In the spirit of Ada Lovelace Day, I made my pledge last week to blog about women and technology. I’m a little late, but still If you haven’t an idea what I’m talking about, click HERE and make the pledge.

Granted I only learnt of her brilliance recently, but I would like to honour Ms Ada Lovelace for the beginnings of all I interact with all day, everyday. Raised by her mother Lady Byron to be unlike her poetic father, Ada was taught mathematics and music.  One of her lifelong friends was inventor Charles Babbage, who created the first computer the ‘Analytical Engine’.  Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer programme for this general purpose machine.  She translated a memoir by Luigi Menabrea on Babbage’s machine and appended the translation with a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the machine.  She wrote the very first definition of a computer and and of software. Alas, due to an untimely death, the calculations were never completed and the machine was never built.

However, her tale marks the beginning of it all. The story of the computer from the size of a two story building to something that fits in the palm of your hand.  The Performance Corporation would not be able to function without the wonders of this machine, and all the software that comes alongside.

We’re a company of women who work in the Arts and facilitate as much as possible the integration of technology in our work.

Marketa, our producer, was terrified of blogging and tweeting when she started and now she is an active contributor on both platforms.  Follow her on twitter.

Jo Mangan our illustrious leader, has spawned the many show ideas that have integrated man and machine in ways that were ahead of their time; Dr Ledbetter’s Experiment; live performance mixed with sound and transmitted to your headset as you watch the show unfold, Drive-By; high speed action car show, transmitted to your car radio as your watch from the comfort of your driver’s seat. We try to engage our audiences through all networks, online and offline. Power Point saw our characters tweeting in preparation of the show.

What do I do? I manage and edit our website, facebook, youtube & twitter and try to learn more ways for our company to interact with audiences as they develop online. This brings me neatly to my next plug! I’m hoping to attend the Shift Happens conference, hosted by Pilot Theatre in July.  If you want to know how Arts and Theatre are moving forward to engage with new technologies in the UK, book your tickets now!!