The news of a serial female entrepreneur being denied access to London Tech Week has sparked outrage in the community.
Davina Schonle (pictured, left), who is the founder and CEO of Birmingham-based Humanvantage AI, was refused entry to the event for bringing her eight-month-old daughter along.
The former CEO of DS Consulting Group took to LinkedIn to share the story, which garnered masses of attention, with over 3,500 reactions and nearly 1,000 comments.
She said: “Hi I hate that I’m having to write this but today I was refused entry at London Tech Week… because I had my baby with me.
“It’s a 3 hour drive one way for me to come to London. At this stage I limit how many hours I am away from my baby girl. This is about new environments for her as much as it is about me. I should be able to build my company with her by my side.
“As someone passionate about innovation, tech and the future of work, I was excited to attend, connect, have meetings and contribute. In today’s age shouldn’t we be more inclusive?
“This moment was more than inconvenient. It was a clear reminder that as a tech industry, we still have work to do when it comes to inclusion beyond buzzwords.
“Parents are part of this ecosystem. Caregivers are innovators, founders, investors, and leaders. If major events like London Tech Week can’t make space for, what message does that send about who belongs in tech?
“I don’t necessarily mean make it kid inclusive event in general, or do I? Doesn’t our future belong to the kids?
“There are some people doing amazing work to be inclusive like Shaa Wasmund MBE and Vasily Alekseenko, but shouldn’t these large events be doing more?”
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Following the news Debbie Wosskow OBE (pictured, right), co-chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce, commented: “This is the whole problem epitomised. If a founder is turned away from a space where she was due to meet suppliers for her own business, what does that say about the potential for female founders to secure investment?
“It’s a tired old scenario and a tired old system and doesn’t do anything to dispel the ‘tech bros’ persona. The figures speak for themselves: the biggest success story last year was AI, which more than doubled its investment from £1.72bn in 2023 to £3.55bn. Women’s share of this? It was shameful.
“The average deal for male teams in AI was £5.3mn compared with just £0.8mn for female ones. Tech can’t pretend to be a forward-thinking community if this is still allowed to happen.
“It’s also why I know that the best way to drive change is from within: to remove the barriers to access for women and actively bring them into the game – this is everyone’s responsibility.
“And let’s drop the ‘diversity’ badge: investing in female founders is a commercial opportunity, plain and simple.”
It is not the first time in recent memory in which Wosskow has spoken up about the treatment of women within the tech sector.
In March, she vented her frustration about the lack of female representation in Project Europe.
“I, and others have done, their due diligence on this important project which has barely any women involved,” she wrote at the time.
“As co-chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce it’s my job to call out lack of female representation in VC.”
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