Women in AV (WAVE) have held their latest quarterly event this month (November 8) at London’s Engage Works Flux Lounge, which included manufacturer presentations and rallying cry for women to join its new mentoring programme.
The new scheme, which launched in July and is free to join, has been set up to provide 20 female AV professionals with a six-month 1:1 mentoring programme to help encourage them to remain, but to provide advice (and build confidence) in order for them to achieve their potential and fulfil their career ambitions.
The six-month programme will consist of the following activities for the mentees:
- Monthly session with specifically chosen mentor
- Monthly meet up with fellow mentees where each mentee will be asked to present on their part or role in the sector
- Guest speakers from the AV sector and adjoining industries
- Training on presenting and other required elements to further career or deal with a particular career challenge
- Support from programme lead
- Meet-ups at industry events including ISE 2019
- End of programme meet up with all mentees, mentors and sponsors
Abi Brown, MD of Openingz.com and leader for the South Women in AV group led the event alongside Toni Moss, MD of CDEC Ltd and Carrie Wootten, WAVE programme director. The event kicked off with a presentation was given that shared valuable information about the benefits to be gained from joining the Programme.
This was complimented by hearing directly from two women who have seen the positive impact that RISE, a similar program for the broadcast industry, has made to their working life.
“The ladies were extremely positive about the benefits they have experienced first hand,” commented Abi.
Invaluable support
Calina Ho, Senior Project Manager, Sohonet, told the audience (members) the scheme has given her the confidence to have difficult but ultimately successful conversations around negotiating an improved salary.
“It made me realise what I wanted my future career path to be,” said Calina. “Having the support and guidance has been invaluable and I’m in a completely different place to where I was seven months ago.”
For Kate Shury, UKTV, test analyst at UKTV, having the support of mentor Helen Stevens, director of operations at ITV, allowed her to appreciate her value in her workplace and learn how to approach certain difficult situations.
“The mentor’s guidance helped me change the way I hold myself and project myself and as a result how people perceive me in meetings. Having that support group of mentees has been useful too. In the monthly meet-ups we presented about our job roles which was really interesting,” Shury told the WAVE group.
The ladies were interviewed by Abi and Carrie and it was evident that what they shared encouraged some of the ladies in attendance to go ahead and make an application!
The deadline was therefore extended to noon on Wed 14 November.
Toni Moss, MD of CDEC, also expressed her enthusiasm at being part of Women in AV and the scheme. “It’s so inspiring and is fantastic to increase the number of women in the industry to make sure we have more women running businesses in the AV world. When we started talking about the scheme I even wanted to apply for it myself because you never stop learning and are always inspired by people,” she said.
The list of sponsors that are supporting the scheme so far:
Gold Sponsors: Biamp, Promethean, Visavvi, part of Saville Group
Silver Sponsors: Bubble Agency, CDEC, ISDM Solutions, Kromers, Midwich
Bronze Sponsors: infiLED, Jacobs Massey, Kramer Electronics, NEC, RGB, Sennheiser, Woop Jobs, Clevertouch
The team running this initiative are Abi Brown, MD of Openingz.com, Sadie Groom, MD at Bubble Agency, Carrie Wootten, WAVE Programme Director and Toni Moss, MD of CDEC Limited.
To learn more please visit the dedicated website www.womeninavuk.com and contact Abi Brown @ [email protected] or via the Twitter channel @WomenInAV or @OpeningzByAbi – Mobile: 07720 097 478
