Ladies First: Event industry takes to the streets with 'We Care Walk' at EEMAGINE 2017

An initiative targeted towards transforming mindsets, We Care represents EEMA’s commitment towards creating a safe work environment for female employees in the media, events and entertainment industry.

As a We Care certified EEMA member, agencies who sign up to the initiative earn a ‘pink star’ to symbolize their endorsement of the cause. Currently the association has registered sixty We Care compliant agencies.

On 9 September, before formal sessions of #EEMAGINE2017 begin, a 15 minute warm up session of Zumba will take place at 7am at Hotel Pullman Aerocity, New Delhi. After which the leadership of EEMA will lead the way for close to 200 people for the ‘We Care Walk’ for 3.5 Kms around Aerocity. Everyone related to the event industry is invited to participate.

Sabbas Joseph, President of EEMA and founder of Wizcraft stated, “We complete 10 years together as an industry. 10 years of working together as one team. 10 years of working together despite multiple reasons why we should be apart. From being individuals we’ve been recognized as an industry; having started with 1 member we are now reaching 501; and many milestones along the way. But the one that holds a special place in my heart is the We Care initiative that we as an industry endorsed at our last AGM and launched in the Fall of 2016. It makes me proud that in the entertainment and media space, we were the first to talk about Women Empowerment, and consciously work towards creating a gender equal and safe work environment for women in the event industry. SAFE (Security Arrangements for Female Employees) and SHH (Sexual Harassment Helpline) are two major steps in that direction. Every agency that has come forward to sign up for We Care and earned a Pink Star, is proof that we are transforming, as we begin to perceive gender on a spectrum and not as two opposing sets of ideas. We are ready to break the ceilings, and give women wings to fly. What could be a better time than now, to put our weight behind the We Care initiative and set an example for others to emulate.”

Poonam Lal, founder, Marketing Solutions and VP- Gender Equality at EEMA expressed, “The walk is an opportunity to drum up excitement, engage the community and rally support around the We Care initiative, and hopefully one day create real change. We Care as an industry initiative is creating awareness about gender equality and women safety at the workplace. We need to popularize it. We need to change mindsets. We need people to come together and be inspired enough to proudly sign up to be a We Care compliant agency.”

Sushma Gaikwad, Director, Ice Global and EEMA VP- West commented, “The Power walk is symbolic of the purposeful transformation of the event industry over the past decade. Together we walk as a community toward a future of potent creativity, gender equality and transforming mindsets. The activity will bring us all shoulder to shoulder bound in unity walking for the event industry that we are proud to be a part of. Talking about how the buzz created with this activity shall translate into We Care's long term objectives she added, “We care is all about driving awareness and highlighting the importance of gender equality in the work place. We are certain that this symbolic activity will generate eye balls for the initiative which in turn will positively impact awareness levels across event organisations.”