Association column
Providing a forum for women
to fulfill leadership destiny
Mary Larkin explains how SISO is expanding its
Women’s Leadership Programme
n its third year, the SISO
(Society for Independent
Show Organisers) Women’s
Leadership Programme
has grown to become a full educational
programme at both the SISO CEO
Summit and the SISO Leadership
Conference.
The mission of the SISO Women’s
group is to provide a forum “where the
industry’s aspirational woman comes
to be inspired, to engage and to fulfill
their leadership destiny”.
In 2017, the SISO Board of Directors
sponsored a survey produced by
the Negotiation Institute which also
presents the WIN Summit – Women
Insights on Negotiation. The aim of
the survey was to understand gender
diversity within the industry.
At a time when women are
outnumbering men in the workforce
at colleges and are collecting more
degrees, the results were revealing.
Women represent on average 63%
of the employee population of the
industry by company; at mid-level
roles, women represent 51% of the
make-up of companies, but by senior
level, that has dropped to 35%. Not
surprisingly, by CEO level, that drops to
9%. SISO Women aims to provide the
tools to help the industry close that gap.
Another major highlight from the
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk
survey showed that women and men,
at most levels of their organisations,
want more training especially senior
management training. Women
specifically wanted female focused
training. And SISO is delivering that
education.
The survey advised companies to
consider both women specific and
senior management training; pay
attention to pay equality; provide
mentorship and sponsorship programs
and to consider company sponsored
female networks. Providing such
programmes allow women to be
more visible to senior management
and therefore more likely to be
considered for more senior roles within
organisations.
Credit Suisse’s Gender 3000 survey
showed that companies with female
leadership at multiple levels performed
better on their share prices as well
as female CEO-led companies had a
higher return on equity.
For 2019, the SISO Executive
Women’s Forum at the SISO CEO
Summit will focus on “Being an Only
– Challenges and Practices for Women
in Male-Dominated Organisations”,
presented by Anne Litwin, PhD.
Many women face being the only
female on a leadership team or Board
of Directors and that brings its own set
of issues on being taken seriously, being
interrupted and getting their message
heard. The SISO Leadership Summit
in August hosts the SISO Women’s
Leadership Forum a full day and a half
educational programme for women
– and men – advancing their careers.
This past session covered leadership
skills training as well as negotiation,
strategic thinking, mentoring and
sponsoring programs as well as
language and perception awareness.
Highly rated by attendees, SISO will
be holding this valuable educational
forum again in Detroit, USA, 12-15
August, 2019.
More information: www.siso.org
Mary Larkin is a SISO Board Member
and Chair of SISO’s Women’s Leadership
SIG. She is also Executive Vice-President
– Diversified Communications.
Issue 1 2019
59