Wireless women gather in Edmonton

By Chandra Lye
YegNews.com

An international event to celebrate women in wireless is coming to Edmonton later this week.

In honour of the first ever Mobile Marketing Week the Women in Wireless (WiW) organization, based in New York, is planning a cocktail party to be held concurrently in major cities around the world on Thursday, Sept. 8.

Edmonton is one of those cities.

“I know the group when they started had about 1,000 members – globally. So it is growing pretty rapidly,” local event organizer Lisa Hagen said. 

Edmonton joins the distinguished list of cities, behind New York, San Francisco, London, Toronto and Calgary.

Hagan said the group could be a boon for local women in digital industries.

“Since this is the first event in Edmonton we’re just starting to gauge the interest,” she explained. “We don’t have official members yet. Everybody that will attend the event will have a complimentary membership.”

And that membership will open doors, according to WiW co-chair Charlotte Fors.

“It is becoming the network in this industry that you want to belong to if you are a woman,” Fors said. “There are other networks that you want to belong to but, if you are a women this is really the network you want to be a part of.”

With the launch of the local group Hagen said it is more focused than similar organizations in Edmonton.

“Women in Wireless is focused, of course, on women and really focusing on empowering them and developing them in the industry,” she explained. “It’s helping get those new women in the industry involved and helping partner them up with mentors that can help take them to their career.”

“There aren’t too many women in the wireless space,” WiW networking co-chair Nicole Fabry said, “it’s very, very male dominated.”

Fors and Fabry said the idea behind WiW is to bring women together and provide mentorship opportunities, career opportunities and also just a space for women in the industry to connect.

“Our events are really geared towards bringing women in the industry together and talking,” Fabry said.

Hagan said she would like the local chapter of WiW to work with other women-focused groups in the city, like Yeg Girl Geek Dinners or Broad Ideas to empower women in the digital industry.

“In Edmonton there are a lot more of these groups popping up, which is fantastic to see,” Hagan said but added that there is still a lack of connection for many women in the wireless world.

“We’re definitely a minority.  And there are a lot of factors for that.”

She said one of the biggest reasons is that women in the industry are “not meeting other women in the industry and therefore not seeing the value in going out to some of these other broader events.”

Hagen said they are hoping for a turnout of about 30 women, “And see what those people are interested in and what type of benefit they think Women in Wireless could have being in Edmonton. Then we’ll look at growing it and forming some committees and that kind of a thing.”

The cocktail party and networking event is planned for Thursday night at D’Lish on 124^th Street. All women in mobile and digital media are invited to attend.

To get tickets for the Edmonton event, go to: http://mobilemarketingweekyeg-eorg.eventbrite.com/.