IAPI Celebrates International Women's Day with Female Futures Fund

IAPI invites you to celebrate International Women’s Day (08/03/21) with on Friday, 5th March at 9.30 until 11am.

The theme of this year’s IWD is #choosetochallenge. The aim is to open a conversation about what each of us can do to challenge the status quo to ensure gender-balance across all aspects of society, from government to the media, boardrooms to the sports field.

IAPI has a stellar line-up of speakers to address us on this theme including,

Gráinne Wafer, global brand director, Guinness, and Cormac Bourke, editor, Irish Independent and Independent.ie. 

Register to attend here.

Gráinne Wafer, Cormac Bourke and Stha Banks 

Gráinne Wafer, global brand director, Guinness

Gráinne spoke at the IAPI International Women’s Day event in March 2020 when we launched Female Futures Fund, generously supported by Diageo, and, she will once again address our industry on the importance of gender equality.

Cormac Bourke, editor, Irish Independent and Independent.ie

Cormac knows that the media industry has a long way to go. He believes the only way to make lasting progress is to face up to – and challenge – the practical obstacles to gender equality, particularly now, while we have already accepted new ways of working and are in a change mindset.

Stha Banks, head of paid social, Core

Moderating this discussion will be Stha Banks, Head of Paid Social, Core and also now leading the Diversity & Inclusion Council on the IAPI Board.

The recipients of last years’ bursary, Eimear Fitzmaurice, Folk Wunderman Thompson and Ciara Markey, Mediaworks will be given the opportunity to share the impact the programme has had on their development. We will also hear from Jill Walker, who provided the executive coaching programme.

Thanks to the generous support of Diageo we will also be outlining how the Female Futures Fund programme is being updated for 2021.

The objective of the bursary remains the same. It is designed to ensure that we retain our best female talent by helping women realise their full potential whilst also achieving a life balance that may include family and/or other lifestyle priorities. IAPI also believe that this will continue to help close the gender gap at leadership level in our industry as it will empower women to become the leaders of the near future.