HITS

During the session “Building Community through Leadership” at the SoCal Women’s Leadership Summit 2022 on Nov. 4 in Los Angeles, a panel of industry experts highlighted the organizations and individuals who empower women in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry.

The Summit was co-located with the Infinity Festival Hollywood event, and held as both a live, in-person event and online via the MESAverse virtual platform.

From allies to mentors to leaders, the session highlighted the history and strength of collaboration within the sector, including the rise of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“Part of what we view as being really important is highlighting organizations like” the ones represented during the panel session “who need our help as professionals and give you an opportunity to give back to the community in whatever way is comfortable and natural for you,” according to moderator Nina Skorus-Neely, digital advisor at Microsoft and VP/secretary at Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH).

“What we’re going to talk about today is the history of DEI efforts in the professional space and what you as professional leaders can start thinking about and doing in your own organizations to push the envelope and make a difference,” she told attendees.

“Back in 2020, Netflix announced the Fund for Creative Equity,” Angeline Buenaventura, creative talent development manager at Netflix, pointed out, noting it was an investment of $100 million “over a course of five years.”

Netflix is “in our second year and moving into our third year” of the initiative, she noted, explaining: “The focus of the fund is really to invest in external organizations that help to create equitable opportunities in film and television.”

“There is just this passion internally within the organization to really want to create an increased representation across all of productions in U.S. and Canada as well as global,” Buenaventura added.

Kari Grubin, executive board member of the Hollywood Professional Association, went on to note she’s been in the media and entertainment (M&E) sector “my entire career and back in 2012, after a lot of participation in our events with the Hollywood Professional Organization … we saw that there was a need for a space for women to get together, so we formed a group called Women In Post and that then moved into  more programs like our Young Entertainment Professionals program.”

What these and other M&E organizations are doing show “how we can partner together because there is so much need and so much space that there’s really opportunity for all of us to make a difference if we lift together,” according to Grubin.

“Equity is tied to inclusion and sometimes, to create equity, you have to lift others up,” Grubin went on to say, adding: “This is the hard part of this job. If you look at where we’ve been in the last three” years with Me Too, with overall Black Lives Matter, diversity, equity, and inclusion – and I will also state here I am not a DEI expert; It’s just through practical experience and I learn something new every day – is that you have to create these spaces and you have to lift everyone up so that at least you’re on equal footing to create the avenue for inclusion.” That drew applause from the audience.

Skorus-Neely went on to urge attendees: “Learn how you can elevate the communities to be on equal footing, and then not only see the on-ramp, but walk over the on-ramp and join them to understand their point of view better. So I think as leaders we need to do things like that: Reach out, understand, have a passion but also engender some sense of curiosity about other communities, how they’re different, and how that can bring value to your life and to the work that you do.”

Grubin raised an additional important issue, saying: “Part of creating this equity is also creating a safe space for people because just maybe, the age they are, their gender” and other characteristics of an organization’s executives and others “may have unconscious bias that they’re not aware of.”

The SoCal Women’s Leadership Summit was presented by Ateliere with sponsorship by Amazon Studios, Softtek, Fortinet, Prime Video, SHI, Amazon Web Services, PacketFabric and Presidio.

To learn more about MESA’s events, contact [email protected].