Lori  Meakin Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerLori Meakin

Thinking Beyond the ‘Menemies’ Mindset: an inclusive approach to gender equality that’s better for all genders, and business.

Lori is a multi-award-winning strategist with decades of experience working with senior leaders at some of the world’s biggest and most successful brands. In 2010 Lori co-founded the globally acclaimed brand and ad agency Joint, where she worked with clients including Amazon, Vue, Google and Reach. Her work with Amazon... Read more

Biography

Lori is a multi-award-winning strategist with decades of experience working with senior leaders at some of the world’s biggest and most successful brands. In 2010 Lori co-founded the globally acclaimed brand and ad agency Joint, where she worked with clients including Amazon, Vue, Google and Reach. Her work with Amazon resulted in commercially and critically successful ads including ‘Vicar & Imam’ that became a global cultural talking-point and is the most successful technology ad tested in System 1’s database; and Prime’s ‘Rapunzel’, which won multiple awards including a Gerety that celebrates ‘the best in advertising that resonates most with a female audience’.

Lori left Joint after a decade of success so she could pursue a new path. The recent release of her book ‘No More Menemies: Getting Beyond the Fear & Frustration of the Gender Wars’ has seen widespread recognition, ranking as an Amazon bestseller in the Women Writers & Women’s Writing category. During her research Lori talked extensively with all kinds of men – from undergrads to grandads – to understand how we might get past the gender wars, ‘menemies’ mindset and build a future that works better for all.

In 2023, inspired but her book research, she founded The Others & Me, a brand strategy and innovation consultancy that apply gender intelligence expertise to strategic challenges in external and internal areas, including:

  • Brand Strategy Development.
  • Creative Collaboration.
  • Product & Service Innovation.
  • Leadership & Culture Transformation.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Lori’s influence extends to her role as a Fellow of the RSA (The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). Her involvement with gender-focused organisations such as Just Like Us, the English Collective of Prostitutes, My Image My Choice, Women in Journalism, #timeTo and her executive position within Women in Advertising & Communications Leadership (WACL), reflect her dedication to driving positive change for all.

“Lori has a brilliant ability to challenge preconceived notions around gender equality, drawing on compelling data and case studies to inspire you to think differently about gender ideology. Her unique approach not only made complex topics fun and approachable but also left us with actionable ideas to foster equality not just in our own professional environment, but in the work that we do with young people. It was a powerful, thought-provoking experience that we would highly recommend to any organisation” INVESTIN
“We’ve hosted quite a few speakers over the last two years for our Thrive sessions at Amazon XCM but this one hit different for me. Lori Meakin’s research and her work to untangle the issues around how gender wars permeate and affect our daily lives, laid out in such a tangible way, has profoundly affected me today. It is both liberating to have such a meaningful overview of the situation in today’s society, as it is terrifying. Living in the times of Andrew Tate and Co. whilst trying to raise a little boy weighs on me as a mother, as it does for parents everywhere. And it’s of course not just parenting, it’s everything, from the home to the workplace. I can’t recommend her talks and workshops or her book enough for your organisation or personal development and understanding. There’s so much work to do. This is such a positive start." Amazon
"Attending Lori's event was really great. Especially for an old white straight able-bodied bloke like me. Lori was absolutely brilliant and I will definitely be getting her book. Would also highly recommend Lori for similar talks and ongoing consultancy as she has such a great, inclusive approach and it’s all evidence-based!" Lucky Generals
“What an afternoon of inspiration, education, and engagement. Lori and her team at The Others and Me are a phenomenal force of good, peeling back the myths and stereotypes to help companies look at the world differently and create a competitive edge. The workshop allowed us to hit the pause button and assess the world we live in and how to connect with everyone in it. We came out brimming with new ideas.” Paramount+

Popular Talks by Lori Meakin

  • Thinking Beyond The ‘Menemies’ Mindset
    Can working for feminism really benefit men too? Some popular narratives around feminism have inadvertently played into a zero sum game mindset and a growing feeling of ‘us vs. them’. We need to address that, because we can only create the change that will benefit all of us if we work...
  • Exploring Our Blind Spots in a Default Male World
    Uncovering the invisible issues around gender together. Evidence shows that most people and businesses tend to see the world from a perspective that’s default-male and/or heteronormative. Therefore invisible, historical biases mean we’re inadvertently often designing products and services for male bodies and lives. Together we’ll explore some of these blind...
  • Unpacking Gender Superiority Myths
    In many areas, from leadership to, art, sport, writing, music, film, and even types of emotion, both men and women are more likely to value masculine things more highly. Whereas when it comes to parenting, caring and nurturing, we assume men aren’t as capable. This session unpacks these myths and...
  • How We Take Up Space (and Not Just Physically)
    Exploring how we share physical and cultural space. For hundreds of years, men dominated public life while women occupied the private realm. Much has changed since then, but we tend to overestimate how much progress has been made. In reality, men still make up the majority of most leadership teams,...
  • Rethinking Competition in Business and Life
    Why being competitive isn’t always the winning strategy. We tend to operate with a belief that a ‘dog-eat-dog’ approach is the way to win in business (and in life). But evidence from the worlds of business, sports and society more broadly proves that if we focus less on beating the...