Founded by Cally Robson in 2009, the She's Ingenious! community represents the growing number of women who are using the web to research, develop and promote their new concepts and product ideas.

This website is the central hub of the community, providing practical guidance, networking, know-how and inspiration to women who are at every stage of product or technology development and promotion.

She's Ingenious! has become well known in the field of women's enterprise for providing specialist support around the commercialization of intellectual property (IP) [Founder, Cally Robson pictured right, talking to business mums on the She's Ingenious! stand at the Business & Baby Show 2011]

A Bit Of History

I launched She's Ingenious! at the British Library in London in the summer of 2009. It came about as the result of working in partnership since 2006 with the fantastic Business & IP Centre at the Library, running workshops and support sessions for inventors and entrepreneurs (men AND women). My experience from a career in new product development, marketing and online media and business, plus training as a coach and facilitator, had led me to develop a wealth of how-to materials around commercialising new product ideas and technologies. The She's Ingenious! website became a way build on this library of resources and extend support to anyone on web. I focused on supporting women because the growth of the Internet has opened up fantastic opportunities for them to run their own businesses, but, unlike men, they still lack confidence in turning their natural ingenuity into business ventures. And unfortunately, women are also more likely to fall prey to design, protection and results.

And She's Ingenious! Today...

Today women from all over the UK visit this website and use the specialist resources and support available to members that they just can't find elsewhere. We aren't a big community - at any one time we number just a hundred or so active members - but we are clever. Many bigger women's business groups focus on networking meetings and very general business topics. But, as any inventor or innovative entrepreneur knows, the long and complex process of launching a new product or innovative concept needs both specialist knowledge and refined decision making. She's Ingenious! aims to help with both, as well as sharing women's success stories and providing much needed inspiration for the journey.

About She's Ingenious! Members

We're not heartless though. Men are welcome at She's Ingenious!. But still the majority of our members are women. Many are mums and housewives who have ideas to improve things in daily family life. New products and ideas that have been launched by members are for parents and children, also items for the kitchen and home or garden. Cosmetic and beauty products feature high on the list, too, as well as gadgets and treatments for health and fitness, outdoor living and well-being. New food products and brands have become increasingly prevalent as consumers want to get away from mass-produced products.

Most of our members are driven initially by wanting to commercialize a good idea. They are often looking to create additional incomes streams for their household too - increasingly, the high costs of living mean that women need to contribute financially, as well as taking responsibility for domestic arrangements. Developing and scaling up a successful new product or online business can build the financial freedom women need, while allowing the flexibility to juggle many roles.

She's Ingenious! members are at all stages of the development and commercialization process. Many join with an idea, or even a concept for which they have a prototype but have had little success getting into the market. Increasingly, we see members who have persisted through and are now discovering cutting edge ways of using the Internet to reach wider audiences. Members contribute their knowledge and insights in the regular She's Ingenious! meetings online and also through online webinars and sometimes live presentations that are recorded. Also via the Discussion Forum, which has built up a wealth of detailed topics which don't get coverage on general business support websites.

About She's Ingenious! Founder, Cally Robson

Back in 2002, when I was made redundant from a business development job in on-demand TV over the Internet, I decided to try developing and commercializing an idea I had for a modular crockery set. In fact, after many diversions and making many of the mistakes that I now realise most inventor-innovators make, someone else pipped me to the post in patenting the idea. As it turns out, this was probably a blessing in disguise. The product would have been hard to make profitable - often the case with new product ideas embarked upon by solo inventors without a focus on commercial aspects. But the experience taught me a lot about the process, and business basics. As well as who to trust, and who NOT to trust. At that time there was very little practical support available to innovators, other than through traditional inventor groups, which were slow-going when it came to the commercial aspects of turning ideas into business ventures.

Even my career in new product development, with the likes of Time Warner and Disney Consumer Products, did little to help me when it came to developing my own product ideas. Quite simply, the rules and risks are different as an individual or start-up. As I learned some tough lessons, I came across others who were looking for better understanding too. It was through this that I came to partner with the British Library's Business & IP Centre in 2006 to share what I'd learned. And then eventually to launch She's Ingenious! as an online resource in 2009.

Although as Founder of She's Ingenious! I am very much still involved day to day - I still create or edit much of the content on the website, post in the discussion forum, talk 1 to 1 with members and run the regular online meetings, as well as managing technical workings of the site with help from a support team in the US - in some senses I have moved on. Membership fees earned through She's Ingenious! go towards running the website, but I earn my day-to-day living by other means, currently as a high-growth business mentor and innovation network manager at Oxford Brookes University, both with a focus on using digitial technologies to do things differently, reach new audiences and leverage intellectual property into commercial revenues.

I have one other fascination around using digital and online to change the way we do things in our world. From my roots in children's educational publishing, and as a parent myself, I have a hunch that the explosion in new technologies and mobile devices will change the face of home learning. I don't know yet whether or how I'll be involved, but one thing's for sure, I won't be standing still.

If you've stuck with this and read so far, thanks. You can read more about me and why I set up She's Ingenious! If you'd like to see what I'm currently up to, take a look at my LinkedIn profile. And of course you'll always find me Tweeting generally about business and innovation from https://twitter.com/callyrobson