The importance of our Open Chats.

Brilliant things can happen when a room full of inspiring women get together and open up, and this is what we see each month when we host our Open Chat breakfast events. The initiative began back in January 2020, organised by Chief Revenue Officer Fiona Ravlic, and are hosted by senior women in the OOH or wider media industry. Attended by 20- 25 women in varying aspects of the media, the Open Chat always comes with fantastic feedback and even a waiting list for future events.

The aim of the breakfasts are to get like-minded women into the same room to open up, share stories and advise, as well as inspire and support each other. Topics discussed have ranged from breaking the glass ceiling, to navigating the menopause, to sharing anecdotes of career challenges, and guests always leave feeling inspired.

 

We have had so many inspiring women be kind enough to give up their time to guest host including;

• Kelly Parker, CEO @ Wavemaker
• Natalie Bell, CEO @ Wavemaker
• Sarah Parkes, Managing Partner @ Talon
• Nicole Lonsdale, Chief Client Officer @ Kinetic
• Kathryn Jacob, CEO @ Pearl & Dean
• Liz Jones, Founder @ Conker
• Georgina Bramall, Marketing Strategy Director @ GiffGaff

 

As well as speakers from the media industry, we have been lucky enough to be joined by charity founders and CEO’s such as Leanne Pero from Black Women Rising and Natalie Haskell from Coppafeel. Alongside inviting charity leaders to host, Open Media are always happy to support female-led charities with media space around the UK.

It is a fact that media industry is dominated by males, so events like these are so important to give women a platform and make them heard as well as show that there actually is progression for women in the media space. In the UK media industry, men continue to dominate top leadership positions, with women continuing to be underrepresented at CEO level.

 

There are more FTSE 100 CEOs named “Dave” or “David” than there are female CEOs. According to a 2023 review, nine FTSE 100 companies were led by men named David, compared to seven female CEO’s.

 

Women in the media industry face a number of barriers including; Gender bias, lack of representation, harassment & abuse, stereotyping and tokenism, to name a few.

• Only 22% of C-suite roles in the media and entertainment industry are held by women.
• According to a 2020 report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the average pay gap in in UK media companies stood at 15.1%
• A study by the Everyday Sexism Project found that one in two women (50%) had experienced some form of sexual harassment at work.
• A study from McKinsey on Women in the Workplace has revealed it will take 50 years to achieve gender parity in the workplace for all women. Read other key findings of this study here.

 

The Open Chat events create a safe space and platform to discuss these challenges, as well as share experience and advice to others. Although the above statistics are shocking and something that need to be seriously addressed, knowing that others are have been in similar situations can offer reassurance and help to others.