At Delivery Hero, we are committed to creating a culture of equality and believe that diversity is a source of strength in the workplace. Women Connect is an annual Delivery Hero event that started internally for Heroes and was opened to the public in 2022, with the goal of sharing knowledge, experiences, and networks. Following the wrap of the second edition of Women Connect in March, the team behind the event is already looking ahead to the future. We caught up with the amazing women who made the event possible and discovered what it takes to make Women Connect happen.
Getting started: Developing a global idea
Carla Wiemers, Manager Corporate Events at Delivery Hero, was instrumental in making Women Connect happen. With diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do, Women Connect was born from the ambition to leverage a global platform to further connections and dialogue between women and allies. Through the dedicated efforts of Carla and the team, a plan was devised to implement Delivery Hero’s values in a tangible way, thus in 2021, the first-ever Women Connect was created.
As with every event of this scale, it came with its own unique challenges. While Delivery Hero has hosted large-scale events before, they had been mostly business-driven, and an event like Women Connect required a very different approach in order to ensure an authentic and meaningful experience. Highlighting Delivery Hero’s global perspective was a key goal, and Heroes from around the world shared their insights and opinions so as to be able to shape Women Connect in the most inclusive way possible. The response was overwhelming and the ideas and inspiration seemed endless.
As a trial for the first-ever global event open to the public, in 2021 Women Connect 1.0 was mainly focused on reaching our Heroes globally and not making every session public. The goal was to create a safe space for everyone to share opinions and exchange knowledge and insights on various topics like imposter syndrome, unconscious bias, gender equality, and many more. Women Connect’s inaugural event in 2021 was designed as a three-day event with 50 speakers, 23 sessions, and three externally available panels. After a positive first run, the team felt emboldened for the next edition and decided to make it bigger, better, and open to everyone.
The goal of Women Connect is to further conversations between not just women and their allies but between everyone, by addressing subjects such as imbalances and prejudices in the workplace. The team’s ambition was to not only openly broach these subjects but also to equip women and their allies with the tools to actively work towards fighting them. Helping women find their voice, and build confidence, was a key goal for the event. Empowering women in all aspects of their lives aligns with Delivery Hero’s core values and is a top priority for the company.
Women Connect is an event made by women, for everyone.
Making sure to address the topics that matter to employees is at the core of Women Connect’s mission. To kick off planning for Women Connect 2.0, the team worked even more closely with employees to understand what topics Heroes wanted to be raised and what they wanted leaders and experts to talk about. These insights allowed for a more relevant, streamlined schedule, and in the end there was a session that everyone could benefit from, whether it was an inspirational talk, workshop, leadership advice, or a specialized topic.
Giving color to concept: Creating an identity
One of the first steps whilst planning Women Connect was to create a unique recognizable identity for the event. Here Julia Brossard, Graphic Design Intern at Delivery Hero, was tasked with creating a one-of-a-kind brand identity. In order to ensure consistent branding, a logo was created that would act as the template on which all additional designs would be based.
Part of the core challenge when creating the logo was to find a way to harness the power of design to convey a deeper meaning. For the Women Connect logo, Julia elected to have each part of the W letter be a different color in order to represent different women (origins, characters, or challenges) but also their unity through the letter. The link to the event was aided by a speech bubble meant to convey the conversational and discussions aspect of the event, exchanging ideas.
The team also made several color versions to have more variety of use for things such as presentation decks, zoom backgrounds, speaker cards, all the while staying consistent with the brand identity.
Since Women Connect is a Delivery Hero event, the decision was made to stick with the Delivery Hero color palette. The blue in the color palette represents diversity and yellow inclusion. The pink is a tint of the Delivery Hero red, which is softer and doesn’t upstage the other two colors.
Ready, set, go: A plan in action
Catriona Megahey, Specialist Conceptual Design, oversaw the collecting of all the data for Women Connect, which was vital in determining the outcome and subsequently communicating the success of the event.
One of the biggest results that came about after moving the event from an internal-only event to an event that is open for all, was the number of attendees from across the globe. Overall the event had 1237 attendees from 56 different countries. Networking across oceans and connecting with people that were having their morning coffee or settling in for the evening, was somehow very revitalizing.
Witnessing in the chat how attendees from Germany exchanged knowledge and shared stories with attendees from the USA and Australia was truly inspiring, and it is exactly what Women Connect is about.
Across two working days, the event gathered 42 leaders and experts from all walks of life, who collectively shared over 10 hours of personal stories and experiences. The chance to ask leaders and experts questions and to gather advice and learnings over the course of the sessions was an exclusive opportunity and something that not only the team but everyone can benefit immensely from.
With such a bright future ahead, the team will continue to address topics that are close to Heroes’ hearts on a daily basis and celebrate the achievements and participants of Women Connect. Women Connect will continue to take place around International Women’s Day to further underscore the essential messages of the event.
Events like Women Connect are vital in furthering dialogue and support amongst women, creating safe spaces for exchange and learning, but also for actively engaging allies in the conversation. The third edition of Women Connect is already in the works, with the aim of having an even bigger impact.
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