Our second Design Meets Insight episode features two inspirational women, Maria Stufkoph and Chelsea Slater. Maria is the director of the maker space at Salford University and a member of the advisory board of the British Esports Association and the Women in Esports Committee . Chelsea is the founder of ‘Innovate Her’, a values-led social enterprise that “gets girls ready for the tech industry and the industry ready for girls”.

Along with our guest curator, Nicky Wightman, Maria and Chelsea spoke to us about challenges women and girls continue to face within the tech sector, but also how things are changing. Gaming and Esports, with their inclusive and welcoming cultures, are key players in driving this shift. Community access across all ages and backgrounds is essential to building loyalty and a sense of belonging, These activities – the playing of video games and the competitive world built around it - are leading the way in connecting virtual interactions with physical spaces for truly immersive experiences that are rooted in a need for diversity, not just amongst audiences, but also those designing these spaces.

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We’re really excited to be kicking off the podcast as a mini-series co-hosted by Nicky Wightman. As Director of Emerging Trends at global real estate business Savills, Nicky's focus is on the future of how we will live, work, learn and play. A former barrister and broadcaster, Nicky is regularly asked to comment on the future of the built environment and in particular the relationship between the physical and the digital world.

Our first guest in the series is Saasha Celestial-One, the co-founder and COO of OLIO, a free app which provides a game-changing, community-driven solution to the problem of food and household waste. OLIO, which now has almost 3 million users in over 50 countries, connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared.

At Heta Architects we’re working with developers on how to embed the circular economy into the construction industry, as well as how we create connected communities beyond the built environment. OLIO harnesses the collective power of the sharing and circular economy at an individual, hyper local level, and is also leading the way for companies to become not just sustainable, but regenerative.

Design Meets Insight is created and produced by Heta Architects. We’d love to hear from you, so get in touch at studio@hetaarchitects.com, or find Ben and Nicky on LinkedIn.

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