Women in Cycling (WIC) - a joint initiative by Cycling Industries Europe, ECF, Mobycon, Velokonzept and Conebi - was launched at a digital event on 24 February. With over 1150 registrations worldwide, the network was overwhelmed with the response clearly reflecting the high demand for the initiative. The event started with a powerful one-on-one interview with Bonnie Tu, Chairperson of Giant Group and founder of Liv Cycling, one of the most influential women in the industry. “It is my responsibility and my dream to encourage more women in the cycling industry and to encourage more women to cycle”, said Tu in her opening address.
At the launch, we heard about the origins of the initiative by some of the founding members – Isabell Eberlein of Velokonzept, Angela van der Kloof of Mobycon, Florence Gregoire of ECF and Lauha Fried from Cycling Industries Europe. The panel as the whole event was moderated by Jill Warren, CEO of ECF. At the second panel, inspirational women across the cycling sector told their stories including Susanne Puello head of Pexco, Sarika Panda Bhatt from BYCS, Ruth Oldenziel from Eindhoven University of Technology, Monika Sattler, who is the first woman to cycle la Vuelta, and cycling “brainwasher” Pinar Pinzuti from Bikenomist. The panel was moderated by Raluca Fiser, president of Green Revolution & ECF Vice-President. The event ended with a networking session.
The key objective of Women in Cycling is to boost equality and diversity in the cycling sector. The network has a vision for a diverse, inclusive cycling sector that provides equal opportunities and contributes to achieving cycling's full potential. At present, the initiative has 24 inspirational women as Ambassadors, who have committed to transferring their knowledge and experience to empower women in the sector and to promote the initiative further.
The network warmly welcomes all women affiliated in the cycling sector – whether from industry, NGOs, civil society, public sector and government, consultancies, media etc. Initial tools to give women a voice and increased visibility have been created in a form of an Expertise Portal where women working for the sector can sign up and tag their expertise with keywords. The idea is that anyone looking for women for keynotes, panels, expertise, jobs, board places or simply for networking with peers can go to the portal and start searching. The network also invites women to join its Women In Cycling LinkedIn Group, which after two weeks of the launch already has just under 700 members. Here women can suggest activities for the network, share articles, research and best practice on the topic and inform each other about interesting opportunities and events.
This week Women In Cycling will be participating at European Commission’s Women In Transport – EU Platform for Change meeting to present WIC and to liaise with women working for other transport modes and to hear more about EU action to boost gender equality in the transport sector.
Women in Cycling will be also present at the Velo-city 2021 conference taking place from 6-9 September in Lisbon – we look forward to meeting many of you there!
If you missed the launch, you can find the entire video and other useful links provided during the event here. For further information, please see WIC online, sign up to the Expertise Portal or join Women In Cycling LinkedIn Group. For further questions, contact us.
