Żaneta Berus, a dynamic force for many years in Poland and eastern Europe’s exhibition industries, shares a perspective, and that of some of her female colleagues in the region, on the topic of women in exhibitions.
Gender cannot make a person better, worse, more capable or experienced. Differences that exist between men and women can, of course, work to the advantage of a company and enrich its way of thinking and formulating strategies.
Artificially striving for balance on all positions and in all industries is probably a mistake, considering the preferences of women themselves, who tend to thrive in sectors connected with direct contact with other people, including the hospitality and MICE sector.
Grant Thornton’s Women in Business 2020 report indicated that the global average of companies in which women hold the most responsible positions is 29% – an increase of 10% compared to data from 15 years ago.
The report showed African countries were the best in terms of gender equality (38% of managers there are women), followed by Australia, Oceania and Eastern Europe (35% each). The worst results were from Japan, where only 12% of managers are women and in more than half of Japanese companies there are no women in any important managerial position.
In Polish companies women currently make up 38% of top managerial staff. Only South Africa (40%) and the Philippines (43%) have a higher proportion, but we are far ahead of Germany, where only 30% of women hold senior positions, or the UK and the US (29% and 28% respectively).
Polish women most often play the role of HR director (40%) or CFO (30%), yet only 20% of CEOs are women. It is a country where 87% of companies have at least one woman on the board. However, there are still half as many female as male board members.
Sixth sense
Creating a vision of a new event often requires a ‘sixth sense’, but also the ability to think creatively while analysing details and multi-tasking, and no one is better at this than women.
The event sector is made up of 80% smaller companies, and the majority of them in Poland are managed by women. The tradefair sector in Poland is typically based 85% on venues and related organisers owned by cities or partly by the State Treasury. Many women hold managerial roles. In the MTP Group the vice-president is currently Elżbieta Roeske, and in Targi Kielce the vice-president is Bożena Staniak.
Krakow has a private tradefair centre, EXPO KRAKÓW. Grażyna Grabowska and Ewa Woch have been in the management team from the inception and, at the other congress centre in Krakow, ICE Krakow, two strong women are in charge.
In Warsaw, however, the two largest tradefair centres, both privately owned, currently have no women in senior management.
In Warsaw, examples where women are on the management boards are MT Targi Polska, Agencja Promocji Zieleni, AUTOMATICON, Lentewenc, Grupa IC and Agencja SOMA.
Polish pathway
My own professional path began at the Polish Chamber of Commerce in the Foreign Promotion Office, where I was responsible for leading Polish entrepreneurs on economic missions abroad. I helped promote companies at foreign tradefairs, which at the time were almost non-existent in Poland (with the exception of MTP). The Chamber had long relied on women in the Promotion Office, so we always felt appreciated.
I went on to be Polish Commercial Consul in the USA, in Chicago. Women accounted for almost half of our consulate staff there.
When I returned to Poland, Expomedia Group was taking its first steps on the Polish market and my mentor and first bosses there were Roger and Mark Shashoua, who made a bold investment in Warsaw with the construction of the EXPO XXI exhibition centre.
There I was promoted to president of the Board and was listened to on an equal footing with my colleagues and I always could confidently present my ideas on the development of the company. All that mattered was competence, although I admit I was initially rather irritated by the favouritism of British Expomedia employees sent to Poland, in relation to Polish employees who were sometimes much better. However, after several years of co-operation these inequalities disappeared as well.
I now run my own consulting company, In2Win, as well as working with one of the largest event agencies on the market, BERM Creative Group, where I have been offered the role of managing director.
I have also been active in industry associations, such as IAEE, UFI and the Polish Association of the Event Industry, where for the last six years I have been a Board member. I have also been a member of the Association of Conferences and Congresses in Poland and the Warsaw Tourist Organisation. I am a licensed lecturer of the CEM programme, and have never felt the gender weakness in our industry.
Ratio and equality
Keen to find out what other women in our part of the world think, I asked a few colleagues in Poland, Russia and Croatia for their take on things.
According to Elżbieta Roeske, vice-president of the MTP Group: “It is said that business has no gender, but the business we run needs both genders to the same extent, as they bring different experiences, perspectives and skills. In our company, women work in virtually all positions (including the Board), and they make up almost 40% of directors.”
Dina Tomsic, CEO at Zagreb Fair (Croatia) says: “Equality boosts quality” and sees a more equal inclusion of women in leadership positions as a process. “At the same time, it is impossible to separate the topic of career and the role of women in the structure of family life, primarily women as parent caregivers,” she says.
Dagmara Chmielewska, president of Poland’s Event Industry Association, says that the EIA does not have precise statistics on the number of women to men in the event sector, a result she believes stems from the industry still being a poorly recognised branch of the economy. However, she says women tend to occupy managerial positions most often in event agencies, managing a team, but still tend to avoid technical departments. She notes the previous EIA board was all female, and the current board has three women and one man.
Ewa Woch, the president of EXPO KRAKÓW, also offers some empirical observations. “We should probably separate PCO/DMC or event companies from exhibition companies. The former are usually small companies based on a dynamic owner, a field where women are as active as men and, it seems to me, their individual skills determine both the development of their companies and their individual earnings”.
Tradefair companies, being usually larger and belonging to local authorities, tend to be have more ‘patriarchal’ relations. Practically all of them have a male chairman. However, in recent years management boards there too are tilting towards having more women.
Twenty five years ago Ewa Woch, together with some friends, decided to create an event organising company. “The beginnings were extremely difficult,” she says. “We had no money, but we had enthusiasm.” From those beginnings, Grażyna Grabowska and Ewa Woch now head the Board.
It should be remembered that the position of women 25 years ago in Poland was very different. Today, says Woch, Targi w Krakowie is one of the largest tradefair and congress companies in Poland, a member of UFI and ICCA. “In 2014 we invested in the EXPO KRAKOW International Trade Fair and Congress Centre, where we organise dozens of major events per year.”
The company is an example of the fact that it is not gender that decides career opportunities. In this industry, typically female competences are much appreciated by clients.
Woch adds that the majority of employees in her company are women. “Women perform much better and dominate in areas like event organisation, sales, marketing and accounting. On the other hand, in IT departments and technical and logistic organisations, the majority are men.”
Dina Tomsic believes she has been appreciated in her career not because she was a woman, but due to her skills and experience.
“On my career journey that I have built in the exhibition industry, from the starting position as key brand manager to the assistant director of Zagreb Fair, and today as the CEO of that same organisation, I have never felt hindered by the fact that I am a woman, and I am proud of that.”
In Russia Olga Budnaya headed, as general director, the RusJewellerExpert Company, a part of JUNWEX Media Holding, which organises the largest jewellery shows in the country.
Budnaya says the current ratio of women to men in leading positions in the country is approximately 45% versus 55%, and represents progress from the old days. “In the JUNWEX Media Holding team 67% of top managers are women,” she says.
In our eastern neighbours, the percentage of women appears much higher in this sector than the world average.
Salary levels
I asked my female colleagues how they thought the salaries of women in our sector compared to the salaries of men.
In Poland, Dagmara Chmielewska believes women earn comparable rates to men in the same positions. Chmielewska notes, however, that salaries in Poland are much lower than in Western countries. “The situation is changing for the better, but it will probably take another dozen or so years to eliminate these differences.”
Ewa Woch says in her company salary is absolutely not determined by gender. “There are no differences in pay between male and female colleagues in the same position.”
She adds that in the Małopolska region, where her company operates, the situation is different in some other sectors, however. “Recent studies have found that in this region women’s salaries are on average 30% lower than men’s in a similar position.”
Equality of opportunity
Budnaya points out that access to development for men and women in the exhibition and event industry is comparable in Russia. “For us equality means the same level of opportunities and access to professional development and career growth for everybody. The Russian exhibition industry has a female face. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.”
The International Labour Organisation at the UN has rated countries in the world by share of women in leadership positions and Russia is ranked 14th with 44.7%.
Budnaya also mentions statistics published by the Boston Consulting Group which note the equal pay indicator in Russia (0.68) is comparable to Asia and Australia (0.69) (on a scale from 0 to 1, where 1 is full equality of women and men).
“In terms of equal pay for equal work, Russia is ahead of Western European countries (0.65) and ranks somewhere behind Japan (0.7) and North America (0.74),” Budnaya adds.
Ela Roeske of the MTP Group, adds: “In our company it is skills, creativity and experience that count, not gender. As a woman - and I started working here while still in my final year of university - I have never felt that it was harder (or indeed easier) because of my gender. I owe what I have achieved to my work and perseverance.”
Trends for development
Olga Budnaya says that although women are characterised by having high organisational abilities and sociability, she believes they are generally less self-confident than men, and do not actively seek power. “Women can conquer the market if they want to, precisely because of their extraordinary soft skills,” she adds.
Woch puts forward another idea, discussed recently at a special Women’s Lodge forum of the Krakow Chamber of Commerce and Industry:
“In large companies and corporations it can be difficult to persuade women to take up a higher managerial position. Up to a certain level they take up the challenge and turn out to be great team leaders, but at a certain point they give up on further promotion. No doubt this is rooted in family functions. But cultural stereotypes are important and we must think how this can be changed. Above all, it can be changed with education. Women must believe that they are not inferior, and can reach for the stars!”
Stereotypical thinking about the role of women needs to be broken down bit by bit to give women a chance to spread their wings. They will not do this if there is no partner or systemic family support by the state (kindergartens, medical care, etc). In Poland this has begun to change, but is still far from ideal. It is therefore hardly surprising that so many women in the event and exhibition industry decide to pursue a career and start a family rather late or, unfortunately, not at all. It is a demanding industry, not structured in terms of hours, and it requires round-the-clock dedication.
At UFI the outgoing president and incoming president are women, but with only 15% of women on the UFI Board there is still work to be done. This is probably a result of the fact that only people at the highest levels of companies are allowed to be candidates. Unfortunately, in the exhibition industry in the West, CEOs are still dominated by men, so if we don’t change the system of admitting women from levels other than CEO, we will still have a predominance of men on the Board. UFI should be the driving force behind such changes.
Can women do it better?
Ewa Woch says that with exhibition companies experiencing a crisis unknown in their previous history, only those that are creative and able to adapt to the new reality will survive. “Those that survive will have employees able to make up for the losses of the last year and a half with hard, systematic and creative work.”
When it comes to such systematic, hard and creative work, there are no better employees than women.
The role of women is emphasised by Ela Roeske, who notes that digitalisation of the industry and the development of new business units have given women a good opportunity because it is important to be patient and to keep in touch with customers left alone in the absence of tradefairs. “To make sure they don’t forget about us, you have to react in real time,” she emphasises.
Now is the time to rethink the business, to take a different look.
Dina Tomsic believes that the tradefair business model is rapidly changing in the direction of building long-term resilience and reinvention. The post-pandemic new reality has accelerated the evolutionary and digital transformation of the industry.
The new key competence thus becomes the ability to deliver high value-added capacity to participants in both a real and virtual dimension, with an emphasis on an innovative interactive user experience and inclusion.
The virtual dimension of business entails the involvement of e-stakeholders, which is a radical change for corporate governance. There will also be a vital role for sociology experts to advise the HR departments as we see changing competences needed in this new normality coming.
Ewa Woch believes women are the engine of new changes and are expert at running webinars, keeping in touch with clients and preparing for the restart of events. They sense moods much better and can look after lost customers faster and more effectively.
It is good that we can openly discuss the role of women in the exhibition sector, and there is still a lot to do in terms of opportunities for women’s advancement and admittance to the real job and salary matrix.
International organisations like UFI or IAEE or IEIA in India should be drivers for change. It is good that UFI has launched the Female Leadership Special Interest Group, focusing on empowering women and helping them to shape their career paths. Inclusivity is not only about meeting the immediate economic needs of women, but is about laying out a long-term strategy for creating stronger systems and companies that reflect the experiences and contributions of women in the workforce and in society.
It is important not only to change the foundations of the lower levels, but also the upper levels of business management, where there is still a patriarchy in the tradefair business that should not exist. This is not about any feminist type movement, but about normal changes in response to changing economic needs.
Women have more than once proved that they are ready for such changes and many of them even inspire and introduce them themselves. Dina Tomsic mentions embracing high-tech tools as a new core competence in order to become aligned with the reality of digitally native generations. She advocates: “Cherish our old core competence – socialisation and live interaction; develop an agile mindset; empower feminine leadership and provide a resilient platform through collaboration to sustain the synergy of members with the aim of acquiring new blood.”
According to Polish business publication Puls Biznesu contributor Paweł Janiewski, “Successful women have one important feature in common - they do not focus on differences but on similarities Where others see an obstacle, they see new opportunities. The fact that men and women are different should, above all, be an opportunity for all of us, not a barrier. After all, it is only through differences and different visions that we can complement each other, exchange insights, learn something new and broaden our horizons.”
