IAPI celebrated IWD on Thursday 9th March with an event designed to guide females through both their financial and career journey as they progress through the industry.
Jean Reddan, Head of Group Marketing & PR, Davy, together with Kay McCarthy, CEO, MCCP kicked of the event by sharing findings from their extensive research into how women’s needs are different in the wealth management space; in order to better serve the financial planning and investment needs of women in Ireland.
Aoife McCleary, Senior Copywriter, In the Company of Huskies & IAPI Board member then announced the launch of the IAPI 2023 Female Futures Fund, which is supported by Diageo. “Back for a fourth year, we are grateful to our sponsors Diageo for enabling us to make this possible yet again. The objective of the bursary remains the same”, says Aoife. “It is designed to help women realise their full potential so that we keep and progress our best female talent. I think it’s particularly important that creative women in the industry take part as they are rarely given this type of opportunity.”
IAPI and Danica Murphy, PRISM, the course facilitator, together with the support of Diageo have carefully designed the programme for high-potential women working in the creative communications and media industry.
Through this initiative, we believe we can help close the gender gap at the leadership level in our industry and empower women to become the leaders of the near future. Gender representation in the marketing and advertising industry shapes the perception of gender in society and we are committed to achieving the goal of fair and equal representation.
Present at the event Carol Montgomery, Head of Guinness in Society & Brand Experiences, Diageo shared why Diageo supports Female Futures Fund and highlighted the importance of the programme.
"Championing inclusion and diversity is at the heart of everything we do. As part of our ‘Progressive Marketing’ framework, we are committed to driving diversity in our creative & media agencies. The ‘Female Futures Fund’ is a tangible manifestation of this commitment and we are very proud to sponsor it again this year" said Carol Montgomery, Head of Guinness in Society & Brand Experiences, Diageo.
Following this Aoife McCleary, Senior Copywriter, In the Company of Huskies, IAPI Board member and moderator of the session shared results from the career progression survey IAPI circulated to past participants earlier this year. The audience then heard from Niamh Ryan, Senior Creative Copywriter, Boys + Girls as she shared her experience as a past Female Futures Fund recipient.
The Female Futures Fund will once again be masterminded by Danica Murphy, founder and director of PRISM. Danica is an internationally recognised expert in the areas of executive coaching, high-performance team development, training & design, and facilitation. She has co-authored books and training resources on Myers Briggs Type Indicator MBTI© and contributes to a variety of training and business publications. She has designed and delivered award-winning Women in Leadership programmes across the United States, Caribbean and Central America.
She is also a member of the Institute of Directors of Ireland, the Irish Institute for Training & Development, the Association for Coaching and is a frequent guest speaker or contributor on the Irish Management Institute (IMI) programme.
25 high potential women will be able to avail of the Female Futures Fund. The bursary will fund a group leadership coaching programme that encompasses the three workshop sessions facilitated by Danica with support from both IAPI and Diageo female leaders.
- Women who have +5 years of experience in the industry
- Either on the cusp of leadership already OR, who has the potential to be a leader of the future
- Key Characteristic - Women who don’t know how good they are and who have huge potential to be even better.
- Each IAPI member agency can nominate up to 3 candidates for Female Futures Fund. This means that media groups with more than one agency can nominate 3 per agency as per 2021
- Each Application Form must be completed by both the Candidate and the Nominator in the agency and be accompanied by a 90sec video.
Journey Map and Programme Timing for the 2023 Female Futures Fund recipients
- 28th April 2023 – 5 pm - Closing Date for Entries
- 24th April– 3rd May 2023 – Online review of applications by Diageo & IAPI Review Panel.
- Week commencing 8th May 2023 Judging week
- Week commencing 15th May 2023 Announcement of the 25 recipients of the 2023 Female Futures Fund.
- Applications for IAPI Female Futures Fund are now open.
