Feature: Women in Sales Promotion – a powerful influence

Where would the men in the sales promotion industry be without dynamic women driving the business forward?

I can already envisage men fuming in disagreement while many women shout – ‘appreciation at last!” Before both sides dash off letters to the editor, let’s take a look at the facts...

Throughout my 18 years running a PR agency in the promotions and incentives industry, from trade associations and the media to agencies, there have been many influential women playing major roles in the shaping and implementation of developments.

Look at the trade associations such as the ISP and the BPMA. For most of my time both have been run day to day by women such as Sue Short, Marion Elliott and Anne Hancock. Having men at the helm of both these organisations and now also the Va has been a novelty of the last couple of years.

It is not only the secretariats where women have held leading positions. Liz Karn was Chair of the BPMA, Yvonne West was Chair of the Voucher Association and Becky Munday is now the Deputy Chair of the ISP.

In all these associations, many other women have been highly active and influential upon major industry issues. Brenda Simonetti, Cindy Roper and Diane Rowe are among those who have held senior roles as advisers or directors of the ISP, Margot Parker is the BPMA’s well-established expert on European issues and Gill Thorpe is the BPMA’s sourcing expert. At the Va, Natasha Toothill, Yvonne West, Denise Porter, and Helen Jones are all members of the Executive.

In the agency world, there are, and have been, many female managing directors and board directors, although not yet equal in number to men. But among supplier companies not only are there many female directors but there are women who founded and run their businesses. Liz Karn, Margot Parker, Gill Thorpe again come to mind, also Julie Rosehill.

Women have held crucial positions in the industry’s exhibitions since the late 1980s. Rosie Shreeve was Operations Director of Incentive World for many years before it was taken over by Reed Exhibitions when Karen Taylor and Versha Carter were in charge of both that event and the National Incentive Show.

And finally in the trade media, several of the major magazines have been edited by women for most of the last 15 years. There is no better example than Sales Promotion magazine itself. When I started there was Kathryn Dale, then Clare Irvin, Janine Hill, Mandy Thatcher, Lisa Burn, Kathryn Roberts and Gill Crawley - For this edition Becky Munday, the guest editor, follows a long line of women editing this title!

Women may not run the industry but they sure have a big influence.