Last week we had hosted an event ahead of International Women’s Day as we hosted the first in our women + innovation series at the Aetha Design studio in Poole. We opened the door to the public and invited 5 female speakers who are all either innovators, business owners and/or Senior Managers from male dominated industries to come and share their stories to inspire the attendees.

We had +40 female attendees on the night and speakers from Specialized UK, Cupple, Evenly and A2V. All businesses registered in the UK and all innovating in terms of products and services. We heard from each of the speakers on a personal note about their backgrounds, careers to date and their current businesses and product ventures. The people who attended were made up of local professionals, creatives and students so a real mix which was what the series was designed for. It was the first of its kind in the event series and the feedback from attendees has been amazing.

Aetha are proud to support women in their businesses and we have designed products for female owned start up’s in the medical, sports, lifestyle and homeware sectors. We are excited to see what our female clients do next. As a design company which is co-owned by a woman, we want to ensure women are heard and are given the space to share their stories and life lessons which can help inspire others.

The next women + innovation event will be in June ‘22. Seats will be limited to keep the event informal and intimate. We won’t be recording them due to the nature of some of the content which is discussed but we hope to release a blog after each one so if people can’t make it but want to find out what was said they can catch up.

The main subjects which were covered were quite personal to each speaker. Becks (A2V) brought a bike in as a prop and talked in detail about following your gut when it comes to business.

Some books were discussed by Sophie (Aetha) who happened to recommend the same book “Untamed” (Glennon Doyle 2021) as Becks (A2V) so a number of attendees messaged Sophie after the event to say they had started reading that or listening to Untamed on Audible. See full book list below for recommended reading when thinking of starting a business.

We had some time for meeting other women and a panel discussion at the end where the audience got to ask personal questions around having a family while running a business and what to do when you know the right thing isn’t what everyone else wants to hear. It was a very honest panel and we couldn’t of asked for a better event as our first.

Thanks to everyone who came and supported the women who spoke and thank you to our wonderful speakers. Michael (Aetha) for taking the photos and Kara (Vegan Supper Club) for the amazing food. It was pretty much all gone at the end of the night.

Happy IWD ladies - see you next time (in June)!