Kicking off at 8am ET (1pm GMT), the online conference will see panelists and presenters from across the industry talk about how the industry can foster career growth and networking opportunities for women; leadership skills, work-life balance, story-selling, creating career paths, and more.
The full line-up will run until 3pm ET (8pm GMT) over sixteen sessions, beginning with introductions and updates from Girls Who Print EMEA and Girls Who Print Africa, with hosts broadcasting live from Canon's American customer innovation centre in Florida.
Deborah Corn, founder of Girls Who Print and intergalactic ambassador to the printerverse at print advocacy group Print Media Centr, said: “Girls Who Print continues to grow and gain worldwide recognition and influence.
“With more than 11,000 members in our network, this year is all about recognizing, embracing, and igniting our #GirlPower to manifest our life and career goals and proactively contribute to industry growth through mentorship and leadership.”
Girls Who Print board member and senior director of marketing and innovation for production printing at Canon Europe, Jennifer Kolloczek, said that while the many changes she has seen in the industry are to be celebrated, there is more that companies can do to welcome women into the trade.
“I still remember my first Drupa in 2000, and I’m proud of the differences I have seen in the industry,” she said.
“Not many people realised diversity could be so beneficial to the workforce, it wasn’t spoken about in the same way.”
Nowadays, the conversation may be different, but the industry needs to back up the change in attitude with action: “Companies should more clearly demonstrate the many opportunities within the print industry that could play to women’s strengths.
“And not just women, we need to play to all individual’s strengths, whether they’re women, men or non-binary. We need to get better as an industry at making them more visible, in their diverse roles, to inspire more talent into the print industry.
“I’m really proud to say that Canon has a number of initiatives that speak to this; from Canon Middle East, and Turkey’s Women in Sales to Canon Central and North Africa’s Women Who Empower campaign, and of course our support for Girls Who Print.”
Kolloczek added that the first step to getting a more diverse talent pool in the industry was simply expanding peoples’ awareness.
“There are so many areas within the print industry that offer exciting and fulfilling careers,” she said.
“Are they good at software development, engineering, communications, design or creativity? Many people don’t realise all of the different opportunities available within print: [we need to] help them see what the world would look like without any print.”
The Girls Who Print online conference is available to attend free online for all interested parties regardless of gender, accessible by clicking here. Recordings of the sessions will be available on demand.
