special report Women in Event Marketing Candid Conversations50f6c7db9abc0b7d1e9e-1b9b28ba341b8b05795c411c70db185b.r3.cf2...special report Women in Event Marketing ... Heineken Jane

special report Women in Event Marketing

82 EvEnt MarkEtEr august 2014 www.eventmarketer.com

ConversationsCandidThe biggesT Women in evenTs collecTive We’ve ever assembled

ConversationsCandidThis summer, Event Marketer interviewed 17 women across the industry to find out what they think about the changing roles of women in events, the (near-ly impossible) quest for work-life balance and their perspectives on the glass ceiling. On July 30th, we gathered six of them for a live roundtable discussion in New York City, co-produced with longtime Women in Events partner Sparks (sparksonline.com). What follows are the insights and comments gathered from all the conversations. –J.H.

Participants:Christy amador

Coca-Cola Co.

Jennifer Breithaupt Citi

Michele Carr American Express

Lisa Carvalho L’Oréal

Pattie Falch Heineken

Jane Hawley Sparks

Pam Hollander Allstate

Liz Lathan Dell

Cathy Martin CSC

Julia Mize Anheuser-Busch

Elizabeth Pinkham Salesforce.com

annika Schmitz Delta Airlines

Laurie Sharp Dolby

Praveeta Singh NBC Sports

Olivia vela Dr Pepper Snapple Group

Crystal Worthem Ford Motor Co.

Stephanie Zimmer Mercedes-Benz USA

coproduced WiTh


83 www.eventmarketer.com august 2014 EvEnt MarkEtEr

EvEnt MarkEtEr: How has event marketing evolved as an industry since you began your career?

PATTIE FALCH: When I first started 18 years ago, an event was hanging a banner. Now, when we do an event or a spon-sorship, we lead everything from our team. We lead the p.r., we lead the social, we lead the digital, we lead the advertising—the full 360 of it. It’s really nice to see that evolution.

CRYSTAL WORTHEM: In 2006 we were just pulling it all together. Events were literally me with a guy from the dealer-ship that I gave 50 bucks to come down and help me at a con-cert or event. There were no aligned metrics. It was just kind of whatever the brand wanted to do. Now, we are the engine for content for the organization, be it television, digital, whatever, and we use events as a base.

LIZ LATHAN: I like to say that events were the original social media—they are the reason that business gets done. It’s about having conversations and getting new leads and closing deals. And I don’t think that it’s ever going away. It’s very exciting to see the technology and social media coming into the picture, and the full-funnel marketing conversation happening with events, so that we’re not just the meeting planner or the party planner that we were 15 to 20 years ago. Events are truly an actual campaign vehicle that’s respected.

CATHY MARTIN: I think that’s been an evolution for my team, too. I only inherited some of the folks in the last year or so but they were logistics event marketing folks. I’m challeng-ing them to think more broadly about the marketing that we need to do—not just the event logistics, and to tie it back to the business objectives. It’s a different skill set.

OLIVIA VELA: Before, it was seen as a nice-to-have, but not part of the overall marketing mix. Now I think it is more sophisticated, where you are trying to tie in new trends, like

what is going on in digital and social, or what you do from a multicultural perspective. Anything you do in event marketing is now part of how you go to market, it is one of many other disciplines within the marketing mix and it is part of the 360 that we talk about. It is more strategic, it is more integrated and you have to know a lot more.

EvEnt MarkEtEr: How has the role of women evolved, and what are the opportunities today?

WORTHEM: When we’re talking about the shift in experi-ential, I would say a lot of that is the mind of a woman. We’re collaborators. So when you talk about marketing and p.r. and brand and the digital team all working together seamlessly, that didn’t happen naturally out of some of the other leadership. Those things happened as a result of what comes naturally for women—to collaborate, to get best practices from every area and to all come to the table together and develop a solution. I think that’s how you end up with this mashup of marketing. Or at least I think that’s how it’s played out at our company, which is very male-dominated.

JULIA MIZE: Women have always had key roles in event marketing. But I think event marketing is truly coed. It is about creating memorable experiences. There is tremendous opportunity for people who are able to be strategic and creative thinkers, especially with the explosion of digital technology onto the forefront of event marketing.

ANNIKA SCHMITZ: Overall, the event world and event marketing is a great space for women to work in, and there are lot of women in these roles, on the brand side and agency side. People are intrigued by events. It is fast-paced and ever changing. There is always something new and a lot of learning opportunities. You are constantly innovating.

VELA: We as women have become more strategic and we’ve amplified what the marketing mix is, and how you really translate that brand voice into an event.

CHRISTY AMADOR: I have seen the role of women in marketing continue to grow. Women have a ten-dency to be collaborative, so it is the perfect time for women to be at the fore-front of marketing and event marketing.

EvEnt MarkEtEr: Do women naturally possess certain skills or personality traits that are an asset in event marketing?

AMADOR: Being a woman is an advantage when it comes to collabo-ration and multi-tasking.

ConversationsConversations

ROUNDED PERSPECTIVE. event marketer moderates a panel of top industry women at a live event in new York city.



Women naturally are about getting things done successfully and I like to think that women are more in touch with their artistic and creative side. These attributes in many industries are the kinds of things that make good leaders and good project leaders. We’re detail-oriented and collaborative and we have a goal in mind and we don’t let our ego get in the way. I don’t think of it as how far we have to go, but how far we’ve come and how well-equipped we are for success.

LAURIE SHARP: I think experiential marketing has been about creating that emotional attachment to a brand and that is every single aspect of that experience. And I think women are just going to be naturally better at creating that emotional experience and thinking about that level of detail.

PRAVEETA SINGH: It’s the detail-oriented nature in gener-al of women. I think women are good at that organization and at having multiple things going on. I think we tend to listen. And I think that helps us be successful because we’re looking at it from that standpoint of, okay, the more I know about what’s going on, the more I can get what I need to do get done.

MICHELE CARR: Event marketing is about establishing relationships and building and growing those relationships, and if you don’t have that personality, men or women, I don’t know if you will succeed in this business. This whole business is built around relationships with agencies, property partners or brands, and how you all come together to deliver amazing work for the consumer. That is the key to being a great event marketer. Being male or female doesn’t matter. These are the personalities that will succeed in the business.

PAM HOLLANDER: I believe that women may have a certain level of patience that probably serves them well but I don’t know if that is a blanket statement. I work with so many amazing, talented men. I don’t know if I can really draw the line. Maybe it is having both, the yin and the yang. They play off of each other and it works.

MIZE: The devil is in the details. Paying attention to the details is what makes an event amazing. Every woman that I have worked with in my career has possessed this trait, and I think that is a key driver in developing and executing these events.

ZIMMER: Women are more detail-oriented, more orga-nized and I think they can roll with the punches. Events are not black and white, there are some very gray areas, and any little thing can go wrong. I think women can hold their emotions in check when needed, even though we tend to be emotional. I think the ability to multi-task is inherent in our gender, but you have to be a good multi-tasker in order to do this job.

SCHMITZ: Are there opportunities for men and women in event marketing? Yes, but women have a little more tenacity and are that much more eager to get things done.

ELIZABETH PINKHAM: I think it has a lot to do with atti-tude. Whether it’s from male or female, I look at somebody when they come into a room and ask, “What is their energy? What is their attitude? Are they the first to raise their hand and say, ‘I’ll help figure that out?’ Are they the ones who help with creative brainstorms and solutions and how to get to the end goal in new way? Are they helping other people want to work with them?” It’s that DNA, that attitude and energy level that’s so critical, at least in our culture, that leads to being successful in event marketing.

EvEnt MarkEtEr: How can women in the industry take those inherent skills and use them to create a career and lead-ership opportunities?

HAWLEY: I think it’s about confidence and also taking a risk, taking a chance. Going outside of your comfort zone and showing people, other than who you work with, how you think and how you act and how you can take charge and lead something. It inspires people to say, “Listen, I saw Pattie do this and I think maybe we could get her involved in XYZ,” and then all of a sudden you’re starting to get involved in new and different types of endeavors. I also think your teams or your peers start to notice things differently, too. So I think a lot of it is just stepping out of your comfort zone.

LATHAN: I think we struggle with that. If you’ve read “Lean In,” there’s a part where Sheryl Sandberg talks about how women get promoted based on what they’ve done, but men get promoted based on what they can do. And I think that we really need to take more risks and say, “No, I’ve never done that but I totally could. Let them give me a chance.” I don’t think we do that enough.

MARTIN: And I don’t think the work can just stand on its own either. You have to promote it. You have to connect it back to the business objectives and be very specific about what you’ve achieved based on those objectives. I think we say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” and then people walk in the room and everything is glorious but we make it look so easy, so they have no idea.

SINGH: I would definitely agree with that. I think it’s also about being specific and concise. And that’s something that I struggle with because a lot of times I have so much going on and I’m thinking about it in all these different ways. But I have worked in a male-dominated industry for the past 10-plus years, and you have to learn how to communicate precisely and concisely and say, “Okay, this is what we need to do,” even though you have 900 things in your head.

LISA CARVALHO: I always say, “You know what? Think like a woman but you’d better act like a man.” The reality is you put on your highest heels, your reddest lipstick, know your facts, be direct and then stop talking. Don’t whine, don’t bitch, don’t cry, and just stop talking.

I’ve met Sheryl Sandberg and God bless her—for $80 million I can “Lean In,” too. Backwards, forwards and upside down. I think we need to encourage women to lean any way they can. I don’t care how you lean, just lean. Just stop reading the book, because she’s got an $80 million comfort blanket and I have $1.82.

LATHAN: Exactly. I have to pick up one kid from summer camp, and then I’ve got to pick the little kid up from daycare, then I’ve got to put the kids to bed, and then I’ve got to get back online for the next two hours because I didn’t finish anything, because I was in meetings all day so I couldn’t get an email done. EvEnt MarkEtEr: Cathy, you mentioned how important it is to promote your work, but that’s a skill women tend to struggle with. Who has some advice on how to overcome that hurdle?

AMADOR: Women do have a tendency to hang back and get it done and do great events but not promote themselves



during the process. I stand behind my work, that is a lot for me and I am happy and excited about that. If your brand does well, then you do well. But I do think there is a place to lean in and let people know what your target was and try to work that to the advancement of your career. That is something I am getting better at as I continue. It’s not being selfish, it is being smart about your career.

CARVALHO: There’s this unique ability to not self-promote as women. We just don’t do it. And I am a firm believer that you’d better do it. And your team, too, and ladder it up any way you can. Because all you need is one home run to get the permission to play the whole season and get every other home run after that. I’ve said that a million times. And it never fails.

And do you know what’s funny? The minute you take an executive and he meets Toby Keith, gets an autograph and rides in a car—there’s your metrics and your self promotion. Then all of a sudden—I call it the BSO, the bright shiny object—they’re like, “Oh, my God, that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever been to.” Which is why everyone on my senior management team has to attend our events.

WORTHEM: They have to attend it and the other secret is to make videos for everything. If I can tell the story in a min-ute and a half video of consumers singing and dancing, the ceo shows it to all of his operating committee and everybody thinks it’s the most glorious thing ever. It’s the easiest way to communicate.

FALCH: And at the end of everything, I send a full recap to all of our management team. They get a full recap with a video, the whole thing—and then we send it to our global team as well.

CARVALHO: That’s the home run, and that’s what gives you the permission next time to ask for the astronomical amount of money or the event that you want to do, or the “I have an idea—I know you’re going to think this is crazy but...”

VELA: Sometimes I still struggle with it. Some of it is gen-der, and some of it is cultural. I think Hispanic women have an even harder time with self-promotion because culturally it is not about bragging about ourselves or promoting ourselves. Compared to my peers that are women but not Hispanic, they do a better job of promoting themselves and hyping themselves in a great way to management than probably I do. I think it is something that women as a whole could learn a lot more from, and if you have mentors they can help you do it in a better way.

FALCH: I think you have to stand by your decisions. A lot of times in my company someone will make a decision and they’ll get some influence from somebody else and all of a sudden they’re wavering, and then three days go by and your deadlines are missed. I think you have to believe in your decisions and be strong and support them. That helps build confidence. And I think the combination of all of it leads to great work, and then your work really stands out.

EvEnt MarkEtEr: Some of the women in our anonymous survey said the key to success is learning to say no. Do you find that to be true?

LAURIE SHARP: If you come from a certain background, it’s ingrained to say, “Yes, I can do anything, I’ll make it hap-pen, don’t you worry. Yes, yes, yes, yes.” But now, you can’t

just answer yes. You can’t just be good at ordering tchotchkes and pens. That’s not good. That’s not a valuable asset for your team. It’s great that we want to do great and we want to say yes, but shifting that mindset can be a huge challenge.

MARTIN: That is the challenge. I tell my people all the time that they have to push back on some of these executives because we have the domain knowledge to recommend to them what is going to be the most effective thing, and we can’t just say yes all the time. At least in my short tenure with this team, that’s a big evolution that we’re seeing.

SHARP: You’re not an order taker. Or you’re going to be viewed that way.

CARVALHO: I say do first and then ask permission. Those rules are still true. But when I was growing up as a woman in business in the ‘90s, we had female lead-ers that were loud, they were aggressive, they were arro-gant—and I loved every one of them. They were so gung-ho. All the Helen Gurley Browns of the world, they’re gone. So now it’s incumbent upon each of us without this kind of matriarchal voice to say, “You know what? No.”

EvEnt MarkEtEr: there’s no masters program for event marketing, so what skills or experiences do you recommend women coming up in the industry “master” if they hope to be successful?

i always say, “You know what? Think like a woman but you’d better act like a man.” The reality is you put on your highest heels, your reddest lipstick, know your facts, be direct and then

stop talking. don’t whine, don’t bitch, don’t cry and just stop talking.

–Lisa Carvalho, L’Oréal



PINKHAM: I’d think very consciously about whether you want to be a deep-dive expert in one discipline, or if you want to go broad. When you find something you really like, develop that as the focus of your career. That’s what I did.

There are new positions in event marketing that are hap-pening all the time. We have people in our team who are very focused on the discipline of keynote production. And they know that world so well, they know it better than most event agencies I could hire. And they are complete experts in that domain. That’s not an area that I had dedicated staff working on as of four or five years ago. It’s a relatively new career direc-tion here at the company. Another example is, on the social side, last year we got someone on our team who is dedicated to all social marketing around our events and it’s been an incredible lever for us to grow our program and to help people understand what it’s like to interact with our brand and our products at our events. It’s been exciting to see that grow into a real position.

LATHAN: Just listen and ask questions about every other discipline that exists. I think that’s why I’m drawn to events, because it is the place that everything comes together. So I have

the opportunity to see all the different pieces from audience acquisition to mar-com, to media, to social media, to project management. It’s all right there, so just continue to ask about that. You don’t have to go do one of those jobs for a year in order to understand it, you just have to ask the right questions and pay attention.

WORTHEM: I would say what’s been critical for me and people that I’ve worked with, especially women that I work with, it’s really about owning your brand and knowing how to communicate that and your vision for your career. So, you’ve got to let people know what you want.

HAWLEY: We said it earlier—listen. When you’re in meetings, when you’re just having conversations with your associates and peers—listen and be a sponge. And because of that you’ll be able to learn and then apply yourself in different areas. And I think that so many kids that are coming into different industries, they’ve got their goal set on one thing and they all want to do the cool sexy thing. They don’t realize that there’s a lot more that needs to go behind putting that cool sexy thing together, and they might like doing that better. But they don’t know about it. They see the bright shiny object and they’re like, “This is what I’m going to go after”

AMADOR: You don’t get what you deserve. You deserve what you get. There is something to that. It’s important to understand your strengths as well as your weaknesses and play to those strengths, and use them to your advantage. Women tend to hang back more than men do. It is a good idea to ask for what you want, but you have to wrap it in a more feminine, not as aggressive, kind of a package. Whether that is fair or not, there is probably some truth to that. At least, that is what some people may be expecting. If someone sees you as aggressive, it can be a danger. But it has to mirror your personality. You can’t be someone you are not. I’m not a hard charger in that way. It’s important to find a balance that suits your personality.

HOLLANDER: What I found here is in order to continue to grow and evolve, it wasn’t just doing more of what I was currently doing, it was looking to find ways to take on more outside of what I was working on.

VELA: I didn’t realize how important mentors and career cheerleaders were. People talk about it and it sounds cliché, but that and networking. If I had to do it over, I would spend more time fostering those relationships in terms of network-ing and finding the right mentors and career cheerleaders. That really propels you to do bigger and better things and also helps you gain some confidence in what you are doing. It opens doors. Ultimately, I can tell you every job I have had up until this day has been because of networking. Someone knows me, someone recommends me and here I am in anoth-er job. That speaks to the power of it. I didn’t know it when I was younger.

LATHAN: But I also would be careful because there are some women who don’t want to climb the ladder. They’re perfectly happy where they are and they love the piece that they’re doing. And I wouldn’t want them to feel like they have to be forced out into another role. And I feel like we get that a lot—if you’re not moving up then you’re not successful and maybe you’re not good enough. And I don’t think that’s right for everybody.

We’re collaborators. so when you talk about marketing and p.r. and

brand and the digital team all working together seamlessly... those things happened as a result of what comes

naturally for women—to collaborate, to get best practices from every area and to all come to the table together and

develop a solution. –Crystal Worthem, Ford Motor Co.



EvEnt MarkEtEr: that leads us to the question of work-life balance. Is it even possible in a career where travel and crazy hours are all part of the gig?

FALCH: For many, many years, I turned down moving up because I had two kids. I didn’t want to be responsible for other people at work because I didn’t feel I could do a fair job to them. And for seven years I said no to the job that I currently have because I wanted to never have to work on a Friday, which I never have since I had my first son. I set those boundaries, and then as my kids got older and the company restructured and the department restructured, I was like, “You know what? Now is the time.” And so I think you can find a balance. But I will say during that time, I was always learning, I was always working really hard. And I think in the end, for me personally, it really gave me the ability to work and be a mom.

SINGH: I really struggle with working and being a mom. And I live in an area where most of the moms don’t work, so that also adds to it. But I love to work. So I had to find a way to do what I love to do but still not miss out on the things that were so important to me.

SHARP: I will go to the school play and I will go be a mom on the field trip. That may mean I had to get up at four but I will do that. Or I’ll work on a weekend that I hadn’t planned to work, just to get it done but still make sure I can do the things that I think are important for my child. And that’s kind of the normal way that it works in the Bay Area. I don’t know if it works that way anywhere else. It is expected you’re working 24/7 but you might be at the school play. You just integrate it all together.

CARVALHO: I was part of the Gloria Steinem years and the glass ceiling and all of those conversations and I will tell you right now, we didn’t win that war—not by a long shot. And the next generation that came through said, “You know what? You guys didn’t do such a good job. Forget it. I’m going to be a stay-at-home mom.” The paradigm shifts I find are fascinating. I think, why did I march on Washington? What was I doing? And I realize it was still for equal pay, it was still to have a voice and a share in the room, and it was still to give you those choices. Because before that, you didn’t even have the choice to say that.

PINKHAM: I sit with people on my team who say, “I want to try all of the different disciplines within event marketing, and then I want to go do p.r. and then I want to go do demand-gen because I want to be a cmo in 10 years.” So we will craft a career plan for them. Then there are people who will say, “I want to learn everything I can about this one discipline of event marketing, because my goal is, when I start having kids in five years, I want to be a consultant and have a flexible work schedule.” So we craft a career path for her so in a few years, when she’s ready to go start a family, she has a skill set and portfolio and she can go and be a highly compensated consul-tant in this particular area. And that’s her career path.

So everybody has a different perspective on it and that’s what makes it fun is having those conversations around how will we get you there, what will it take.

LATHAN: And that’s it. We just need to stop judging each other for our choices. I balance my day Monday, and I rebal-ance it Tuesday. And my annual conference is on the day of

my son’s violin concert, so my parents will record it for me because I can’t get to that one. But I got to go to his rehearsal. It’s not life balance, it’s just moment by moment. Sometimes you’re that mom that gave the kid the Lunchables four days this week. But it’s fine.

I mean, it’s still gut-wrenching to know that you’re going to give your baby more formula than you really want because you have to take a trip way earlier than you planned on, but you’ve got to get over the mommy guilt. The kids will be fine. They’re going to grow up to learn that you’ve got a work ethic and that they need a work ethic, too.

WORTHEM: But the critical piece to me is what Lisa was saying as far as setting up this next generation of female lead-ership to change the paradigm in business. Because I have so many amazing mentors and you go in a meeting, they’ve got their red lipstick on, they’re freaking slaying them. And so, it’s important for all of us that have gleaned that from them to now pass that down and change the rules for the next genera-tion of women not to have to have all this crazy mommy guilt. Or whatever it is—whatever you’re passionate for, or whatever your family is.

In our company we have transitional work assignments so you can work, say, an 80 percent schedule. But there was a stig-ma associated with that. So, we were very fortunate—because the woman that I came in under, Connie Fontaine, did that for like 15 years, and then she got off it and just was amazing. So, the next time we were looking for team members we took in, I think, 75 percent of our team of women that were on these transitional assignments.

LATHAN: It is important for more and more corporations to be like that. Dell is the same. Just hugely flexible work. You’re able to work remotely. If I need to do all my calls on a Monday morning because I didn’t get the laundry done over the weekend, I can. So, I think having the shift in corporate culture is so helpful.

WORTHEM: And we’re the shift, right? We’re the ones that are going to go in. We have a seat at the table and we have to make that transformation for the rest of the women.

EvEnt MarkEtEr: It certainly sounds like there’s a lot of progress, but women in the workforce still make less than men in comparable jobs. Can you talk about the glass ceiling and salary disparities between men and women in events?

PINKHAM: I think it has to do with the perception of the value of event marketing. In technology, and in some compa-nies more than others, events are seen as very strategic and very important in the marketing mix and extremely essential and critical. At Salesforce, it’s one of our sharpest marketing tools and it’s so imbedded in the company culture and our entire brand and our message to the outside world, that our team, which is predominantly female, is seen as extremely strategic.

That may in a way speak to a leadership opportunity or redefining the strategic value of events in other companies. We as female leaders in this discipline can help other women who are running those programs in a different industry understand what those events can do for their brand and their company.

CARVALHO: If you’re interviewing at a company that doesn’t embrace event marketing, then don’t go there. If you



love what you do in event marketing, then find somewhere that does embrace it because as much as you think you’re going to be able to bring great ideas and energy, it’s not going to work, and then you’re wasting your time and a lot of years pushing it uphill. You can love what you do but not love where you do it.

ZIMMER: I feel the sky is the limit because if you are good at what you do, there will be opportunity for you and at Mercedes-Benz, I have not experienced the glass ceiling. I have worked my way up from a coordinator to a specialist to a supervisor and am now managing the entire department. I think if you’re good at what you do, it will be recognized. I think people have an appreciation for what goes into an event.

AMADOR: I don’t look at the world in terms of that. There are glass ceilings in some industries, but that said, I’ve never looked at an opportunity I didn’t get because I was a woman. I’ve looked at it as an opportunity to understand why that happened and looked at myself and what I could do differently moving forward. I’ve had a lot of great opportunities and been able to do wonderful work at Coca-Cola. I have a mentor at Coke, Wendy Clark, president of sparkling for North Amer-ica, and she is a woman with an important job in high senior management, along with several other women. I’ve never felt like I couldn’t do something I wanted to do by virtue of being a woman.

HOLLANDER: I’ve never really thought of event marketing as something that needed to be segmented among women. I never viewed it that way and I’m not sure I want to. I work with men and women, it doesn’t matter. The world of sports marketing may see more men, but that doesn’t mean it is geared toward that.

You have to earn your chops depending on the setting and who is around the table. I think men inherently know how to talk the talk more easily but I’ve never really felt intimidated by that, and I feel that if I have my craft, and my craft is mar-keting, I know I can apply it to anything like sports marketing, and I feel confident.

MIZE: I wouldn’t call it a glass ceiling. I think that everyday I wake up and have to focus on getting the job done. Some days I do a better job of it than others. The persistence in stay-ing on plan and staying on strategy allows me to deliver results as well as my team. We all have better days than others.

SCHMITZ: I’ve worked with Delta almost my entire career, so I am very fortunate. Delta embraces diversity across the board and across its various divisions. I believe in mentoring and mentorships and taking other women under our wings and helping them pave the way as well.

WORTHEM: This is where I learned my hard lesson. When you first start at a company, you set the tone, you establish what you’re going to make from the beginning. And where we as women lose? Men negotiate and we don’t. So, my room-mate was a guy that I went to school with. We both started at the same time and he negotiated like $10,000 more than me! And I didn’t find out until after the fact. And then you’re done. So, that’s one of the things I’d share with anybody.

One more salary trick I learned from a male coworker was, every six months he would go out, interview, and come back in with an offer and say, “Well, so-and-so offered me this, so I

should be making XYZ.” And, of course, I thought, “Oh, my God, that’s so crass.” But he’s still there and he’s thriving.

MARTIN: And he’s not just letting his work speak for itself.CARVALHO: I don’t give a rat’s ass, frankly, what my title

is—you’d better make sure I’m paid equally among everybody else in this building. If you think your salary is not commen-surate with someone, you should go to HR and say to them, “I need to know what such-and-such is making within the disci-pline that I’m in, and am I in that salary band? And if I’m not, how do I get there?” And make sure they tell you.

PINKHAM: We’re fortunate here, to have a culture that’s extremely encouraging and supportive of women and their careers. Women here feel very empowered and are given every possible tool to feel that way.

VELA: From my experience, I feel like we continue to make inroads because there are more and more women in corporate America in leadership positions that understand what women need, and they support that. The time that I have been here in marketing, I have seen two women rise through the organiza-tion and be vps of marketing, which is very exciting. I do feel like throughout many companies it is becoming more about the skill set and what women bring to the table instead of the gender roles, but we have some room. There is still room to grow.

i don’t think the work can just stand on its own either. You have to promote

it. You have to connect it back to the business objectives and be very specific about what you’ve achieved

based on those objectives. i think we say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” and

then people walk in the room and everything is glorious but we make it

look so easy, so they have no idea. –Cathy Martin, CSC

Documents

special report Women in Event Marketing Candid Conversations50f6c7db9abc0b7d1e9e-1b9b28ba341b8b05795c411c70db185b.r3.cf2...special report Women in Event Marketing ... Heineken Jane