"Women in Media: Working Title"

Tuesday evening I had the privilege of attending the inaugural meeting for the Women & Girls Foundation planning committee for their annual event. This year's focus is "Women in Media" and it was quite an array of perspectives at the table. The gist of the project is to highlight the contributions of women within a particular field. Previous "themes" have been women in the law, sports, sciences, etc.

What's interesting is that this is not a celebration of women who give back to the community -- it is an acknowledgement of women who do "kick ass work" within an industry and contribute to the community vis a vis their work. It is the ultimate way to highlight the ways in which gender equity is a critical economic development tool --- the more "kick ass work" women are doing, the better the economy, right?

WQED COO Deb Acklin is chairing this year's event and has asked the committee to consider incorporating smaller year round events. Four members of The Society were in attendance and our ears perked up. My brain has been on hyperdrive considering all the possibilities.

I won't lie. I was excited to meet Sally Wiggen in person (she didn't make it). It was part of the allure and I was even more thrilled that Patrice King-Brown is participating. What I didn't expect was to meet a woman from the PG "behind the scenes" world who was able to take the discussion of needing a female blogger at the PG and *do* something with it. A light bulb went off for me ... the process of participating in this planning committee will create the connections necessary to forge ties between mainstream media and social media.

This is just my take on things. We are discussing blogging the entire project so you may see something new popping up soon. I'm sure we'll discuss here and I'm even more sure you'll be pleased with the ideas being tossed around.

The event is set for November and will honor 10-20 women in media. No subcategories and lots of outside the box thinking.

Stay tuned. Only on The Society ...