56 ROUND TABLE Rise Up THISMONTH’S FEED ROUND TABLE GUESTS ARE:
FEED: Can you tell us a bit more about your respective backgrounds? ANNE-LOUISE BUICK: For the past year, I have been working with Avid. Prior to that I was working with Ericsson Media Solutions – now MediaKind. My areas of focus have been segment, customer and channel marketing and expanding my management experience globally. SADIE GROOM: The past five years have been very busy in Bubble world. We have grown the company threefold and increased our team from three people to 11. In this time frame, I also became one of the first women in the industry to put my head above the parapet and talk about gender diversity. Five years ago, I organised the first panel discussion on gender diversity at the IBC Show in Amsterdam. The discussion was a great success, with many members of the audience saying they felt secure and confident enough to answer questions. Despite some criticism, I conducted an industry survey to get some hard facts on the gender diversity situation in the non-craft (sales, engineering, operations, business and marketing) areas of broadcast. The stats were simple: out of 1500 companies, less than 2% of CEOs are female, and less than 25% of manufacturer websites show pictures of female technology users. As a result, I launched Rise two years ago. When I was approached by Carrie Wootten, the director of Rise, to do a mentoring programme, I jumped at the chance. Now, here we are on our second programme, with Rise going from strength to strength. CALINA HO: For the past couple of years, I have been working in project management roles for Sohonet. The few years before that, I was working for Discovery in the VOD department. CARYS HUGHES: I graduated from Salford University in 2014 and have been working at Sky ever since, initially within
first line support for our ever-growing asset management and file-based content processing systems. In 2016, I moved over into design engineering, concentrating on emerging technologies (eg UHD, Atmos and HDR) in both linear and VOD contexts, while also gatekeeping the video and audio quality of our DTH platform. ANNE-LOUISE BUICK: I have been friends with Sadie Groom for a long time. When she first talked about the Rise initiative, I knew I wanted to support it. CALINA HO: I heard about it from my company. It was involved with it in the first year as a sponsor and partner. CARYS HUGHES: I initially heard about Rise through a DTH newsletter, but was further encouraged to apply by Sky colleagues and a respected SMPTE acquaintance. FEED: Are you involved with any other industry organisations that promote equality and diversity? SADIE GROOM: Yes, I am. I also work on the WAVE (Women in AV) mentoring programme. CALINA HO: Not at the moment, but I’m looking into it! I have arranged a few sessions internally and I am definitely interested in promoting equality and diversity in the industry. Perhaps in a more senior role, such as head of a department, I would like to be more involved in schemes and initiatives like Rise. And perhaps even become a mentor myself. CARYS HUGHES: Sky in the UK is actively working to attract women into TV engineering. I’m actually currently driving the long-term, strategic part of FEED: How did hear about, and become involved with, Rise? ANNE-LOUISE BUICK: Not currently.
SADIEGROOM,MANAGING DIRECTORATBUBBLEAGENCY(RISE MENTOR&CO-FOUNDEROFRISE) Sadie founded Bubble, a global PR, marketing and events company focusing on the entertainment technology, sports and AV business in 1999. She has 20 years of PR and marketing experience, and not only works with clients on their campaigns, but also promotes the role of women in the industries she works in.
ANNE-LOUISEBUICK,VPOF GLOBALFIELD&CHANNEL
MARKETINGATAVID(RISEMENTOR) Anne-Louise Buick has more than 17 years of experience in the broadcast technology industry and is currently VP of global field and channel marketing at Avid, responsible for successfully leading Avid’s global field marketing organisation, key strategic partner sales and marketing
plans to drive revenue as well as worldwide channel engagement.
CALINAHO,LEADPROJECT MANAGERATSOHONET(RISEMENTEE) Calina works as a lead project manager at Sohonet and is responsible for delivering and managing the end-to-end delivery of Sohonet services to new and existing clients. She has over ten years’ experience with various departments in key service provider roles. Calina promotes enthusiasm and positivity in all aspects of work and personal life.
CARYSHUGHES,DESIGN ENGINEERATSKY(RISEMENTEE) Carys graduated from Media Technology at Salford University in 2014. She then moved into the broadcast design team for Emerging Technologies at Sky as an associate in 2016 and is now a design engineer. Her work involves researching and implementing new technologies, as well as looking after DTH’s linear and VOD picture quality, contributing to other projects, running POCs and author lip- sync guidelines and sharing knowledge.
I CONDUCTED AN INDUSTRY SURVEY TO GET SOME HARD FACTS ON THE GENDER DIVERSITY SITUATION. OUT OF 1500 COMPANIES, LESS THAN 2%OF CEOS ARE FEMALE
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