Spring Forward

We are launching this year’s Spring Forward Festival with an injection of confidence for this city’s digital women. Brighton Digital Women aims to encourage more women to enter the digital sector and take up leadership roles, and they want to help you go for that great job, speak at that event, rock that big meeting and get that promotion. So they’ve gathered together three inspirational women to facilitate sessions that will help you feel more confident in yourself, develop confidence in your interpersonal skills with others and gain confidence in speaking to an audience. There’s also free prosecco for an added confidence boost!

Codebar is a community run free weekly event, aiming to increase diversity in the tech industry through teaching coding skills to people under-represented in the tech industry. Developers volunteer to mentor codebar students to learn coding skills, often starting with web development. You do not need any prior coding experience to sign up as a codebar student, the idea is to come along and give it ago in a friendly and supportive environment. Please join us on 8 March for a special Spring Forward codebar workshop and learn coding skills with the help of a friendly mentor. There will also be food and refreshments, thanks to Spring Forward sponsors. To attend you will need to sign up as a student or mentor on the codebar website. Any questions? Email brighton@codebar.io

Do you keep hearing User Experience design but not entirely sure what it is? Are you beginner in UX and want to practise your skills? Are you a graphic design, marketer, a dev, a curious human? Then this event is for you. Featuring a 20 minute talk by Hana Stevenson, the lead of the Brighton sector of Ladies That UX, explaining the basics of user experience design followed by a couple of exercises. If you’re inquisitive, enthusiastic and interested in making the world a better place for users, you’re one of us. We plan to run different get-togethers: sometimes with a speaker or a theme, a workshop, or even discuss a particular UX challenge. The atmosphere is relaxed and informal, often with a few drinks to imbibe and a couple of nibbles. Come join!

Are you interested in what the future holds for the world of work? Looking for inspiration for your own business and team? Want to hear from local female leaders doing great things in this space?  Then come along to this FREE event for the Spring Forward Festival all about the Future of Work! ‘The Future of Work’ is an event that celebrates inspirational women & businesses doing amazing things to change the future of the work as well as exploring some key topics in this space such as: the shift from rigid to flexible ways of working; new perspectives on engagement at work and what we can learn from positive psychology; the role of technology and our relationship to it; what skills will be in demand in the future and how do we close the gap.

Welcome to a massive SheSays evening of talks and networking with five fantastic speakers. We’ve been running these events since 2011 and we’re delighted to invite back five previous speakers, who, since appearing at SheSays have taken major national leadership roles in their industries. Come and celebrate their successes on International Women’s Day 2019.

The speed of technological change has created a landscape that often makes little sense to today’s parents. How do teens understand technology? Has it rewired the teenage brain? Is the teenage experience in 2019 any tougher now than it was for previous generations? Join teens, parents and experts for a frank and open discussion about the positive and negative aspects of being a teenage girl today – from the future of work to behaviour trends, body image and a digitally networked life.

Codebar is a community run free weekly event, aiming to increase diversity in the tech industry through teaching coding skills to people under-represented in the tech industry. Developers volunteer to mentor codebar students to learn coding skills, often starting with web development. You do not need any prior coding experience to sign up as a codebar student, the idea is to come along and give it ago in a friendly and supportive environment. Please join us on 12 March for a special Spring Forward codebar workshop and learn coding skills with the help of a friendly mentor. There will also be food and refreshments, compliments of Clearleft. To attend you will need to sign up as a student or mentor on the codebar website. Any questions? Email brighton@codebar.io

Get top tips for business success and financial independence from the experts. We’ve got Emma Hardwick from Plus Accounting to answer your questions from business structures to cloud computing. You can also learn all about crowdfunding from specialist Jes Bailey. This event is aimed at entrepreneurs, freelancers and business owners, however, anyone who wants to make more money is welcome to come along.

Want to achieve a better work life balance? Come and join in the discussion with our interesting panel of women who are working outside and around the 9-5! Hear from a range of different experiences and discover new ways of working which might be for you or your organisation. Chaired by Emma Cleary, an expert in flexible working and Director of Flexibility Matters, our inspiring panel includes: Catrina Bassett-Baker, Project Director of DabApps; Rebecca Kimber, CEO of Create.net and Alison Pragnell, Head of Marketing at Workhorse. They will be sharing their experiences of leaning in, having it all, not having it all and achieving a better work life balance.

The issues of gender balance ring through all parts of society. The theme for 2019’s International Women’s Day is #BalanceForBetter and it seeks to highlight the benefits of gender equality. PLATF9RM is inviting you to a day of compelling talks, conversations and interactive activities. We want to highlight all the kickass women making this city flourish, and helping us all make strides towards a more gender balanced world. We’ll be inviting women from all industries to share their tales and insights of how they continue to reign in their fields. It’ll be a super inspiring day with plenty of opportunities for networking.

For International Women’s Day 2019 we’re bringing the Queer Songbook to Brighton! We’ve invited six inspirational women and non-binary people from the city to perform their queerest and dearest song live on stage!

Traumfrau has been celebrating International Women’s Day in its inimitable style – iconic, radical and fun – for the past 6 years, bringing on stage the fiercest of Brighton’s female talent. This year, joining forces with The Queer Songbook, the party embraces grand cabaret! Prepare for goosebumps, tears, and laughter! The gig will be followed by the usual unusual Traumfrau extravaganza with DJs and more live acts!

American Express are delighted to hold an evening of networking and discussion in support of the Brighton Spring Forward Festival 2019. The evening will feature six lightning talks and a Q&A panel presented by inspiring women (and men) from diverse backgrounds working in technology at American Express. The topics covered will include disruptive technologies, agile concepts and career challenges.

A fresh take on gendered power. From inside our patriarchal society it’s hard to imagine matriarchal societies which value feminine power and place it at the heart of how they run their worlds. Mariam Crichton shares her direct experience of Matriarchal societies she has visited in Bhutan, Sumatra and Lijiang in China to show how they work and can work for us. Persia West shares her outsider’s, trans insights into masculine and feminine power imbalances in our own society, and how a deeper sense of identity can give the power of choice in how we create a world.

Need a website for your business but not sure what to do? The objective of this workshop is to empower women to build their own website and feel more confident with technology. So please join us for this practical session if this is you! You’ll leave with a clear understanding about how you can use a website to your advantage. We will help you create a customer persona, understand who your website is for, what they will do when they visit and the actions you want them to take.

Are you unsure exactly what computer programming is? Do you prefer to learn things hands-on, with real-world feedback? Then come along with your daughter to a FREE workshop to find out more!

The women of Brandwatch’s R&D team (designers, product managers, engineers and data scientists) are hosting an event to share their techniques for cross-discipline innovation and the blending of art and science that creates our products. We’ll also share our personal experiences of what it’s like to navigate through a male dominated field, and how we’re working to create a more inclusive and collaborative environment.

Get to know some kick-ass women in the music industry including: Laura Hall (Production Manager and Event Producer) for Love Supreme and Field Day; Victoria Needs (Director of International for Sony Music); Caroline Adcock (Live Engineer). MAMI is a collective of creative mamas in music who aim to focus on supporting and empowering each other through shared experience. Founded by Bee Adamic and Johanna Bramli on International Women’s Day 2018, MAMIs come together to promote a positive message for the current and next gen of females in music.

Thrive’s Meetup for Female Founders and Women in Business is a two-hour peer-to-peer business support session for any female entrepreneur, creative, changemaker, or women in business who would like to find solutions to the challenges they are facing, generate new ideas, and meet like-minded people. Bring your thinking caps, an open mind, and a willingness to help other women in business! Complimentary drinks and nibbles will be provided.

Brighton Girl is hosting an evening of practical discussion that focuses on navigating success on your career path – whether you’re rising within a business or building one of your own. The evening will be a balanced mix of panel discussions and Q&A sessions, covering topics such as: Overcoming obstacles, Learning to manage people,Techniques for measuring and celebrating success. We’re honoured to be joined by three inspiring panelists: Natasha Woodford, MD of Clockwork Talent, Flo Powell, Joint MD of Midnight Communications and Bex Bastable, Content Editor at Brighton and Hove Independent.

You voted to discuss HIDDEN FIGURES this month! We’ll be talking about how women are represented in the movie. We use The Bechdel Test as a starting point to kick off the conversation, then chat about representation of women in the film. You don’t need any special knowledge of film to take part, though film buffs are welcome! This is an informal, friendly and inclusive event, we welcome people of all genders. WE WILL NOT BE SCREENING THE MOVIE – you’ll want to watch it beforehand 🙂

Brighton Digital Women know how to party, and they’re bringing the festival to a close with a celebration of inspirational women. As well as feminist cocktails (yes, that is a thing!) and epic female DJs playing music by female artists, you can be uplifted and energised by watching some of the most powerful feminist speeches of the decade, and see one delivered live.