Humbled, proud and honored
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, December 21, 2008
We at Aspenhome were humbled by being honored at your recent Furniture/Today Leadership Conference and greatly appreciate your recognition of our company as Supplier of the Year. We enjoyed attending the conference and found it both stimulating and exciting….
On a personal note, I found the overall program enlightening. It provided concrete ideas that I am sure many will benefit from for years to come.
Your panel composed of some of the industry's top women executives was of particular interest to me. Not because these women were selected for their gender, nor because the topic was about marketing to the female consumers, but rather because those panelists represented the advancement of women into our industry's top leadership ranks. Not only did I feel proud to see these women recognized as worthy contributors, but I was thrilled to see that almost 50% of the attendees at your conference were women. Their titles, companies, and accomplishments were as substantial as any of their male counterparts in attendance.
I could not help but compare this conference to the first F/T conference I attended 11 year ago, when there were only a handful of women in a group of over 300 attendees. Three of us — Judy George of retailer Domain, store designer Connie Post and myself, a furniture designer — stood out like gate crashers at an all-male club.
It was at that conference that F/T provided a platform for me to share with the audience the obvious need to provide a vehicle for more women to move into the executive suites of our industry in order to help reach our targeted market. At that time, market research showed that our industry's targeted consumer audience was dominated by over 93% women as the primary decision makers, yet our industry executives were predominantly male.
Furniture/Today graciously gave me the podium to explain to that male audience the mission of a nonprofit organization we hoped to launch. We asked the industry to partner with us through sponsorships to provide seed money for a professional women's organization for the industry that would provide leadership training, continued education, scholarship, networking and mentoring. It was at that conference that WithIt, Women in the Home Industries Today, was born.
Because of your support and the platform provided, we signed on 85 corporate sponsors at the conference. Today we are over 600 strong with membership throughout the United States and in three foreign countries.
Now 11 years later, hundreds of qualified women executives work side by side with their male counterparts providing the feminine perspective, insight, taste and many more intangible contributions to our industry and the consumer.
So I would like to thank all of you at F/T for not only providing us that great moment 11 years ago to pitch our cause, but also for your continued support and the recognition you have given the growing ranks of women in the industry today. Few may realize or remember that without Furniture/Today's help that day, WithIt may never have gotten off the ground.
Jena Hall
Founding president andchairman emeritus, WithIt
Vice president of merchandising and design,Aspenhome
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