flashlight.

Humans like James will be commonplace by 2030.

In fact, research and advancements in cybernetics will increasingly give humans super-powers, and we will move to an age of trans-humanism where augmentation, cognitive acceleration and the use of science and technology will evolve the human race beyond its current physical and mental limitations to a new era of advanced intellect and physiology.

Are you ready for it?

Read more about developments in STEM and cybernetics, and how your future job pathway just might be in this space here.

Embrace your inner freak. You Are Not Your Face FINAL SUBMISSIONS CALL OUT! Teenage writers we're talking to you!

Embrace your inner freak. #youarenotyourface
FINAL DAYS! Submit your story!

If you’re a TEENAGE GIRL and would like to contribute your story to the #girledworld #youarenotyourface project CLICK HERE!

We’ve received 1000’s of AMAZING stories, poetry and writing from teenage girls across the planet 🌏 and we’d love to add your voice to the mix!

Massive and heartfelt THANK YOU to all the amazing girls who have contributed their words and wisdom so far! We can’t wait to share it all VERY SOON! in a phenomenal book for teenage girls!! 🙌🏽💛🌍
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Submissions (first name, age and country only) will be published on the @girledworld platform and selected entries will be published in ‘You Are Not Your Face’ (scheduled for release in late 2019).📓

SUBMIT ENTRIES HERE 🔝🔝🔝

Gorgeous words in picture via @mattzhaig 🙏🏼

In Search of Selfie. girledworld join Melbourne Writer's Festival to unpack selfie culture.

FACTS: Last year, more people were killed taking selfies than in shark attacks.🦈

93 million selfies are taken and posted worldwide each day. 📸

And the average 16-25-year-old female spent 5 hours a week taking 3 selfies per day in pursuit of the perfect pose.👅

Why? What’s going on here?

Well what is clear is that for many people their self-worth is highly dependant on the feedback 👍🏽👎🏽 they receive from posting daily selfies.

And the fickle currency of social media likes and online popularity is spilling over into the complex world of real lives and relationships, making it harder and harder to divide our online and offline selves.

We’re interested in exploring the cult of selfie, and the connection between selfies and self-esteem.

So join us @melbwritersfest #MWF19 Schools’ Program in a public forum with 200 students and teachers to unpack the strange and rule-ridden world of selfie culture.

#girledworld Cofounders and authors of #youarenotyourface@madeleinegrummet and Edwina Kolomanski @edwinamani will facilitate a youth-led discussion exploring the role of #socialmedia and #selfies in teenage personal narrative and identity development.

Plenty to debate, share - and unpack!💥 Deets below. 👇🏽
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‘In Search of Selfie’
Facilitated Q&A Teen Forum
Thursday September 5, 2019.
State Library Victoria
Isabella Fraser Room

Book early to avoid missing out. All details and full program at @melbwritersfest or on their website here.

#girledworld #leadership #identity #youarenotyourface
See You Are Not Your Face here.

What no BS innovation looks like: Inside Atlassian's ShipIt 42.

Just popped out of two amazing days inside @atlassian’s #Shipit #SanFrancisco.

A rare chance to work inside one of Silicon Valley’s hypergrowth tech companies, see what open company no BS looks like, and work with their teams to spin up solutions - fast!🔛

ShipIt gives you 24 hours to innovate. Build stuff. Simple, technical, insane. Doesn’t matter what. It’s about ideas made actual, and about teams humming.

It’s kinda like 20% time. On steroids. (This happens once a quarter right across the world and 1000’s of people join in).

What struck me most was the people inside Atlassian, their open ways of work, patterns of collaboration, the fluid free flow of information.

These are seriously talented, authentic, passionate people working open, working fast, no BS, no power plays, with rapid cycles of communication>ideation>synthesis>focussed work>start again. 

This is unsurprising given Atlassian’s values-first tilt on the world. And people first approach to hiring.

If you walk through any Atlassian office across the globe, you’ll see their values everywhere - hanging like flags, expressed creatively on walls, part of the living culture and bounce boards of the work that’s done day by day:

1. Open company, no bullshit

2. Build with heart and balance

3. Don’t f*ck the customer

4. Play as a team

5. Be the change you seek

But the take out here is that when we talk ad nauseam about innovation, about its process and methodology and science, what we’re really talking about is the way we as REAL people best work together in teams to stand our ideas up. Simple. (As long as you’ve got the right people in the room in the first place).

I’m a big believer in no BS, bringing my authentic self to everything I do, and working with people and in ways that make sense - to me, and the bigger world. 🌏

This #ShipIt experience has restored my faith in what great work looks like.

Future ways of work are already here. At @Atlassian. No BS.

Work open.
Work real.
Bring you to work.

Why the diversity dial isn't moving: Atlassian State of Diversity Report 2018

As a female founder, mother of four girls and passionate #STEM and #diversity advocate, I am doing what I can in my sphere of influence to drive diversity and inclusion, ignite conversation, table the metrics and push for progress. 

But diversity is indeed a very wicked problem. 

Entrenched cognitive biases, fixed cultures, diversity fatigue and too much talk and too little action mean we’ve actually still got a long way to go before D&I and gender is no longer on the agenda. (Run the numbers on the number of women in tech/STEM/funded startups/ASX or Fortune500 CEO leadership roles/government senior level positions. Not good.)

We keep talking/reading/town hall-ing about team diversity as a critical driver of innovation and problem-solving, but unless we can cultivate it/hire for it/celebrate it/elevate it/action it, our best attempts at innovation will always be constrained. 

Atlassian’s recent State of Diversity Report 2018 reveals why the D&I dial isn’t actually moving despite the conversations about cultural shift and commitment to D&I in the US and Silicon Valley right now. 

This is, of course, an endemic problem.

To effect any real change we need to sweep company-, startup- and society-wide, top to bottom, bring more chairs to the cap table, break down mindless bureaucracy, shift fixed mindsets, share our stories, build D&I skills, action inclusivity programs, push against status quo, employ empathy, and put people, values, balance and belonging before the BS of empty D&I PR rhetoric.

We also need to commit to active end-to-end processes and systems that mandate diversity as an accountable, transparent line item, and usher in a new world of work practice where we hire for diversity of not just faces but races, places and think spaces (mind sets).

What are you doing to action diversity and shift the dial? #teamup 

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At www.girledworld.com we are doing our bit to build girls up with skills and real-world knowledge so they can do their best work with values-driven passion. But the world needs to be ready for them when they unleash themselves on it. 

Join us to build the next Gen of innovators, founders and leaders at the girledworld WOW Summit 2018 at RMIT University.

A life-changing weekend of real-world learning for girls. Details here.

#teamup #girledworld #closetheSTEMdergap #womenintech

Let's get girls to unleash their potential and solve the wicked problems of the world: girledworld summit 2018

There are so many wicked problems to solve in the world that we think it’s time girls unleash their potential and collective talents to tackle them head-on.

This year at the @girledworld WOW Summit 2018 @rmituniversity WE WILL have a full-day deep dive on DESIGN THINKING to give girls real-world tools in real-world problem-solving. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE. And click here to book your spot.
 

SO What is Design Thinking ANYWAY?

Design Thinking is a process for creative problem-solving. It's a methodology often used by designers to solve complex (or wicked) problems through a stepped process in order to find desirable solutions for their clients (= humans who have problems they need solved).

In order to use Design Thinking, you need to use a design mindset which parks what you know and let's you instead go deeply into understanding the human you are solving problems for. You need to EMPATHIZE with their world, and notice what's happening for them, so you can best gather insights about their experiences.

Once you've gathered your insights about the problems you have observed you will need to DEFINE them. Kind of come up with a set list of the things you've observed, and patterns you've recognised, so you can then try and solve for the problems therein.

The next stage is to IDEATE (ie: brainstorm to come up with as many awesome solutions as you can to solve the problems on your DEFINE list).

You can THINK BIG here! Moonshots. The idea is you just get as many wild and wacky ideas out there as you can. Flex your creative muscle. Go nuts. Because the whole point of Design Thinking is that it pushes you to explore the possibilities of what could be, by drawing on logic, imagination, intuition, and systemic reasoning to create desired outcomes that will ultimately benefit the end user (the customer/human).

The next step is to build the solution: PROTOTYPE. Make it. But make it simple. And make it fast. Do it for under $100. Under $1 is even better! Use paper, wire-framing on a free web tool, sketch it, act it out. Whatever you do. Don't overcomplicate it. Just bring it to life as fast as you can because once you've built your PROTOTYPE you need to quickly get it into the hands of a human (customer) as soon as you can to TEST it.

Why? The human can tell you if it sucks, or not. They can also tell you if your solution is solving their problem well, or not at all. If it does solve quite well but not quite well enough, work with the human to change it (iterate), so it gets closer to what they need, and then ask them to TEST it again. If it still sucks, go back to the start of the process and see if you started with the right problem in the first place. Then step through the cycle again. Rinse and repeat. Til ultimately, you place in the hands of the human (customer) a solution so insanely awesomely customised just for the problem they needed solved, that they'll be begging you to keep it.

Voila. Simple as that.

Problem solved. Solution beautiful.

You now have a product worth making and shipping to the world!

What's the difference Between Design and Design Thinking?

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
— Steve Jobs, APPLE

“Design is the action of bringing something new and desired into existence—a proactive stance that resolves or dissolves problematic situations by design. It is a compound of routine, adaptive and design expertise brought to bear on complex dynamic situations.”
—Harold Nelson, The Design Way

Join us for a full day of immersive Design Thinking where girls will work in groups to use creativity, collaboration and innovative problem solving to design solutions to three real-world problems. (And gain a Micro-Credential in #designthinking to add to their resumes :)

@girledworld invites future female changemakers (currently in Years 9 to 12 in Australian secondary schools) who want to gain skills in entrepreneurship, design thinking and real world problem solving to join us for a hands on day of business building! 🙌🏽

Led by a dynamic, hand-picked squad of industry specialists, innovation coaches, entrepreneurs and RMIT experts, our young female changemakers will work together across a day of Design Thinking modules to unpack complex problems and work to solutions on three real world pain points.

Limited spots. A lifetime of learning. 

“Design thinking is a process for creative problem solving.”

- Coe Leta Stafford, Managing Director IDEO U 

GIRLEDWORLD WOW (WORLD OF WORK) 🌏SUMMIT 2018 🙌🏽

This year's Summit has been developed and designed with RMIT Melbourne (where the event will be held) and will feature two days of immersive, real-world, hands-on learning for girls in Australian Secondary Schools (Year 9 - Year 12) so they can radically upskill, powerfully goal-set and get ready to thrive in the Future of Work. 

Across one extraordinary, transformational weekend, the @girledworld WOW 🌏Summit will bring together top speakers, industry experts and amazing career mentors to explore the new world of work and emerging areas of technology and STEM. This interactive, highly curated, Australian curriculum aligned event will empower, educate and equip all attendees with the mindsets, skillsets and toolkits they'll need to make informed choices about their future career pathways. 

WE PROMISE. THIS IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE CAREERS EVENT. ⚡️🚀

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS AND MORE INFO ON THE LINE-UP

LAST YEAR’S @GIRLEDWORLD SUMMIT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE WAS A SELLOUT! GET IN QUICK FOR THIS ONE!

GROUP BOOKINGS AVAILABLE FOR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS.
PLEASE SEE HERE. 

Why girls need strong, visible female role models

Do as I do, not as I say.

Role modelling is incredibly powerful. 

Research shows that the greatest determinant of a young girls’ future success is her access to a tribe of strong, visible, capable female role models who can show her how to unearth her talents, find her voice and forge her own path.👊🏽 

Research also tells us we need strong, visible female role models because we need girls to feel their own power when they see it reflected in women leading companies, running countries and founding businesses. (And there are nowhere near enough of them across the world right now).

And what we know is that in the new world of work we will need many more strong visible female role models thinking big, breaking through and radically redesigning the future of the workplace so girls can, alongside and after these women, push through barriers and biases to create the world-shaping innovations and new economies of our age. 

If you’re a secondary school aged girl (Years 9-12), a Parent or an Educator please join us for the girledworld WOW Summit 2018 at RMIT University for a life-changing weekend of role modelling, skill-building and windows to the future of work. 

girledworld World of Work Summit 2018
In partnership with RMIT University, Melbourne City Campus
Saturday June 16 + Sunday June 17, 2018
Earn Micro-Credentials in Design Thinking, Critical Thinking and connect with girls and female mentors from across Australia and the world.

EARLY BIRD TICKETS ON SALE NOW! $49.95 Selling fast! 🏃🏽‍♀️ 

Click here for details on speakers, program and certifications. 

WHY GENDER NEEDS TO STAY ON THE AGENDA.

At events recently, several successful males have said the following to me: 'I wish women would just stop with all this female founder and leadership and gender stuff and just get on with doing big things and building great businesses.'

They, clearly, completely miss the point.

Some women ARE out there building businesses and doing big things - but nowhere near the rate that males are. 

Some women ARE leading organisations, engaging in public life, policy shaping, and creating the architecture of the new economy.

But nowhere near the participation rate of men. 

And you don't have to look far to see that in the media, in business, in politics, in boardrooms, in startups, in tech and in STEM, women continue to be underrepresented, underpaid, under-voiced, undervalued and under-done - across industries, and across the world.

On top of that, women are predominantly carrying the invisible burden of care, for which there is no trading currency.

So we can choose to shut down the conversations or sugar up the stats, but the facts remain... the scales aren't balancing fast enough.

The gender gap is real.

Bias is entrenched.

And shifting legacy fixed mindsets is going to take multi-generational momentum.
 
Equality? Parity? We're nowhere near there yet. 

So we need to keep gender on the agenda, have the hard conversations, and then as a whole society create action to find a positive, workable solution to bring up the numbers and get the whole of humanity participating in the problem-solving of our age.

We need to get women and the girls after them to step up, lead, succeed, shape, design, learn, listen, speak, start, quest, wonder, run, code, write and win. Alongside men.

The conversations will only go away when the problem is solved, the gap has closed and we can ALL get on with doing big things and building TOGETHER.

@girledworld Building the next generation of female founders and leaders, one girl at a time. ✖️✖️

Corporate Australia needs to ditch old processes and 'org-hack' itself to keep up with Silicon Valley

This article was first published in Business Insider Australia, October 12 2017.

If Australia wants to compete with global innovators, corporate culture needs to change.

GirledWorld co-founders Madeleine Grummet and Edwina Kolomanski want to equip the next innovation generation of female leaders, founders and STEM experts with the enterprise skills, and access to female business role models they’ll need to excel in the future of work.

Grummet told Business Insider that GirledWorld focuses on embedding purpose across everything they do, and building a startup culture that fosters creativity and human-centred design.

“We’ve worked and studied across the US, Asia and Europe over our career lifetimes, and it’s interesting to compare the cultural dictates of those economies,” Grummet said.

“What is clear is that comparatively, Australia’s corporate culture is inherently conservative and currently bound by legacy processes, hierarchies and systems that actually impede innovation.

“In the context of a data-driven knowledge economy, the advent of exponential technologies, rapid communication and a fragmenting marketplace, it’s clear that corporates will need to embrace change, employ human-centered design to put the customer at the heart of their business model, and embed purpose in their culture if they are going to survive.”

If you compare Australia to the Silicon Valley start-up scene, for example, Grummet said the companies there have an intense focus on being scalable, 'scrappy', agile and adaptable to change – driven either by the consumer, the marketplace or the technology.

“In that environment of rapid value shift, traditional industries and companies simply have to adapt to survive and this is driven by startups,” Grummet said.

“So companies and corporate cultures over there are actively trying to org-hack themselves to stay agile, redefine their purpose and drive intentional innovation.”

Grummet recently returned from a trip to the Valley, where she participated in deep-dives in innovation labs with the likes of Google, Airbnb, Twitter, Tesla, Silicon Valley Robotics and Singularity University.

Unfortunately, changing your culture is not something Australian businesses can just “copy and paste” from Silicon Valley, Grummet explained.

“In order to stay globally competitive and locally relevant, we must create and nurture our own culture within a start-up ecosystem that drives net job creation for Australia’s future economy.”

In the next 12 months, Grummet says girledworld's focus will be on three things: building an entrepreneurially minded team, scaling to reach more girls across Australia with a digital platform and continuing to embed purpose across their business to deliver on their mission.

“Five years from now we would like to have a multi-national team working within an operating culture that is diverse, positive, purpose-fuelled and that lives by its values, providing active mentorship and future career pathways to girls.”

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Join girledworld, Google, The Australian Futures Project and Blackbird Ventures at NAB 23/11.

GirledWorld Co-founders Madeleine Grummet and Edwina Kolomanski are members of the NewCo Advisory Council, and will be presenting at the Melbourne NewCo Festival on Thursday November 23 at NAB's The Hall in Melbourne. For tickets book here.

The Panel Event entitled 'Redefine the Workplace Paradigm: How to get women to stay, lead and succeed', will feature guest presentations and girledworld Co-Founders in conversation with Sally Ann Williams, Engineering Community & Outreach Program Manager, Google, Ralph Ashton, Co-Founder, Australian Futures Project and #WTFAustralia, and Nick Crocker, Partner, Blackbird Ventures. Tickets here. (Event details below and full NewCo Melbourne schedule here.)

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NewCo Melbourne: Redefine the Workplace Paradigm: How to get women to stay, lead and succeed brought to you by girledworld.

girledworld will explore the third gender revolution as we unpack diversity as an innovation driver, hear from experts about purpose-driven female leadership, and smash up workplace status quo and unconscious biases. Join us to build your toolkit on how to drive cultural transition in a positive, sustainable way, and how to create connection between industry and education to build the female pipeline of future innovators, leaders and founders.

NewCo is a festival of innovation and inspiration where mission-driven companies invite you inside their offices to share stories of positive change.

Business Insider Australia is the proud media partner of NewCo Melbourne, which kicks off on 22 November. Get your tickets and see the full schedule at www.mel.newco.co

Bringing up businesses and babies: Why women need mentors to make it work

As a working female who knows all too well the pace and juggle of balancing the needs of four busy daughters with the mid-career portfolio demands of building a startup, speaking engagements, active mentoring and board directorships, time is the core currency I trade in these days.

There are only so many hours in any given day, and the opportunity cost of time ill-spent down an email black hole or in zero-outcome meetings mean I've become more binary about how I will and won't spend my business time.

I choose to work with people and on projects that align to my purpose, and that solve for problems that really matter. It means the work can dial up and down as the projects demand, and it also means I therefore have to know when to flick the switch to family.

But like many women of my generation raising businesses and babies, finding true balance can be a challenge.

Sometimes the mix is just right, other times all wrong. You wing it anyway, and remind yourself that balance isn't static, and life is a continuum of change within which we chart our course, adjusting sails along the way where we need to. Some days are rough and tough, others blue-skied and calm watered (personally and professionally).

But in the mix of busy, I have, and always will, carve out time for mentorship. Because bringing up businesses and babies is not an easy juggle, and to make it work I have relied on the active mentorship of generous, intelligent women to help me navigate the way.

Because I have lived the benefit of having other women empower and mentor me, I believe in paying it forward. Daily, I still draw on the power and knowledge well of my collective circle to stay afloat, accelerate my opportunities and make strategic career choices. In fact some of the best business decisions I've made were shaped with mentors.

Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will To Lead has a dedicated chapter called Are You My Mentor? and in it she explores the idea of mentorship, and how to find the right mentors for your personal and professional stage.

Some of her key points about mentorship are that at its best it must be:

1.  AUTHENTIC: Healthy and effective business relationships take time to nurture and develop, and most often arise organically from real human connections where there is inherent mentor/mentee chemistry, authenticity and generosity. Find mentors who understand who you are, what your values, vision and purpose are, and who will then bring people into your network who share this, too.

2.  RECIPROCAL: Mentorship cuts both ways, and provides both parties with the opportunity for growth, transfer of knowledge, personal learning and professional extension. The mentor can sharpen and shape their leadership style through mentee feedback, and the mentee can also provide “grassroots intelligence” on industry insights, market intel and internal culture (access the mentor would not otherwise gain). In turn mentors can push you to your limits, challenge your thinking, strategically connect you to key stakeholders, champion your cause and actively market you and your business to amplify your message/vision.

3.  ACTIONABLE: Mentors and mentees must commit to progress, and measurable outcomes. In order for both parties to benefit most from the relationship, mentees must create actions around advice dispensed, embed key learnings, and then circle this back into the learning loop with mentors.

4.   AUTONOMOUS: Great mentors don’t cut the path but light the way. The greatest learning for mentees is learning by doing, even if it means failing and floundering a few times before charting the right path. Taking autonomous steps but knowing you have someone to bounce off when the going gets hard can be just the support you need to realise your potential and better achieve your goals.

Some of the most successful women I know have attributed active networking and mentoring to their success, saying that by putting themselves out there, finding their tribe and building a trusted group of people around them, they have achieved far more than could ever have done on their own.

If you’ve been thinking about becoming a mentor or seeking active mentorship as a mentee, there are now multiple organisations, digital platforms and online communities offering professional and personal coaching services if you’d like a hand to get started rather than reach out to your existing networks. Everwise, Mentorloop, Inspiring Rare Birds, Business Chicks and Mogul are just a few.

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SHE MENTORS - SUMMER NETWORKING PARTY

Inspire9, Richmond, Wednesday November 1, 6.00pm-8.00pm

Alternatively, if you’re in Melbourne and would like to connect in the real with a room full of female business women from all walks of life, register for the She Mentors Summer Networking Party at Inspire9 in Richmond on Wednesday November 1 6.00pm-8.00pm, and join me alongside Gemma Lloyd of Diverse City Careers as part of a She Mentors event celebrating female mentorship and the power of networking.

Lloyd is the co-founder of DCC Jobs, Company Secretary of the Diversity Practitioners Association (DPA), winner of the Sue Wickenden 2016 Entrepreneur Of The Year Award and has served on multiple not-for-profit Boards including IT Queensland Females in and Technology and Telecommunications (FITT).

In this event Lloyd will share her journey at the helm of DCC Jobs, where she has been campaigning for flexible working conditions for women, and regularly presenting on topics including diversity and inclusion, entrepreneurship, developing confidence for career success, and personal branding strategies, so will have a wealth of knowledge to impart to the audience.

DCC is a social enterprise helping women pursue rewarding careers, particularly in sectors with high gender inequality rates. Since its conception, DCC has grown rapidly and is now regarded as one of Australia’s leading authorities on gender diversity.

The DCC jobs board is Australia’s only exclusive jobs board, meaning employers must be pre-qualified before advertising to ensure a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. DCC were winners of the 2016 #techdiversity awards and finalists in the 2015 ARN Women in ICT Awards in the Innovation category.

I’ll also be sharing my story and some of the thrills and spills as a social entrepreneur, Mum, mentor and co-founder of girledworld.

Mainly, I’ll be chatting about how I’ve charted my career path around businesses and babies, built connections and communities along the way, and what I’ve learned from mentors and other extraordinary business women in my network.

There’ll be plenty of time for Q&A and networking afterwards, so we can all share stories, forge new connections and learn from each other.

I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Madeleine Grummet
Co-Founder & CEO girledworld

She Mentors Summer Networking Party.
Bookings here.

How to teach girls Design Thinking - girledworld Summit 2017

At girledworld we get a little bit excited about innovation, ignition of ideas and problem solving. It’s why we train in and keep a hand on Design Thinking, Lean Startup, agile and anything that keeps us moving, questioning, pivoting and coming up with awesome ideas to solve the wicked problems of the world.

So we’re super excited to have education consultant and design thinking facilitator Kirsty Costa from Cool Australia joining us for the girledworld Big Ideas Leadership Summit 2017 to get hundreds of secondary school aged girls immersed in a Design Thinking workshop on Saturday June 24!

Design thinking helps us create, analyse and rebuild products and ideas. It can also be used to find creative solutions to big problems, and in this experiential workshop, participants will experience and apply each step of design thinking – from immersion to prototyping – as they work in teams to solve a live world environmental problem: the shrinking habitat of marine turtles and how Design Thinking can be used to create a prototype solution to protect their endangered nests.

Costa started out as a primary teacher, became an award-winning education consultant and now is the Head of Professional Development at Cool Australia, enabling more than 65,000 teachers to connect their lessons to the world outside the classroom every day.

Costa was awarded the 2013 Victorian Environmental and Sustainability Educator of the Year and trained by Al Gore as a Climate Reality Leader in 2014. In recent years she has helped hundreds of organisations and individuals carry out exciting change projects across Australia, and worked on global environmental initiatives with Greenpeace Japan and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad.

We can’t wait for Kirsty Costa to bring her expertise, energy, turtles and big thinking to the girledworld Big Ideas Leadership Summit 2017.

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Please join us alongside some of Australia and the world's most remarkable business leaders, startup founders and STEM champions to up-skill the next generation of girls in leadership, innovation and enterprise.

girledworld Big Ideas Leadership SUMMIT 2017.

Saturday June 24 & Sunday June 25

University of Melbourne @unimelb

Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship @wadeinstitute

#stepup #startup #STEM

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Social Entrepreneur & Summit Speaker Laura Pintur wins Young Achiever of the Year 2017!

Who decides what's normal? 

When you're a teenager, it's hard to know, hard to keep up with who's making the rules, and mostly, hard to back yourself and work out how to build up the you on the inside when you just get judged a lot on the outside. 

We want to talk about that. Bust it wide open. And talk the truth about body image and the objectification of women and girls in our culture. 

So we're very pleased to announce Young Victorian Achiever of the Year 2017 Laura Pintur as one of our keynote speakers at the girledworld SUMMIT at the University of Melbourne's Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship on Sunday June 25 (think TED for girls - education, empowerment and enlightenment all jammed into one very big weekend!) EARLY BIRD TIX ON SALE NOW 🔝

We had an amazing conversation with Laura recently and were blown away by her courage, conviction and crusade to stop the objectification of women and damaging over-sexualisation of girls in today's world. 

Laura is strong, sassy, smart, a passionate advocate, speaker and social entrepreneur, and the Founder of www.whatsnormal.com.au which advocates to put a stop to the rise of pornography, address the negative effects of sexualised self-worth and explore the broader ramifications on society (the recent film Embrace @bodyimagemovement tackles this issue with a global lens).

In 2015 Laura found herself at the helm of a movement with a campaign run by Collective Shout to 'close down the Zoo Mag', which actively engaged thousands of public supporters across Australia to have the salacious lads mag removed from supermarket shelves. It worked. This public pressure exposed Zoo for what it was, and caused the closure of the magazine completely.

Laura is a previous Foundation For Young Australians Young Social Pioneer, and now travels Australia speaking to high school students about the increasingly problematic sexualisation of young people in mainstream and social media, appears regularly on TV, pens multiple articles on the topic, and is an incredible example of a young woman paving the way as a social entrepreneur.

We are so thrilled to bring Laura's BIG ENERGY, BOLD VISION and BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP to our stage at the Girledworld APAC Leadership SUMMIT 2017.

Please join Laura and an incredible lineup of founders, leaders, STEM champions and bold women who back themselves on Sunday June 25.
Be prepared to be changed. ✖️✖️  

Young Musical Talent Tilly Vickers Willis to perform at girledworld SUMMIT!

We love celebrating talent, especially extraordinary up-and-coming girl talent. 🎙

So we're thrilled to confirm Tilly Vickers-Willis, a 17-year-old amazing musician from Melbourne, as part of our talent-studded lineup for the @girledworld SUMMIT at the University of Melbourne on SUNDAY JUNE 25 (Early Bird Tickets selling now here!)

Playing piano, guitar and singing for most of her life, Tilly started writing songs around the age of 5 and turned to it as a serious craft aged just 12.

Says the songwriter: "My songs form out of necessity and reflect my careful observations of the world around me, exploring ideas such as youth, societal expectations, young love, nostalgia and an exploration of political & world issues."

Her big, bold and haunting sound is acoustic and simple, inspired by strong female artists such as London Grammar’s Hannah Reid, Missy Higgins, Lorde, and Isabella Manfredi, and to date Tilly has performed at a range of events and backyard gigs including scoring her first radio gig on 3AW with Billy Pinnell, Grubby and Dee Dee last month. 

You can lose yourself in her sound on soundcloud at soundcloud.com/tillyvw

And see her power and talent in the real @girledworld @unimelb SUMMIT (link in profile 🔝)

BOOK YOUR EARLY BIRD TICKETS NOW for the GIRLEDWORLD BIG IDEAS SUMMIT
Saturday June 24 & Sunday June 25 at the University of Melbourne ✖️✖️ 

Featuring a seriously amazing lineup of speakers and experiential workshops from @unimelb @wadeinstitute @ibm @airbnb @atlassian @tomorganic @airwallex @girlgeekacademy @adorebeauty @frank_bod @startupvictoria @wiseunimelb @whatsnormal_  @fya_org @doremecreative @mumtaza @oneroofwomen @mapunimelb @theleaguewomen @coolaustralia @philipdalidakis @launchvic and stacks more!  ✖️✖️ 

@girledworld - Building the next generation of female leaders, founders and #STEM champions.

It takes a community of many to change the life of one.

And just one empowered girl to change the world of many. 🎙✖️✖️

The Experience Age - a night at PwC as a STARTUP

This week the team at girledworld paid a visit to the new PwC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) offices located in Southbank, Melbourne, for The Experiences Event.

With 360 degrees of the city, the new state of the art office facilities filled with open plan offices, technology and collaborative spaces were an enviable setting, which provided the perfect backdrop to begin discussions about the future of big business in Australia.

To begin the evening, we were invited to select three of following perspectives: 

1. Student experience: Going digital to raise the bar on student employability
2. Connected Retail Experience: Maximising the engagement of tomorrow's customer in a connected retail world
3. Employee experience: How creative communications is changing the employee experience
4. Solving wicked problems: Co-designing solutions to wicked problems in an experience-led world
5. When data is the difference: Three ways to use data to reduce cost and engage your customers
6. Cyber Security: Security by design
7. Disruption: Swimming against the tide - Disruption in established organisations incorporating a Blockchain case study
8. Government: Solving big problems and rebuilding trust in Government

We selected the following perspectives and here's our biggest take-aways from each: 

1. Student experience: Going digital to raise the bar on student employability

• Given the way that students (at both secondary and tertiary levels) interact with one another, technology needs to be at the core of key communication strategies
• Understand what the outcome of tertiary education is --> employability 
• When designing curriculum, ensure that the end goal (of employability) is always engineered into the educational framework. Students must be skilled and ready for employment 
• STUDENTS are educational institution's CUSTOMERS

3. Employee experience: How creative communications is changing the employee experience

• Internal communications within companies continues to be under-utilised and under-valued
• Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate KEY information. This can come in many forms including storybooks, one page posters, in-office interactive technology displays
• Digital communication tools do not completely replace traditional communication media (i.e. paper materials)

4. Solving wicked problems: Co-designing solutions to wicked problems in an experience-led world

• Human-centred design approaches are now becoming more "mainstream" 
• Ensure that diversity is at the core of the design process - bring the right people into the design process 
• Understand the PROBLEM that you are trying to solve 
• Co-creation leads to a deeper connection, higher engagement and ownership of solutions 

Following the live perspectives, a panel presentation included the following: 

• Airbnb Australia & New Zealand Country Manager, Sam McDonagh

• Telstra Group Chief Technology Officer and previous Ericsson Australia and New Zealand CEO,  Hakan Eriksson

• NSW Treasury Director and previous EGM Strategy, Education and External Relations at SunSuper, Andrea Forbes

• Previous Executive General Manager of Channel Ten and PwC's current lead of our Chief Marketing Officer Advisory, Russel Howcroft

• Commonwealth Bank National Director of Health, Caitlin Wilson

The all-star panel including representatives from Airbnb, CBA, Telstra, NSW Treasury and PwC

The panel discussion largely focused around discussions of innovation (integrating innovation projects into large companies), technology (like 5G and drones), disruption and addressing national problems of the future (like health industry and the ageing population of Australia).

From a start-up perspective, it was fascinating to see the discomfort and struggle that large corporations are experiencing in relation to the broader market which is being rapidly disrupted by innovation, technology and startups! The future is going to be vastly different to the past and present. That's why we need to ensure the next generation is prepared and skilled accordingly with the soft and hard enterprise skillsets to adapt to this rapid change.

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At girledworld we're constantly seeking new information and checking in with industry to ensure our eduTech resources and experiences for Australian girls are relevant and in-tune with the employment landscape of the future. We are developing world-leading educational experiences for Australian girls, so that they have the resource and skill-sets to succeed in the future of work - whatever that looks like!

If you have any suggestions regarding resources, events or initiatives you think we should be aware of please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at hello@girledworld.com  - we're always up for a great conversation! 

Be brave. (Even if you're not, pretend to be).

If the past years of entrepreneurship and launching startups have taught me one true thing it's to feign brave, even in the face of uncertainty.

Entrepreneurship is hard.

There are no road maps, no rules, many ups, as many downs, big wins, crushing losses, wild guesses, giant leaps, incremental joys and plenty of days when you wonder why the F you started. 

No startup comes easy. It's hard, hard work. Relentless. And you've got to really want to do it because no one else is going to push you to get up every day and keep working on your big idea to build a winning team and sticky customer base that enables your (temporary) survival.

It's a race to market, so you've got to get out there (even on the days you don't want to) and bang your drum so you stay visible, keep finding a way to GSD (however scrappy), gain traction, engage with mentors who've navigated the path before you and tap the rich seams and opportunities of the local support ecosystem (we have a thriving hub of accelerators, industry supporters, investor meets and entrepreneurship initiatives proliferating in Melbourne right now, so Victoria is indeed ripe for startups to seed).

Entrepreneurs know all this. That it's up to them to work their secret sauce (and the talent they can convince to come along for the ride). 

Entrepreneurs also know it's hard work because they've already made their first difficult choices, stepped away from safety, challenged status quo and begun to smash their own glass ceilings because they've seen an opportunity where others didn't, a better idea, a white space. (Ideas are the easy part, of course).

Many of the exceptional individuals I met in the University of Melbourne's Master of Entrepreneurship last year (you know who you are!), any of whom could use their abundant talents in traditional workplaces, had already decided that their passion for entrepreneurship, business acumen, quest for innovation and incurable curiosity combined with a healthy risk appetite meant traditional work pathways weren't going to cut it. (Watch this space as their stars rise in the years to come.)

But the facts remain. The odds are stacked against entrepreneurs.

Nine out of 10 startups fail*, the market is full of products no-one wants, founding teams regularly implode, funds atomise and customers need to be insatiably wooed and squarely won which often takes a critical combo of cash, luck and rapid pivoting for product market fit. (And let’s face it - if the dog won’t eat it, you go hungry.)

So you work out pretty fast that you need to use the ecosystem to give yourself the best chance at success.

Yes, you need to pitch. Yes, you need to hustle. Yes, you need to do your homework. (And yes, you need to prove people are actually willing to part with their dollars for your product.) But mostly you need to use your networks, and use them well and wisely.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet with and learn from Silicon Valley front runners (on Katie Mihell’s Women In Focus Innovation Tour in September 2017) and many of Australia's leading startup game-changers, VCs and industry leaders over the past years. Taking the hard-won advice of those who’ve started, survived and scaled is invaluable. You can’t get it unless you seek it.

But so too, the hard lessons learned from the unique starting, stopping and painful skinning of your own startup ventures is how you learn where your own roadblocks are.

Entrepreneurship can be taught and, more importantly, learned, but it would seem that much of what holds one back from startup success is not our businesses but ourselves.

The startup ecosystem right here in Victoria is full of people with varying talent and drive and dynamism but who, like all real entrepreneurs, have significant imposter syndrome and self-doubt when they fall down startup rabbit-holes. 

The critical difference between those who can and those who can't is their willingness to be brave, back themselves, challenge status quo, use networks, weather startup stumbles, and to keep getting up, pushing hard, pivoting, validating and pivoting again til they eventually land on a market. 

Then they swim like mad. Without the maps.

It's the mindset that makes an entrepreneur.

Make yours a brave one this year.

Madeleine x

#juststart #beashark #startup #stepup #girledworld @girledworld

*Forbes 'Entrepreneurs' 2016