Bloom Creative Director Courtney Farrow Speaks At Barclays Eagle Labs' Women 4.0 For International Women's Day

News

9 Mar

Bloom Director Courtney Farrow joined a panel of speakers at Hull's Women 4.0 event to celebrate International Women's Day.

Co-founded in 2017 by Barclays Eagle Labs and Claire Clark, Director of Development at IoT App Development Consultancy Sauce, Women 4.0 serves as a platform to highlight successful women in industry, inspiring all people and leading a positive path for the next generation.

On Friday 6 March, Courtney joined Christina Colmer-McHugh, Co-Founder and Director of groundbreaking digital wearable company Moodbeam, Lucy Blackley, creator of tech startup and product lifecycle management (PLM) software company Bombyx PLM, and Louise Cooke, Community Manager of Hull's Centre For Digital Innovation (C4DI) to reveal her career story so far.

The theme of the event was inspired by a quote from Mary Portas, the UK's foremost authority on retail and brand communication and author of "Work Like A Woman":

"I really, really do believe that the future of being successful in work is going to be about embracing all of those wonderful things women bring - empathy, collaboration, flexibility."

First up was Louise Cooke, who connects startups, businesses and individuals, helping C4DI to create an abundance of opportunity within Hull’s tech sector.

Before joining the C4DI team, Louise came from a traditionally non-technical background, but her skills have given her a unique insight into how to work with people and help them succeed.

Courtney followed shortly after:

"Although a bit nerve-wracking, it was an absolute honour to be invited by Claire to take part in this event. I've been to most of the Women 4.0 talks since it started, so it's a bit surreal to stand up there and tell my story," Courtney says.

"Claire asked me to talk about my career journey so far - which really has only been three years - so I thought I'd treat the audience to some cringe-worthy screenshots of my first blog... which is really where this all began. I was only 15 and spent a lot of time on my own, in my room, taking photos of my latest charity shop finds and writing about my favourite lipsticks."

Little did she know, the skills she was developing - writing, basic design and very very very basic HTML - would come in very handy later on in her life.

"I want people to get more out of my talk today than just knowing about my story. I've spent a good portion of my career believing that 'I'm not a techy', 'I'm not a business owner' and really that 'I'm not good enough'. Now I know that I am all three of these, and if I can change my mindset, so can you," Courtney says at the end of her talk.

Credit: Moodbeam

Lucy Blackley then took to the lectern as she told her incredible story from clothing to coding.

After working for twelve years in the product development industry working for global brands like Arcadia, Next and Topshop, the former garment technologist decided to create her own Product Lifecycle Management software.

Today, Bombyx is a growing tech business, helping people streamline their processes and focus on their innovations.

Finally, the audience heard from Christina Colmer-McHugh.

Before becoming the founder of an influential tech startup, Christina was an experienced journalist and public relations specialist. It was her seven-year-old daughter who inspired the creation of Moodbeam; the young girl was struggling with a tough situation at school and Christina was left wondering what her daughter was feeling when she wasn’t with her.

Knowing the situation wasn’t unique, Christina searched for a way to help other people around the world, and Moodbeam was born.

Finally, the audience heard from Christina Colmer-McHugh.

Knowing the situation wasn’t unique, Christina searched for a way to help other people around the world, and Moodbeam was born.

To round off the event, each speaker donated a prize that every audience member had the chance of winning.

Bombyx PLM donated three signed copies of Mary Portas' book Work Like A Woman, Moodbeam gifted one of their Moodbeam wearables, hosts Rollits LLP gave a Kindle and C4DI granted a lucky winner a two-month free membership and access to their space.

Bloom donated a LinkedIn audit session for an individual or business to help them brush up their profile and create engaging content.

“I was thrilled to welcome Louise, Lucy, Christina and Courtney to this Women 4.0 event. Women 4.0 is inclusive to all, and it has been amazing to see it grow over the past few years, with people of all genders, industries, ages and interests attending,” says Women 4.0 founder Claire Clark.