Over the last two years, we organized and hosted three major global conferences: FemTech Forum, Health Tech 2.0, and Investing & Fundraising in HealthTech and FemTech.

This year, we decided to do something different.

Why FemTech Untapped?

In 2022, we are committed to opening the conversation around the topics in FemTech that are still taboo, areas that are untapped, underresearched, and underfunded.

Over the past few years, the term FemTech has become a buzzword, and women’s health, today more than ever, has been getting the recognition and visibility it deserves. But, this is still not enough for the healthcare industry to be more inclusive, and more innovation, disruption, and funding are still needed in some other areas such as cardiovascular health or mental health. Female health is not just reproductive health, and unless we start treating it as such, especially if we don’t see it as a part of a larger public health discussion, things won’t move at the right speed in the right direction for many more years.

That’s why this year we are bringing you a series of events, educational panels, blogs, and interviews with industry leaders, founders, clinicians, organizations, and investors every month throughout the year, with the focus on some of the most important topics in the femtech space, featuring some of the most innovative companies in this industry.

Join us every month for a series of events and educational content where we will cover topics from diversity and inclusion in the femtech space, to innovations in menstrual, mental, gut, and cardiovascular health, to male contraception and baby tech, and everything in between.

This program will be delivered in partnership with our program partners FemTec Health and Goodwin, as well as our webinar partners ByHeart, Biote, Lovehoney Group, Elix Healing, FERTI·LILY, Prosoma, CVS Health, Joylux, and many more.

Together, we can all work towards femtech innovation and support being more accessible and inclusive!

Find out more about the program

Our October event - Better menopause - are we there yet?

As of 2021, the population of females in the world is estimated at 3.905 billion, representing 49.58% of the world population. Some of these women have gone through and some will go through menopause. By the year 2025, the number of postmenopausal women is expected to rise to 1.1 billion worldwide, according to the North American Menopause Society.

Despite being something every woman goes through, there is a huge lack of both understanding and appropriate treatment for menopause and its associated symptoms. For example, less than 10% of women in the UK say they are happy with the menopausal care they receive. This systemic issue goes beyond healthcare, impacting women’s lifestyles and livelihoods with the CIPD finding that three in five menopausal women were negatively affected at work, while BUPA found that almost 900,000 women in the UK had left their jobs due to associated symptoms.

Join us for another FemTech Untapped event to discuss Better Menopause - Are We There Yet?

SPEAKERS

Delphine O’Rourke, Partner at Goodwin, Women’s Health Industry Expert

Recognized as one of the foremost attorneys specializing in women’s health, Delphine O’Rourke is a health law subject matter expert and leader of Goodwin's groundbreaking Women's Health & Wellness Industry practice. Ms. O’Rourke’s experience and expertise has established her as an advocate, thought leader, and global speaker as well as an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School.

Colette Courtion, founder and CEO of Joylux

Named one of Inc. Magazines Top 100 Female Founders of 2020, Courtion is a distinguished and award-winning consumer marketer, inventor (21 issued patents), and femtech leader who is revolutionizing the $600 billion dollar menopause market with Joylux—the leader in at-home medical devices, personal care products, and digital tools for menopausal women experiencing vaginal and sexual health issues. With over 20 years of cross-functional expertise leading consumer product, retail, and medical device companies, she is known as a category creator in the emerging health and wellness space. Prior to founding Joylux and her other two skincare-related start-ups, she was a marketing executive with Starbucks responsible for launching and growing the Starbucks Card and Customer loyalty program into a multi-billion-dollar business. Courtion and her companies have earned numerous accolades including the AARP Innovation Lab’s Women’s Health Award (2021), Angel Capital Association’s Most Innovative Company (2019), Best Product of the Year (2003) for Starbucks Duetto Card from Business Week, Top 15 Women of Influence (2009) in Seattle and Top 40 Under 40 leaders (2006) in Seattle from Puget Sound Business Journal.

Elizabeth Gazda, CEO of Embr Labs

Elizabeth Gazda is the CEO of Embr Labs, a Boston-based wearables company that developed the Embr Wave – a wrist-worn, a personal thermostat that improves sleep, relieves anxiety, and helps with hot flashes. Prior to Embr Labs, Liz was a member of several founding teams including Doni, a fintech company, and Noteflight, a music technology company and has also worked at a number of Boston’s fastest-growing companies, including m-Qube (acq. Verisign) and unicorn Art Technology Group (acq. Oracle). Liz began her career with Philips Consumer Electronics in the Netherlands, where she was responsible for driving innovation in several business divisions across multiple countries.

Elizabeth received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology and International relations from UC Berkeley where she was also a member of the Women’s Varsity Soccer team. She also holds an International MBA from Nijenrode University in the Netherlands and an Executive Coaching degree from William James College. Elizabeth serves as a board member and advisor to several companies in IoT, hardware, and software.

Kristen Tribby, Head of Global Marketing and Education at Fun Factory

Sex educator, Kristen Tribby, is an advocate for anyone going through perimenopause and menopause. Kristen is passionate about supporting and helping those going through it with the development of a new line of FUN FACTORY products to help alleviate menopausal symptoms. Kristen recently spoke at the XBIZ Sex Expo in New York City where she discussed the future of sex, and how those with vulvas can prepare themselves for menopause.

AGENDA

(*All time slots are BST)

4 pm - Opening words by organising team

4:10 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Delphine O’Rourke, Partner at Goodwin, Women’s Health Industry Expert

4:20 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Colette Courtion, founder and CEO of Joylux

4:30 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Elizabeth Gazda, CEO of Embr Labs

4:40 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Kristen Tribby, Head of Global Marketing and Education at Fun Factory

4:50 pm - Panel discussion

5:30 pm - Q&As

6:00 pm - Closing words by the organising team

Book ticket

About our partners and sponsors

Program partners

Goodwin

Goodwin partners with clients to practice law with integrity, ingenuity, agility, and ambition. Their 1,600 lawyers across the United States, Europe, and Asia excel at complex transactions, high-stakes litigation, and world-class advisory services in the technology, life sciences, healthcare, private equity, real estate, and financial industries. Goodwin’s extensive experience and knowledge of the women’s health and wellness industry coupled with their deep industry contacts helps them to foster relationships between their clients and stakeholders to provide them with full-service legal offerings. From intellectual property to regulatory and from structuring capital raises to IPOs, they advise clients at all stages of the company lifecycle.

Webinar partner

Joylux is a leading menopausal platform company offering high-tech home-use medical and wellness devices, digital tools, and products that address menopause-related intimate health concerns such as incontinence, vaginal dryness, sexual function, hot flashes, and other common symptoms. Their hero product is the vFit/ vSculpt device – the first home-use device clinically validated to improve the genitourinary syndrome of menopause using photobiomodulation technology. Joylux products are sold in over 10 countries around the world under the brands Joylux, vFit, vSculpt, Cooling Care, and HER Intimate Care. Its mission is to help women find delight in their lives, through all phases of menopause.

About Women of Wearables

Women of Wearables (WoW) is a leading global organization and ecosystem aiming to connect and support women and allies in wearable tech, health tech, and femtech, as well as educate about the latest innovations in the world of emerging technologies. With headquarters in London (UK) and more than 20,000 members located around the globe, WoW has become a global movement that supports its growing community through events, mentorship, educational programs, and collaboration with its network of local collaborators and partners. Our members are startup founders, designers, technologists, industry experts, researchers, bloggers, journalists, investors, and many more.

Our community is open to anyone who is affiliated with and interested in emerging technologies and is not just for professional women, but for anyone with an interest in wearable technology and providing women with a platform for growth.

HOW TO JOIN US

➡️ Become a WoW member to learn from and connect with our community of entrepreneurs, designers, and technologists, leverage valuable resources, and discover career and business opportunities! By joining, you’ll get the opportunity to promote your company at one of the leading global organizations for women in tech, advertise in our newsletter and collaborate with us for our webinars, conferences, and content.

➡️ Follow us on Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook.

➡️ Join our femtech group on LinkedIn.

➡️ Get in touch if you’d like to become our partner!