INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
CES parent the Consumer Technology Association created a public relations disaster in January when it unceremoniously revoked an award from
sex tech startup, Lora DiCarlo and its product Osé.
Vela [now Osé] does not fit into any of our existing product categories and should not
have been accepted for the Innovation Awards Program,& the organization wrote at the time
&CTA has communicated this position to Lora DiCarlo
We have apologized to the company for our mistake.
The CTA would go on to apologize and reinstate the award
During a panel today at TechCrunch Disrupt, founder and CEO Lora Haddock told the audience, that in hindsight, &I think they actually did us
a pretty big favor.
Back in May, we noted that the CTA apology serendipitously coincided with a $2 million funding raise for the company
Haddock noted that, while the CTA initial move was understandably both &disheartening& and &devastating,& the startup decision to push back
on historical biases, including booth babes and the underrepresentation of female speakers, ultimately became a win.
We started to really
look at some of their policies and recent procedures in the last few years,& Haddock said
&A lot of booth babes products that were on the floor are geared towards male sexuality, but apparently something geared towards a female
So, we fought it, and eventually we ended up winning, we ended up on an international press circuit, we got a ton of ton of coverage.
