Market Expansion: Why Do We Need More Diversity and Inclusion in this Industry? — Women Series — Part 3

June 18th

The Blockchain Game Alliance is happy to invite you to participate in our online conference Market Expansion — bringing more women to blockchain, happening on June 18th, 2020. This event will be led by 100% women speakers!

This event aims to show Blockchain Gaming, NFTs, and Digital Art (a world widely believed as mostly dominated by men) as an inclusive industry where women can be empowered through entrepreneurship and true ownership.

Why do we need more women in the blockchain industry?

One of the most common discussions surrounding the technology and gaming industries is about the lack of women in those spaces. That discussion is necessary, given that only 25% of computing roles are held by women and that game design students are 88% male. Even the blockchain sector struggles with this, despite its democratic ideology and lack of gatekeepers, which should mean that, on paper, everyone is welcome.

However, lacking a gatekeeper does not automatically make blockchain accessible. Like other technologies, blockchain has a high technical barrier which tends to come from being able to code and an interest in STEM. Studies show that interest in STEM needs to be nurtured from a young age which, due to persistent stereotypes, makes that barrier to entry even harder to cross. Despite high numbers of men in crypto, 73% of all respondents to a survey by FCA stated they were unable to define cryptocurrency. This suggests that education in general is the problem, rather than specifically lack of education of women.

Gaming, of course, relies on more than just code to exist. Designers, writers, storytellers, researchers, artists, and developers alike are of equal measure in the creation of games. As the gaming industry continues to make conscious efforts to reduce sexism in game design and narrative, it presents the perfect opportunity to get more people using blockchain and, with that, being more inclined to learn about it.

With 46% of gamers in the US being female, gaming has the potential to provide an entry point for women to learn more about gaming, tech, and blockchain. Despite stereotypes, gaming is already paving the way for diverse users and experimental ecosystems. In-game purchases are just one example where blockchain can enhance the gaming experience through the implementation of token ecosystems, collectables, and rewards. 4.5% of women are already making in-game purchases compared to just 3.3% of men, proving the value of creating spaces for women as both players and creators. It’s already clear that having diverse teams creates more compelling work.

Our speakers for June 18th Event

We’ll be joined by Simona Pop, Chief Engagement Officer at OST, Fanny Lakoubay, COO of CADAF art fair, Genevieve Leveille, CEO of AgriLedger, Sparrow, digital artist and software engineer, Serena Tabacchi, Founder and Director of MoCDA, and Chloe Diamond, freelance Content Designer and curator at MoCDA to discuss the impact of women in blockchain and why more representation of women in the blockchain gaming world is vital for its future success.

  • Fanny Lakoubay (CADAF) — a New-York-based communication & operations specialist with 12+ years of experience in art+tech, blockchain, and ESG projects. She is currently the COO of CADAF art fairs, held by New Art Academy. Besides, she is also involved in RadicalxChange Foundation and ETHTURIN hackathon.
  • Simona Pop — With a background in experiential marketing and creative strategy, Simona is passionate about the potential blockchain has in levelling out the playing field in terms of access to information, resources and global opportunity. Previously the co-founder of the Bounties Network, creators of the StandardBounties protocol, and broader Ethereum ecosystem steward working across Devcon Scholars, Grants, Educational initiatives, her work is all about broadening access to blockchain applications for everyone and empowering communities through token economics.
  • Genevieve (AgriLedger) — led AgriLedger’s collaboration with Haiti’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry to deliver a Distributed Ledger Technology pilot sponsored by the World Bank. The project went live in May 2020 allowing Haitian fruit farmers, customers and families to reap the benefits of fairer prices and improved food security. She is also leading a COVID Rapid Response project supporting the effective and safe delivery of testing kits by assuring the Value Chain. Genevieve was nominated by the Financial Times to the top 100 BAME in UK technology in 2019 and was a top five finalist for Quesnay’s Female Founders in FinTech 2019. She has spoken on emerging technologies at numerous high-profile conferences around the world. She is vice-chair of techUK’s Distributed Ledger Technologies Working Group, which provides strategic direction for all UK activities related to DLT, and is an inaugural member of the Advisory Group for the Estonian Government’s eResidency initiative.
  • Sparrow (blackboxdotart) — a software engineer, traditional artist (encaustic wax medium) and digital artist. Finding a synergy between technology and art, Sparrow explores the latent space of Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) deep learning algorithms and other digital manipulation techniques to create artworks that are a collaboration between human and machine. Most recently she has been creating “programmable art”, wherein owners of individual elements of an artwork can control the rendering of a master image to create an artwork that changes over time. Her current focus: conceiving art that allows control of some elements of the artwork to be triggered by external data such as weather, Tweet sentiments, market prices, “in-world” activities, almost anything you could imagine!
  • Chloe Diamond (MoCDA + Blockchain advisor) — ​Chloe is an Oxford-based content designer with over 6 years experience in technology, art, and blockchain. She researches, explores, and tweaks content to make complex themes easy to digest, prioritising clarity and connection over jargon. She’s a curator and tech specialist at MoCDA, where she writes about what emerges when art and technology collide.
  • Serena Tabacchi ( MoCDA + NFT London) — a digital entrepreneur, curator and writer. She works at TATE Modern for Tate Commerce and is the founder and director at MoCDA, the Museum of Contemporary Digital Art. She is currently researching on how to curate digital art IRL (in real life) and virtually, URL.

In cased you missed it…

Also watch the first and second installments of our online conference series dedicated to Women of Blockchain Gaming, NFTs and Digital Art:

More Speakers throughout the Events

A fantastic line up of speakers will participate throughout this series of events.

  • Tanya “Jasper” Lindsay (CryptoMibs) — Tanya has a long history of leading technology teams. Early in her career she worked for ATI Technologies (now part of AMD) developing hardware and software products for the gaming industry. An entrepreneur at heart, she left AMD and built a successful consulting business in the Systems Integrations space. She is now looking to bring all her passions together in the emerging Blockchain Gaming industry with a new business venture — CryptoMibs.
  • Cynthia Huang (Altcoin Fantasy) — CEO and co-founder of Altcoin Fantasy, a crypto trading simulation game and the co-founder of Airhosts Forum, the largest Airbnb host community globally. Cynthia has won 8 hackathons, totaling over $100K USD and her articles have been published on sites like CoinMarketCap, The Startup, Good Audience and Invest In Blockchain.
  • Carolin Wend (Mintbase) — from Mintbase, a platform that also allows NFT creation on the Ethereum blockchain. She truly believes that decentralization will make the world a better place and wants to bridge the gap between technology and people.
  • Jiashan Wu (Ethernal) — designer, creative technologist, and cofounder of Ethernal. Ethernal is a multiplayer dungeon generated and owned by the players. Inspired by classic text and grid-based MUDs, players can explore the dungeon to discover new rooms and loot, collaborate with others to defeat monsters, or race against them to be the first to find rare items. The entire game is procedurally generated from the blockchain — game rules are dictated by the smart contracts and players have true ownership of items that they collect.
  • Judy Mam (Dada.art) — cofounder of dada.art, the only visual conversation platform where people from all over the world speak to each other through drawings, creating collaborative art. DADA is building a token economy with a gamified incentive framework to create a new economic paradigm for artists in which making art is separated from sales transactions, allowing artists to create freely while they receive a passive income for their contribution to the community.
  • Luna Javier — Creative Director and Co-Founder of Altitude Games, the Manila-based studio behind blockchain game Battle Racers. She has been designing and producing games since 2002 and is currently helping with UX design on Metaboss, the biggest NFT boss fight in the world.
  • Carolin Wend (Mintbase) — from Mintbase, a platform that also allows NFT creation on the Ethereum blockchain. She truly believes that decentralization will make the world a better place and wants to bridge the gap between technology and people.
  • Holly Atkinson (The Sandbox) — Recent addition to The Sandbox where she is a full-time Blockchain Developer. She previously worked as Full Stack Engineer for Tracr in their Application Team (Forbes Blockchain 50), after deciding to switch to a career in tech and becoming fascinated by Ethereum. Her career history (>12 years) spans business development, project finance and commercial roles, including over 5 years’ international experience at leading green energy company Ørsted, where she specialised in complex acquisition and joint venture transactions for Offshore Wind. BSc(Hons) Physics with French from The University of Nottingham.
  • Marguerite deCourcelle (Blockade Games) — (better known as coin_artist) is a technologist, game designer, and blockchain enthusiast. She is the CEO of Blockade Games, a company that designs puzzles and games built on blockchain technology.
  • Caty Tedman (DapperLabs) — Head of Marketing & Partnership at Dapper Labs. She is responsible for bringing content from the best brands in the world to consumers through partnerships, where beloved IP is brought to life in new and interesting ways using blockchain technology.
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Watch out for the 4th installment of this series:

  • June 25th — The challenges with testing blockchain products and Dapps
  • July 3rd — Collectables in Gaming: What do we consider of value in the digital space? Who collects what and why?
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About the Blockchain Game Alliance

The Blockchain Game Alliance is an organization committed to promoting blockchain within the game industry.

Our goal is to spread awareness about blockchain technologies and encourage adoption by highlighting their potential to foster new ways to create, publish, play, and build strong communities around games.

The BGA also provides an open forum for individuals and companies to share knowledge and collaborate, create common standards, establish best practices, and network.

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BGameAlliance

Learn more about the BGA: https://blockchaingamealliance.org