WIE: Experts Urge Female Professionals To Utilise Multi-Dimensional Strategies In Tackling Challenges
The Chief Executive Officer of Watermark, Victoria Adewunmi, has called on female professionals, especially those in experiential marketing, to deploy their unique multi-dimensional strategies and multi-layer perspectives into solving challenges, as the country needs them more, in today’s professional world.
Adewunmi made the call during a panel session at the maiden edition of the Women In Experiential (WIE), a women’s group initiative of the Experiential Marketers Association of Nigeria (EXMAN). The theme of the programme was ‘Inspire Inclusion’
and it was held in celebration of International Women’s Day. The event took place last weekend at Ikeja, Lagos.
Adewunmi emphasized that women must realize that they are in the season of future-forward women leaders. According to her, there is a mighty evolution of female leaders dominating most business and professional sectors presently, and there’s something these high-flying females are tapping into and that’s the power to see multidimensional perspective.
The event had two panel sessions with the following topics, XM Trends and Female Leadership: Shaping the Future of Experiential Marketing” and “Balancing Act: Nurturing Career Growth and Personal Wellbeing. Two guest speakers also spoke on the topics, “Inspire Inclusion” and “Fueling Creativity through Self Care’.
Still in her presentation during the first panel session, Adewunmi said, “It is essential for us to tap into ourselves and find what we can give to make things different in our space. The world is looking for that authentic version of ourselves we carry, the world is looking for our multi-layer perspective, and the world is looking for our unique approaches to solving challenges, we need to bring all of them to the table and learn how to develop and harness them. Always look for that new edge you can bring to the table.”
She also stressed the importance of self-development, “We need to take our self-development very seriously, we cannot rely on another person to author the path of our self-development. We ladies must learn to apply some innovation to how we develop ourselves. Technology is a big tool to accelerate our self-development, whether you are exposing yourself to frequent online courses.”
Also speaking during the panel session, Angela Makinwa, Vice President of EXMAN, and Director of Client Engagement Strategy and Creative at EXP Marketing said, “Women experience changes in their lives. When you are young, you experience periods, then you get pregnant, you take care of babies and when you are done with that you deal with other issues and in the middle of all these, you look for the best ways to manage all and still be effective at work and society.
“As Experiential Marketers, we deal with human behaviours, which is very dynamic. When we deal with our clients, whether in simple communications or activations, it’s important to observe them because it’s in observing that we will see the need to do something differently and that’s the tickle that allows you to innovate.
“It’s about finding new ways to do things differently, be it in your plan, communication or video editing. Let’s find what makes us women, we notice every little thing about us, that allows us to find new ways of fixing it, let’s also apply it in our work, and if we do this intentionally we will bring a creative twist to our works”.
Dolapo Otegbayi, CEO of DLK Consulting, while speaking on the topic “Inspire Inclusion” said, “Today, we are shifting the focus from talking to doing. It is about walking the talking to inspire inclusion. We have discussed, debated and strategized, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and make tangible changes”.
She highlighted several points WIE need to adhere to walk the talk, which include:
Fostering mentorship and sponsorship programmes, promoting diversity in leadership, creating safe spaces for discussion, offering training and development opportunities, celebrating achievements and collaborative partnerships for change.
She also stated that to create a more inclusive environment within WIE, it is important to encourage the involvement of male allies.
In her words “Inclusion efforts are more effective when everyone, regardless of gender, actively supports and advocates for diversity.”
Earlier, in her welcome speech, Tolulope Medebem, President of EXMAN said, “The theme for this year is ‘inspire inclusion’ I’m very happy and excited about this because this is one of the reasons why we started Women In Experiential Group, the idea behind that is just for us to ensure that together we grow and inspire ourselves to become bigger and better than what it is or who we are today. And I’m glad that this theme this year is showing us that we are moving in the right direction.
“Inclusion is not just a buzzword, it is something that we all must do, not just for one day but moving forward, ensuring that we take along and bring everyone together and everyone finds a seat at the table, regardless of who they are or what they are doing, it is an opportunity for all of us to learn and grow together”.