CTIA Women in Wireless Week Executive Women Breakfast

Where are all the women in wireless? Well at CTIA there were about 100 hot female executives in the Wireless Week breakfast.

I had never heard of Wireless Week and received an invitation from WIP Connector guru Caroline Lewko. But during CTIA I checked out the publication and am a fan. There are so many US publications that I haven’t heard of and don’t have the time to read. But this is now on my list and the editors are female!

But, the complementary breakfast of about 100 executives was great. I met some fabulous women and I had the pleasure of hearing Laura Marriott President of the Mobile Marketing Association and Connie Wong CEO of Vidiator and President of Hutchison Whampoa America speak. Both had very different stories to tell about their success, and I did enjoy hearing about the way in which they had worked (both very different) to succeed. In fact, I empathised with Connie. Apparently she worked and worked – until there was no one left to promote in her early career and then got promoted. Then took the world by storm, but had to work really hard. She joked about male bonding and big white men as sales guys – which was quite funny coming from a very small, petite Asian lady.

Laura Mariott on the other hand said loyalty helped her in her career. By sticking to the job in hand – she found the talent and ability to carry through to lead the MMA.

Being a brown, mother of two with my own business; I do think it’s very hard being self-employed.  When I started out everyone phoned me and asked for Ben Roberts. My sister told me to dress more provocatively to get male subscribers and I felt bitter and ill treated by my past employers.  Some women ask if I am so poor that I have to work and I reply “no,  I just like diamonds and fast cars”.

I worked like a dog in all my positions at max.mobil, Sony and Current Analysis. I did always command a high wage, but money wasn’t the issue. Without slagging off old –bosses (which it would be very easy to do) – in the employment channel – I was a threat. My ambition showed on my face and people didn’t like it.

On top of that, when I first met Connie Wong from Vidiator she made me a tea and I thought she was the secretary. More often than not, it is women who perceive other women wrongly and that can also hold back the success of women in the workplace. But anyway – it would be easy to go on now.

All I know is that I felt warm in the women’s breakfast and the networking was great – but also the ability to fight the female cause and discuss work openly was fabulous.

Thank-you!

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