We are absolutely thrilled to announce that the campaigns we have introduced in previous blog posts are being set in motion! We have created a tentative timeline in which you, our reader, can follow along with us on our journey to change the BC tech space for women for good. We will cover five major events: Planning Process, Pitching to the BC Tech Association, #EveryoneCanPlay, Women in Tech Day, and Follow-Up.
Planning
We recognized an issue in our industry, and decided to do something about it. Three major influential companies, Nintendo, Hootsuite, and Electronic Arts, high-fived and banded together to initiate a movement to promote industry-wide change. There is a significant lack of female representation in the tech industry, and we found many concrete reasons for why that is. We are eager and enthusiastic about encouraging women to join the tech space. This is the time to brainstorm and come up with possible initiatives we can implement to achieve our collaborative goal.
Pitch to the BC Tech Association
Schedule a meeting with executives from the BC Tech Association to pitch our collaborative initiatives: #EveryoneCanPlay and Women in Tech Day. One representative from each company will be at the meeting to present our ideas and answer any questions from the panel. Upon the approval from the board of executives, we will need time to plan our social media campaign, and hope to initiate it in full force in six to nine months.
#EveryoneCanPlay
This hashtag, #EveryoneCanPlay, is the start of a new movement in the BC tech industry. Although the origin of this hashtag was inspired by the lack of female representation in the tech industry, this hashtag is for everyone. #EveryoneCanPlay is a campaign that promotes everything it states: that everyone – despite being young, old, amateur, professional, female, male, non-binary, ethnic background, religious views, sexual orientation, competitiveness, and everything in between – can play. Nine months after pitching to the BC Tech Association, we plan to have #EveryoneCanPlay become a fully-realized, powerful hashtag that promotes inclusivity and diversity in gaming.
Women in Tech Day
Along with #EveryoneCanPlay, we plan on initiating a Women in Tech Day every calendar year in the BC Tech Industry. It is a day dedicated to celebrating the women who occupy spaces in the tech industry, and how empowering it is to be a part of a movement for women in tech. We are eager to host a conference or seminar on Women in Tech Day to promote careers in tech to young women. After the campaign #EveryoneCanPlay gathers enough attention on social media, we will be implementing Women in Tech Day one year following. One year of planning gives us enough time to reflect on what we have achieved through the social media campaign, what important ideas we want to feature in our conference, and any administrative prospects to consider.
Follow Up
After we implement the first ever Women in Tech Day in BC, we have one year to reflect on our bearings. We will look at the social media campaign stats: we will measure engagement, positive responses, negative responses, critiques, and how the campaign made people feel. For Women in Tech Day, we will consider what we did well, what we want to improve on, and what we learned from this process. We will also encourage attendees to share their feedback on the event, and share their ideas on what they wish to see for future Women in Tech Days. We wish to keep the ball rolling and continue to host a Women in Tech Day annually in BC for many legacies to come, and even influence other provinces (and countries!) to follow suit.
Everyone Can Play 