December 9, 2020
The rapidly expanding technology sector is creating new opportunities and altering traditional industries in unimagined ways. However, women remain underrepresented in this growing sector. The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report, stated that only 36 percent of senior private sector’s managers and public sector’s officials are women, and locally, only 10 percent of Victoria’s tech companies have a female founder, and less than 39 percent of the tech workforce in the Okanagan is female.
The rapidly expanding technology sector is creating new opportunities and altering traditional industries in unimagined ways. However, women remain underrepresented in this growing sector. The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report, stated that only 36% of senior private sector’s managers and public sector officials are women.Locally, only 10 per cent of Victoria’s tech companies have a female founder, and less than 39 per cent of the tech workforce in the Okanagan is female.
Seizing the opportunity to change these dynamics, VIATEC, Accelerate Okanagan and the University of Victoria are leading W Venture, a Supercluster Capacity Building project comprised of a personalized three-month program designed to support female entrepreneurs from a diverse range of backgrounds. After surpassing their initial target of twenty-four applicants, the project team increased the program capacity to thirty-one, illustrating the clear demand for business training expertise.
Thirty-one female entrepreneurs received hands-on individualized support, subject matter expertise and created a peer community of ambitious women. The entrepreneurs, primarily from Victoria and the Okanagan, gathered with mentors and business leaders at the W Venture Showcase event on December 2 to celebrate their achievements, recognize their participation in our pilot project and pitch their ventures to a panel of judges.
Reflecting on the first cohort of the program, Rob Bennett, COO & Program Director at VIATEC, says that seeing and hearing how much of an impact W Ventures has had on their personal lives and on their business ventures was very rewarding, and the lessons learned for how they can best support women entrepreneurs on their journey will be applied to future programming. W Ventures hopes to run their next cohort in the new year, continuing to expand opportunities for more women entrepreneurs.