WomensLab - new creative collaboration platform launches

It's a dream I've had for many years: to get women together to the benefit of the individual and the group and together make a difference to the world we live in. It's a dream many told me is not realistic, too 'grand', too time-intensive etc etc etc. A million and one reasons not to do it.

And yet....almost 3 years later, it has become a reality! WomensLab is born!

WomensLab is a collaboration with Jan van Mol of AddictLab, a global creative think tank that already counts over 4.000 creatives and aims to generate innovation across all platforms. Jan and I have known each other since I arrived back in Belgium in 2001 and as we've crossed paths several times over the last years, it was only a matter of time until we decided to bundle our strengths to focus on our common beliefs and goals.

We've defined WomensLab as follows:

WomensLab is a LABORATORY for women across all creative disciplines - a PLAYGROUND for female artists - an ACCELERATOR for creative talent - an INSPIRATION pool for people, projects, brands, a KNOWLEDGE center for gender related marketing, a GENERATOR for female-inspired INNOVATION.

With the launch of WomensLab Muse Communication offers its clients a multi-cultural pool of creatives to tap into to help develop and test everything from new products to innovative and creative communication concepts or campaigns.

You can read the full press release here

Feel free to join us! Register at www.womenslab.org and upload your work! Or follow us via www.womenslab.blogspot.com

Learn from the Future

Last night I attended a VEPEC event where some of Belgium's foremost business leaders from the publishing & media world and politicians discussed the current crisis and its effects on our industry: disastrous to say the least. Some publishers said that income generated by advertising was down by as much as 30% (at least that's what they'll admit to in public). The CEO of the Alfacam Group and founder of the soon to launch television channel "EXQI" went even further, saying that "the 30-second spot will disappear completely in the foreseeable future."
Now if these two small snippets from an evening marked by unspoken unease and questions filled with fear or bewilderment don't spell "dawn of a new world order", then I don't know what it will take to wake people up.
Some people have been "awake" to the new realities for a while, including MIT professor Otto Scharmer. Author of "Theory U", Scharmer is an action researcher who creates innovations in learning and leadership that he delivers through classes and lectures across the globe.
In this 7-minute video he succinctly explains what the revolutionary statement "learn from the future" means. As I watched the video, it struck me that the requirements and method for innovation were based on a right-brain approach, of course also known to be more 'female' in that it requires unbounded qualitative patterns rather than linear sequences. 

Suffice it to say that I am curious to see how a largely hierarchal, linear, male-dominated business world will respond to these new non-linear rules for true innovation.

Welcome to the future of business: 100 companies that will change the world

I've been saying it to anyone who will listen: the current economic crisis will change the way in which we do business - for ever.

But I'm certainly not the first to notice the fundamental societal shifts that are currently shaking up our lives. The signs have been there for all to notice: our unbalanced lifestyles that have lead to countless broken families and stress-related afflictions, the youth of today being dubbed the "work-to-live, not live-to-work generation" or the almost irreversible damage our "Me-myself-and-I" globalized consumerism has caused over the past few decades. Let's be honest: how much longer did we think this excessive and self-obsessed way of living could last?

How will these shifts impact the way we live and do business? Fundamentally, if you ask me.
We will need to (re)find a balance between that has been lost for many decades.

What a refreshing, inspiring discovery it was when I came upon Striding Out's "Future 100" list this morning. The Future 100 list is a compilation of talented young entrepreneurs aged 18-35 who demonstrate entrepreneurial flair and innovation in progressing a responsible business venture. Responsible business is defined as one which demonstrates a balance between economic, environmental and social goals to achieve ultimate business success.

"The future of our world is in the hands of individuals who are committed to generating commercial and ethical returns. Challenging economic times can offer opportunities to question the way we operate as both a business community and a society. We are looking for the 'Future 100' young entrepreneurs who are changing the face of everyday business and improve commerce's impact on the wider world," says Striding Out founder Heather Wilkinson.

Some of the companies that caught our attention:
http://www.thisisredbutton.co.uk/ - design company developing products exclusively for the Aid and Humanitarian markets.
Fair Gift - Fair Trade gifts from Asia, Africa and South America.
TribeWanted - inspirational holidays with a purpose
LM3Online - helps you measure your organization's economic contribution to its community.
Women Like Us - helps Mom's reintegrate into the working community
The Hub - connecting 'the new entrepreneurs' with each other across the globe.
Journeys For Change - takes extraordinary leaders on interactive expeditions to learn from the world's most inspiring social and environmental entrepreneurs.

Marketing to Moms Must Read.

Rasorfish and Cafemom recently issued a report called "Digital Mom".

It contains a wealth of information about how technologies are affecting the behavior of moms - from how they parent, socialize and keep in touch, to how they shop.

Reading the report really brings home the fact that the way in which moms communicate and whom they trust is changing fundamentally. As marketeers, it is imperative we understand how to leverage emerging technologies as well as the growing social influence of the digital mom in a changing media landscape.

So, if you're marketing your product/service also to Moms (and really, who isn't?), then you should read this report!

Survey: Help Us Better Meet Your Business Travel Needs

Ad!dict Creative Lab is a global think-tank that brings together over 4,000 creatives from around the world on innovation and design challenges that need a broader perspective.

They're currently doing a survey on business travel. More specifically: the likes and dislikes thereof with seasoned business travelers. Over the past few decades, women have also become frequent business travelers, and as such, it is important that we share our likes and dislikes - from a woman's perspective!

The team at Ad!dict would really appreciate it if you could take the short 3-minute survey here.

As soon as the project wraps and the findings & recommendations are made public, we'll share a selection of them here! So, stay tuned in the coming months...!

The future of marketing to women = great marketing to everyone?

How about that: an ad that uses humor and gets it right for both sexes!
Well done Heineken!

HOT OFF THE PRESS: launch of WOMEN-omics.com website

WOMEN-omics ( www.WOMEN-omics.com), provides exclusive global reporting on women's growing economic impact on companies and countries, and aggregates the best information, ideas, and insight in the field, updated daily. A one-stop portal, the site is designed for corporate leaders, top executives, policymakers, journalists, researchers, business schools, and women in the workplace. The site brings together news updates, case studies, rankings, exclusive CEO profiles, research reports, statistics, and other resources.

MUSE COMMUNICATION CONTRIBUTES!

As one of Europe's only communication agencies specialized in marketing-to-women, Muse Communication was also asked to contribute an article for the launch of the new portal. Titled "Marketing Needs a Woman's Touch", you can find it here.

A video you will never forget.

It's Friday, and as some of my posts here sometimes do, this one has nothing to do with marketing-to-women and everything to do with life.

It's a video I just found on the blog of author Tim Ferriss.

It's a video about self-doubt, something we're all guilty of at some point.
So this video is for all of us, no-one can say "this doesn't apply to me"... To put things back into perspective when we need it most.

The Undeniable importance of Denial

(original english text of a column I wrote for De Morgen's weekend supplement "Wax" this week)

The undeniable importance of denial.

Oscar Wilde once said: “Illusion is the first of all pleasures”. Now it’s not that I want to bump chests with the larger-than-life Mr. Wilde, but I think he got it wrong on this one. Denial is the first of all pleasures. And having just turned 36 (ok, ok, damnit: 37), I know a thing or two about the pleasures, and necessities, of denial.

Let me give an example of unequivocal denial that all those over thirty will relate to. (Those under thirty can skip this paragraph; you won’t know what I’m talking about – yet. If you keep reading, don’t smirk too conceitedly, your time will come.). Those over thirty will know the guilty pleasure of bumping into an old high-school friend you haven’t seen since platform shoes were in fashion (the first time round), and with a pang of glee noticing the first fanning wrinkles around their eyes, the extra few good-living kilos that pad out their face a little too ruddily. And while your eyes stealthily scan their face the way a thousand-watt searchlight scans a midnight sea for survivors, you quietly think to yourself: “Boy, I’m glad I didn’t age the way they did. At least I still look pretty much the way I did at 25”.
Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is denial in its purest form.

But not all forms of denial are born equal, and not all afford us the same measure of pleasure.

First there’s pragmatic, necessary denial. The accountant of denials, this dependable, rational form of denial protects us against the harsh, inescapable realities of life: the cruel ending of love, sky-high taxes and sagging breasts.

Then there’s the second kind of denial: impractical, non-essential denial. Now don’t get me wrong: it is not because this denial is non-essential that it is therefore less valuable. Au contraire: non-essential denial can be very essential indeed. This irrepressible dancing harlot of denials, non-essential denial is every girl’s best friend.

It’s the kind of denial that assures us our jeans don’t fit any tighter than they did last month, that we just left them in the dryer too long.
It’s the kind of denial that convinces us to break the cardinal fashion rule “no miniskirts after 30” because well… it is Rock Werchter and we do don’t look a day over 28.
It’s the kind of denial that whispers soothingly that just one more little cookie won’t make the difference, or with a reassuring shoulder pat reminds us that a glass of red wine a day is good for the heart. It’s the kind of denial that cheers us on to climb a bar counter at 2am to do the Two-Tequila Boogie with a boy barely out of college, knowing we have an 8am meeting the next morning.

It’s also the kind of denial that keeps our best friends looking as youthful to us at 36 as they did at 22; the denial that keeps our hips slim and our husbands from growing beer bellies. It’s the kind of denial that keeps our parents from becoming senior citizens and the one that keeps us animatedly crooning “Like A Virgin” in the presence of our preteen son.

But most importantly it’s the kind of denial that gives us the courage to backpack across India at forty, climb Mount Kilimanjaro at fifty or sell the house to motor along Route 66 in an open-top Alfa Romeo Spider at sixty-five.

It’s the kind of denial that is the racy red lingerie, the little black whip and the fluffy pink handcuffs in our pragmatic underwear drawer of life. It’s the denial that allows us to dream crazy dreams and take courageous decisions, regardless of the realities of our age or circumstances.

Its the priceless kind of denial that keeps us kicking up our skirts to dance on the bar counter of life – at 36, 56, and yes, also at 76.

www.demorgen.be

Nothing will be the way it used to be.

The way in which we do business has been changing steadily for a while now. The impact of the changing world in which we live keeps becoming clearer every day. It's a scary and uncertain time in which to do business, for the changes we are experiencing are fundamental and far-reaching. This clip, sent to me by my friend Caroline over at RollingTalks, is spot-on in its analysis of the forces that are increasingly affecting business today.

For those brave enough to run with the bulls in these uncertain times, the clip also contains a few great inspirational pointers that can help you get (or stay) ahead of the pack!