Kiss Magazine attended Women Influence Chicago’s event last quarter held at the Rebecca Minkoff shop of Oak Street, and we were delighted by the way Minkoff was incorporating technology into everyday fashion. This fiscal quarter we wanted to feature their latest meeting and speaker, Joanna Pena-Bickley. Joanna Peña-Bickly is currently the CEO of ThinxMachine and is known as the Mother of Cognitive Experience Design.
Her impressive background starts from advising Fortune 500 CEO’s to shaping some of the world’s most recognizable brands such as American Express, Jay Z, Land Rover, Sephora and more.

This event focused on empowering women in the tech and data enabled world. Event goers were able to hear and learn from the award-winning design technologist, Joannna Peña-Bickly. She spoke about being a collaborative capitalist, leading the fourth industrial revolution, and how to help women succeed in this technology advanced world.
According to a recent article from Chicago Women Magazine, women make up between 30 to 36 percent of employees at tech powerhouses like Uber, Google, and Apple. As a sea of determined women looked at Bickley, she shared, that she had spent the last year only making purchases from women ran businesses. She called it, “the power of the purse strings.”

Women control more than 60% of all personal wealth in the U.S. according to the Federal Reserve, MassMutual Financial Group, BusinessWeek, Gallup. Therefore, Bickley was sharing how women have quite a bit of control when it comes to household purchases. She shared, “even if you are a stay at home mom you can make the choices on where to buy from.” That gives women a lot of power if you think about it.
Bickley also shared that women have had a 25 year climb to get to where we are today. Her advice for other business owners, “best way to grow your business is by acting like a startup.”  She also, advised, “don’t forget about the power of the purse strings.” So ladies, whether that purse is a Louis Vuitton or a knockoff Kate Spade purse. Don’t forget your power.
Women Influence Chicago was founded by Kelly Stickel of Remodista who hosts a meeting every quarter. For more information on Remodista and how they are disrupting the retail industry with technology, head to www.remodista.com.
Also, for more information on Joanna Bickley: http://joannapenabickley.net/about. 

 

About The Author

Marissa Redmond is an emerging Fashion Editor and Blogger.

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