She Means Business, a conference that draws awareness to gender disparity while celebrating the role of women in business and events, has a new counterpart. 

Karin Ruppert, co-founder of the new She Means Mentoring program set to debut this May at IMEX Frankfurt, believes that women can and should help each other rise. We spoke with Ruppert on how She Means Mentoring will help achieve commonality, support and empowerment among women in business. Here's what she had to say.

How did She Means Mentoring come about and what do you hope to achieve in this initiative?

On International Women‘s Day 2017, the IMEX Group and tw magazine conducted the survey "Women in the Event Industry." The result? Every second woman does not feel treated the same as her male colleague in terms of salary and career prospects. Since eight out of 10 women wished to have a conference, Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group, and Kerstin Wünsch, editor-in-chief of tw, launched She Means Business, a conference on diversity, gender equality and female empowerment, to which Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is a partner. 

Mentoring was one the most discussed topics at She Means Business. Women felt a need for mentoring to support each other and to empower young women. We soon realized that many of us lack self confidence and wanted to create a tool to connect mentors and mentees. The name we came up with quite naturally was She Means Mentoring, supported by Bettina Metz (UN Women National Committee Germany), Carina Bauer and Sabine Loos (Messe Dortmund). She Means Mentoring is a mentoring initiative for the events industry whose aim is to achieve gender equality through empowering female professionals. We are inviting women and men all over the world to participate.

What is the connection between mentoring and gender equality and how will the mentoring program seek to bridge the gap in the gender inequalities that exist within the meeting and event industry?

There are many women who would like support on their career path. The power that comes from supporting each other can make a real difference on both sides. The message is: We are not alone. Many women are struggling with similar barriers in their daily lives. So it is a logical step to connect and support each other in personal and professional development; exactly at the time when we want help.

She Means Mentoring is an open platform where mentors and mentees shape their relationships among themselves without too many guidelines. Accompanying events will offer a platform for networking and give role models a stage in addition to one-to-one conversations. The platform is about exchanging knowledge, networking and building a community; empowering women through mentoring and also using the power of the community to give more attention to diversity. Diversity and gender equality is a community task, but it is also about changing structures. This requires men and women who recognize that we as a society must develop a new form of participation. We should focus more on what unites us and not on what separates us. Men and women together! For a diverse and discrimination-free future.

Why do you feel women-to-women mentoring is important?

May I answer you with the words of an HR expert? Vicki Hawarden, VP of events for the Society for Human Resource Management, said in an interview at tw magazine: “Women do face unique challenges. We don’t see ourselves reflected in top leadership roles often enough, so we need to be sure we give young women more role models.” Of course, men can be great mentors too, but bridge the gender gap we need female role models and female mentors.

What human qualities or characteristics are missing from our current mentoring programs? Why do you think that is and how can we do a better job at infusing our professional worlds with our personal values?

In my opinion, the separation of the personal and professional self is an illusion. Basically we are more than the drawers we are all too often quickly sorted into. We all have talents, beliefs, attitudes, desires, wishes, goals and needs and want to be part of a larger community. It is about being seen as a whole person with all aspects of personality. This is where diversity begins and for a socially sustainable future we should create a platform where our private and professional lives are not mutually exclusive, but at best integrated. It's about living; everything, the whole, and to lift your own limitations. This is something very personal, but it automatically has an effect on one's professional work. Companies that recognize this will be successful in the future. It is not for nothing that the topic of purpose is currently being hotly debated. The next generation is already very clear on this. For many, it is essential to work for companies that share personal convictions and are committed to a sustainable future. This is the spirit in which we want to shape our activities.

Do you think the event industry is pro-active enough when it comes to gender equality and women's issues? If not, what can we do to create safe spaces for dialogue and positive social change?

There are already many good approaches, but we would like to bring activities and players together and give the topic even more attention. There is still room for improvement. It's not just a matter of talking about it, but of taking action.

As I said before, it will also be important to win the men for the movement. We want to support and connect women, but we want to initiate a real social change process and that can only be done together. We want to sensitize and inspire with She Means Mentoring and become active on the political level; convince companies to do even more in the area of promoting diversity and encourage personal development. To this end, we will offer space for exchange and various opportunities for participation at industry events. We need the big stage but also small networking events. What is particularly important to us is that the network should be international from the outset. We can learn so much if we also exchange ideas interculturally at this level. We are sure that this will be a win-win situation for all sides.

The success of She Means Business combined with a passion for mentoring have prompted IMEX Group CEO Carina Bauer to launch a mentoring scheme at IMEX to develop staff.  

"When Kerstin and I launched She Means Business in 2018," adds Bauer, "we knew that we were contributing in a small way to addressing women’s leadership issues in the industry. What has been amazing and gratifying is the number of women (and men) who have and are contributing to driving this forward with exceptional initiatives such as She Means Mentoring. Mentoring plays an essential role in helping people to reach their goals and I have seen this firsthand through my involvement as a mentor in Fay Sharpe’s Fast Forward 15 program.

She Means Business and the unveiling of She Means Mentoring will take place this year at IMEX in Frankfurt on May 11th and at IMEX America in Las Vegas on September 14th.