Women in Sports Media Initiative summer networking event scores high with attendees

The SVG Europe Women in Sports Media Initiative summer networking event on 3 July saw women from all walks of production come together at Langan’s Brasserie to discuss careers, challenges and balancing work and family life. Despite World Cup fever, the room was packed with women and men from across the sports broadcast industry intent on networking and championing further diversity in the workplace.

The event was sponsored by CTV Outside Broadcasts and supported by Sky UK.

With England versus Columbia playing quietly in the background, speaker Trudie Adcock, Head of Leadership and Talent at Santander, discussed Learning from Experience in Male-Dominated Industries. She shared how her career, which has spanned construction, engineering and now financial services, has taught her along the way how to seize opportunities, manage working in male-heavy environments, and make the right career decisions.

Trudie Adcock from Santander speaking to the audience

SVG Europe’s Heather McLean standing with sponsors CTV OB, Sky Sports and Sky Production Services. (Left to right) Sky’s Bridget Bremner, CTV’s Hamish Grieg, Sky’s Jennie Blackmore, SVG Europe’s Heather McLean, CTV’s Angela Gibbons and Barry Johnstone, and Sky’s Inga Ruehl

An extensive Q&A followed where attendees asked Adcock questions from how to deal with high flying careers and family, managing hefty workloads, and branching out from niche careers, to how to learn from both positive and negative experiences.

Next up was a panel from Sky UK made up of Sky Sports Production Executives, Bridget Bremner and Jennie Blackmore, in conversation with Inga Ruehl, Head of Studios for Sky Production Services at Sky UK. The trio discussed Bremner and Blackmore’s career journeys, how they got to their current roles within Sky, and how the new roles of Production Executive disrupted as well as helped streamline the structure at Sky Sports. In a Q&A they also talked about the issues involved in managing more experienced colleagues and challenging stereotypes of women in the workplace.

Following the talks, everyone in the room turned their attention to the bar and the penalty shoot-out happening on-screen, then the jubilant crowd continued networking.

Sky Sports Production Executives, Bridget Bremner (right) and Jennie Blackmore (centre), in conversation with Inga Ruehl (left), Head of Studios for Sky Production Services at Sky UK

SVG Europe received a plethora of positive feedback and suggestions for future events during the evening, and we are now planning the next Women in Sports Media Initiative event. More details will follow soon – please sign up to both the SVG Europe newsletter and the Women in Sports Media Initiative list to stay in the loop.

England scores!