International Women’s Day Blog: Are there even fewer women working in #eventtech?

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By Nina Bourotte, sales executive for VISIT, by GES

When I started working in the industry, my role was focused on event project management. My job gave me the opportunity to travel the world and deal with large numbers of colleagues in the events sector. Working every day on different events – whatever the size, content or the people attending – I noticed very quickly one common point. That 90% of the time I was working with women. 

Whether I was involved with the project management team or marketing department, most of the time was interacting with women and during this time I had the chance to meet and work with talented, passionate and inspiring women who truly made me believe I was where I was supposed to be.

From the owner of an agency, to the team manager or the event director – all at a very high levels in their career – they were also very much present. At that time, I believed that women are not only well represented in the event industry, they can also run it!

From that day, I knew I wanted to work in this industry for a very long time, and it gave me the confidence to make my way through this jungle and succeed. 

Now with my role as a sales manager, it is quite different, and I have seen that female representation does not apply across the entirety of the event spectrum. On a daily basis I’m interacting with more individuals working in commercial roles and key senior decision makers and as a result, have fewer opportunities to meet female peers and have seen the balance sway more on the male side. 

And this applies in the event tech industry, too. If women are very much underrepresented in senior roles in the events world, I still feel there are fewer in the tech side of this industry.

Not that we are not welcomed to work for tech companies, we are! Tech is historically more of a male heavy sector, but there are big opportunities for women to show what they can do. I have seen more and more talented and inspiring women entering this industry and owning what they do. 

My conclusion would be that even if an industry has historically been dominated by one gender, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It is more a question of what you want to achieve, what you are interested in and what place you think you can occupy as an individual, no matter if you are a man or a woman.

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.