Jessica Walsh's new Startup in Georgia - Ladies, Wine & Design
Ladies, Wine & Design is a global non-profit initiative with chapters in 280 cities worldwide. LW&D was started by Jessica Walsh when she realized that sometimes peers can be competitive or unsupportive of one another. Only a small percentage of creative directors are women or non-binary, and LW&D wants to help change this through mentorship circles, portfolio reviews, talks & creative meetups.
Ladies, Wine & Design team from Tbilisi includes 5 women: Nina Trigo - Master Degree Student from Milan, Mariana Rouger - Argentinian graphical designer, who now works and lives in Bologne, Maka Broladze - manager from Georgia, Nanka Bagaturia - art director and graphical designer from Georgia, and Salome Jvania - copywriter from Georgia.
"Last year, in December, I and Mariana visited Georgia for 2 weeks. Mariana knew about LW&D events. Once in Milan, she invited me. In that time, we thought, that the country, which owns a long-standing history of the wine must have its own chapter.", tells Nina Trigo.
It was also not hard to get permission from New York to hold the events in Georgia. They wrote who they were and what they wanted - to hold LW&D events in Tbilisi. Every necessary material and brand books were given to them on the same day.
As Nina notes, the main challenge of LW&D Tbilisi is the stereotype, that women perceive each other as competitors and they can't work together.
"Because of this reason, we, women are dispersed. We wish to create the union, where women will meet each other, be acquainted with each other, listen, support, and share the experiences and ideas with the rest.", stated Nina.
On the main audience, Salome notes, that the target will be upon females and non-binaries, who work in the creative industry and are interested in this field.
"We think, that the women working in this industry often are invisible because of their low self-esteem, which is the consequence of sexist environment. We want women to talk about their problems together and attest to barriers.