It gets pretty busy in our Toronto office. Nobody ever said that running a highly successful event planning business would be a piece of cake, but still … there’s not that much time to sit down and reflect on the path that we have travelled to get where we are now.
Yesterday, International Women’s Day gave us the chance to really look around and appreciate what we have accomplished here at Pop! Events. We don’t remember International Women’s Day being so big in previous years, but something about this year’s celebration really struck a chord with us. You see, Pop! Events was founded by two women – Jodi Lieff and Dawne Eisenberg – and the majority of our current staff (90%) are women. In fact, with the addition of Ashley Briggs, Cynthia Spinola and Severina Tassone, our entire management team consists of women.
Pop! Events Group caters to a corporate market in a highly corporate city – we deal with a lot of high-powered clients. We think that we’re pretty successful at what we do. Our business has had over a decade of success in the Greater Toronto Area, and clients are always impressed with the professionalism that they see at our events. We’d like to think that our continued success is a sign that women’s rights are a historical issue, and that Canada has eliminated the gender gap. However, Women’s Day isn’t just a celebration of all that is female; it’s also a stark reminder that Pop! Event’s female success and all-female management team is not the norm.
We live in a confusing and interconnected world where global news can travel across the world in a matter of seconds. Yet, we still persist in maintaining a social structure where one half of the population does not get the same opportunities for success as the other half. Looking around our busy (and very female) office, this reality is almost hard to believe. Yet, we experience this reality every day.
As the sun goes down on another highly productive and exciting day at Pop! Events, we are thankful for our success. We feel lucky to be part of a company that is owned and operated by women, and where women form the majority of the staff at all levels. Women’s Day isn’t just a celebration; it’s a reminder of how much work there still is to be done. We are proud of the opportunities we have created here at Pop! Events, and we hope that in the future our reality will be accessible for every woman – no matter where she lives or what she looks like.