COVER FEATURE
Naomi Barton, portfolio director, Clarion Events
Ruth Carter, managing director, Telegraph Events
Haf Cennydd, managing director, GovNet Exhibitions
Emily Challis, portfolio event manager, Fresh Montgomery
Julie Harris, CEO, Upper Street Events
Corina Hedley, group event operations director, ITE Group
Lori Hoinkes, managing director, Fresh Montgomery
Alex Jones, marketing director, CloserStill Media
Nicola Macdonald, editor, Exhibition News
Lydia Matthews, group head of content, ITE Group
Debra Ward, managing director of Camm & Hooper
In January 2019, EN gathered a group of senior
female organisers for a breakfast roundtable at
Camm & Hooper’s Six Storeys to discuss gender
equality and equal opportunity in the exhibition
industry. Here’s what we found out…
or over a year the #MeToo movement
has been making headlines around
the world. In addition to shedding a
somewhat unsavoury spotlight on some
high profile individuals in the world of pop culture, it
also became a shorthand for looking at gender issues
in a wide range of contexts.
Most forward-thinking business leaders have a
strong awareness of the gender balance, and the
gender pay balance, in their workforce, but how can
an industry as a whole work to improve its diversity
and gender balance?
One answer is clearly through its industry press,
and while EN works to try and feature a diverse
range of individuals each month, on the whole we still
have some way to go in achieving gender-balanced
coverage.
Another is through industry associations, and
while things are certainly moving in the right
direction, the leadership of the exhibition industry
associations still sees an imbalance in terms of
gender, with one woman on the 12-person ESSA
board, five on the 14-person AEV board and five on
the 20-person AEO council.
To gauge the opinion of just a small subset of our
industry, EN invited some senior female organisers to
discuss the topic of gender and diversity in the world
of exhibitions, along with their personal experiences.
First, the conversation turned to the attendees’
experiences as young women growing up in events.
“I’ve realised, looking back, that my personal
career experience and mental health have been
impacted by some leaders’ decisions that have been
under researched or ill-advised, forced through by
arrogance or gone unchallenged,” says Alex Jones,
marketing director at CloserStill. “I think as people
we often struggle to challenge in a positive way. That
was definitely the case with myself and I had to learn
the hard way that a two-way conversation is okay, no
matter the seniority or gender of the person you are
discussing things with.
“At CloserStill there’s a collective group of women,
and indeed men, with similar experiences and we’ve
been able to talk about it in a really positive manner.
It’s important to be able to make sure that the
younger women, and men, coming through have a
voice and that they can say ‘that doesn’t seem right’,
and are given a platform and encouraged
exhibitionnews.co.uk | February 2019
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