Women in Marketing

Last Thursday I attended the Women in Marketing Event at Red Bull Headquarters in Santa Monica. It was an event organized by Tadpole, a marketing and consulting company owned by Carolyn Deighan. Carolyn worked with Red Bull for a good number of years then she moved on to opening her own company.

The event was amazing and the response overwhelming. There were about 200 people there. Although the event was called “Women in Marketing”, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few men attending. They were probably hoping to get a good insight into the female psyche. News flash, guys: sometimes we don’t even understand ourselves.

The nine women invited were a breath of fresh air. Successful, funny, very direct, smart, and very passionate about their job. Amy Stettler, Global Account Director at Apple, Amy Taylor, VP of Marketing at Red Bull, Caralene Robinson, Marketing Director at Boost Mobile, Circe Wallace, Senior VP at WMG Management, Dyana Kass, Sr. Marketing Director at Interscope Records, Kenna Bertell Florie, VP of Marketing at Roxy, Renne Lawter, Owner of Eyerus, Shanti Sosienski, Owner of SOS Communications, and Staci Levine, Partner, SnL Communications, each answered specific questions prepared by Carolyn Deighan. I was happy to learn that although most of them work in a male-dominated environment, they did not attribute their success to having to act as a “dude” to be taken seriously. If I were to sum up their answers into one sentence, it would sound like this: find your passion, be yourself, be prepared, set goals for yourself, don’t take things personally, laugh at yourself, and don’t be afraid to express your opinion. It sounds like very common sense, I know, but to me, it was refreshing to hear from the mouths of these very successful women.

The night then continued with smaller open discussions groups where participants were able to ask their own questions and network and then ended with goodie bags and lots of smiles. The event was definitely a success and I recommend both women and men to attend the second edition.