At InfoComm on Thursday morning, AVIXA Chief Global Officer Sarah Joyce opened AVIXA’s Women’s Council breakfast by describing the value of the group’s mission of bringing together the global community of AVIXA members and other professionals committed to supporting and empowering women who work with technology.
The breakfast event featured a surprise video appearance from Christine Schyvinck, president and CEO of Shure, who is celebrating her 32nd year at the company. Schyvinck noted that she is fortunate to work in a culture at Shure that supports women. Not only are women supported there, but women lead there; Schyvinck has led Shure for the past 26 years.
Schyvinck acknowledged that not all companies share Shure’s strong record of gender parity. “If you’re not in a culture that values women in the industry now, work to change it,” she said. “Your involvement with the AVIXA Women’s Council can help.”
Three Phenomenal Years of Growth and Building a Community of AVIXA Women
This is the final year of Brandy Alvarado-Miranda’s three-year tenure as chair of the AVIXA Women’s Council. Alvarado-Miranda founded the first AVIXA Women’s Council group in Southern California. Under her leadership, council membership increased worldwide. Groups can be found outside of North America in Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Oceania, Singapore, Taiwan at the UK.
“The vision for these local groups started as a mentor-mentee interaction but quickly blossomed into so much more,” said Joyce.
[ How AVIXA Councils Support the Pro AV Industry ]
Joyce highlighted some of Alvarado-Miranda’s accomplishments. “Her passion, her dedication, her commitment has enabled more than 1,000 members around the world to be touched by the work that she’s done. And over 53 groups reach out to her and work with her to empower the mission around the world.”
[ AVIXA Women's Council Expands Global Presence ]
Feeling Pressed Lately?
The breakfast featured a talk by author Sara Potecha, who recently released the book West Point Woman: How Character Is Created and Leadership Is Learned. Potecha described how being “pressed” leads to two different roads: one where we become stressed, repressed, unimpressed and downright depressed, and the other on which we learn to decompress, reimagine, recover and, in time, become irrepressible.
[ AVIXA's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative Takes Flight ]
Potecha highlighted her PRESS ON method, which she described as “an acronym that you can apply when you are facing a difficulty in your life. It basically stands for ‘perspective, relationship, engage, seek, strategize, overcome, and never quit.’ By that, I mean the idea that you have to take a long view of life and not become overwhelmed by a difficulty or crisis, because they will come and they will go. Eventually this pandemic will be behind us, but something else will come in the future.” Resilience is a skill that, once learned, will serve you for the rest of your life.
This story originally appeared in the Friday, Oct. 29, edition of the InfoComm 2021 Show Daily. Read more from the InfoComm Day Three Show Daily online.
