First Southeast Women’s Cycling Forum

Post originally published at CarolinaCyclingNews.com (Photo: Georgia Bikes)

In October the nation’s first bi-state bike conference – Georgia-lina Bike Summit: Bicycle Friendly Across the Borders presented by BikeLaw.com – was held in Augusta. I had the opportunity to be part of the SC/GA planning team for the first Southeast Women’s Cycling Forum featured as one of the summit workshops. Hamzat Sani gave a great review of his experience at the summit on the League of American Bicyclists blog.

As Hamzat noted we had so much to talk about in our women’s cycling forum, we need to expand it!

“The most dynamic session was by far the Women’s Cycling Forum. Moderated by Rebecca Serna, executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, the forum included women’s insight and advice, not just about getting more women on bikes but just how influential women have been in advocacy efforts. Pedal Chic, was in the building highlighting how cycling and style have some together to encourage more women biking, while social media guru Mathilde gave pointers on how to engage with women specifically and niche groups generally on social media. Zahra from Red, Bike and Green-Atlanta spoke on utilizing cycling as a community building tool with women acting as the leadership for that movement, while Rebecca gave great pointers on how women can be affective advocates for bicycling policy on the local political level. The topics were awesome, the conversation spilled out of the session and I think most involved would agree that the two sessions allocated for the forum were just too small. Maybe a Georgia Women’s Bike Summit sometime soon?”

The full agenda of our forum is included below. One of the segments that we ran out of time for was on organizing your own local Women’s Cycling Forum. However, we passed out copies of the Women Cycling Project‘s handout and have created a listserve for bike advocates in the Southeast to share resources and events for getting more women on bikes. We hope you’ll join us online and consider organizing a forum in your community!

Women’s Cycling Forum

Welcome and Introductions
Presented by Rebecca Serna of Atlanta Bicycle Coalition

Part I – Women on Bikes

Obstacles to women bicycling – Introduction
Presented by Robin Bylenga of Pedal Chic (SC)

Obstacles to women bicycling – Discussion
Facilitated by Sonja Parham of Women Bike Atlanta (GA)

Strategies for encouraging women to bicycle – Introduction
Presented by Zahra Ala of Red Bike Green (GA) and Anne Piacentino of Partners for Active Living (SC)

Strategies for encouraging women to bicycle – Discussion
Facilitated by Cate Ryba of City of Spartanburg and Mary Black Foundation (SC)

Part II – Women for Biking

Women in Advocacy (and politics) – Introduction
Presented by Rebecca Serna of Atlanta Bicycle Coalition (GA)

Social Media as an Advocacy Tool – Presentation
Presented by Mathilde Piard of Cox Media Group (GA)

Local Women’s Cycling Forums as an Advocacy Tool – Presentation
Presented by Pamela Wood Browne of Carolina Cycling News (SC)

Other Strategies for Engaging Women in Advocacy – Discussion
Facilitated by Jean Crowther of Alta Planning + Design (SC)
Wrap Up & Action Steps

Discuss Next Steps

Development of Toolkit Based on Session Ideas/Discussion
Rebecca Serna of Atlanta Bicycle Coalition

Continuing the Discussion with an Ongoing Listserv/Group
Pamela Wood Browne of Carolina Cycling News