Liverpool and Chester firms combine to stage North West event later this autumn. Tony McDonough reports.

Social enterprise Liverpool Girl Geeks has teamed up with Chester-based digital marketing firm Clicky Media to host a major North West event to encourage more young women to consider a digital career.

‘OMG! Girls in Tech’ is free to attend and will take place in Manchester on October 28.

The lack of women working in the tech and digital sectors is a recognised global issue with only 6% of jobs in the digital industry held by women and only 16% of jobs in IT.

Prominent tech pioneers, including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Martha, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, founder of lastminute.com, are pushing for more women to join the industry.

Liverpool Girl Geeks, which has been working to get girls into digital for several years, and Clicky Media are keen to address this issue.

The event, which is targeted at girls aged 18+, takes place at Manchester’s UKFast Campus, and is designed to discover talent, develop skills and kick-start careers in the digital and tech industries.

It will include a number of workshops, including; getting your head around code, confidence-building and web development.

As well as talks from the chief executive and managing director of Clicky Media, delegates will also hear from inspiring women across a broad range of industries, such as keynote speakers like Kate Willard, head of corporate projects for Liverpool city region-based Stobart Group.

Oliver Yeates, founder and chief executive of Click,  said: “We are always looking to inspire people to get involved in the digital and tech industries, as it is something we are extremely passionate about.

“With 50% of our team made up of females, very unusual for the industry, at Clicky we go out of our way to encourage talented women to join the team and are constantly striving for equality, knowing from experience, what a vital and talented contribution they are making.

“I believe that nurturing and encouraging women to start a career in this industry is essential to fill the gap between the jobs available, which is set to grow exponentially in the coming years, and the demand for qualified graduates in digital and tech.

“Many girls express an interest from a young age and yet, currently, only 7% of girls take computer studies at A level and only 17% of those studying computer science in higher education are women.

“We want this to change and hope that the exceptional line up that we have planned for the OMG! Girls in Tech event will be the catalyst for change.”

The event has been organised and designed by a female-only team, including the development of the OMG! Girls in Tech website

To find out more about the fantastic opportunity and the totally FREE OMG! Girls in Tech event, click here to register for free tickets.