The inaugural Women of the Year networking lunch took place at BAFTA in July. A celebration of the female role models in our industry, Samantha Loveday reviews the event and explains why it will become a key part of the UK calendar
“I JUST can’t believe this is me!” The words of Gerbie Quilter, sales director at Vivid Imaginations, when she discovered she was the fi rst ever recipient of the T
Year award. Over 100 execs from the industry – both male and female – headed to BAFTA on Thursday, July 24th to see Quilter crowned; and judging by the reaction in the room, the right woman won. When we launched our
search for the Top 100 women in the UK toy business back in January,
oyNews Woman of the
we were overwhelmed by the reaction we received. We originally set out to fi nd 50, but – as the nominations kept rolling in – it soon became clear we wouldn’t be able to stop there. Of course, we recognise, too, that there are many more who didn’t feature in our list. In fact, even if we’d dedicated the entire magazine to it, we still wouldn’t have been able to include them all. What was particularly
encouraging is that the majority of the nominations we received for our Top
THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS
ToyNews Women of the Year was held in association with Women in Toys. We would also like to thank our sponsors: Gameplan Europe, SuperAwesome, Fundamentally Children and Norton & Co.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH SPONSORED BY
100 were from women suggesting other women. It was clear from the swell of support for the piece that women still need and want to see other women role models. I certainly had one when I started my career in journalism, in the form of Lisa Carter, who is still my publisher (and role model) today. Why does there need to be a standalone women’s awards? Well, leaving aside the gender equality arguments, why shouldn’t we recognise our female role models? Seeing other high achieving
women in the business – whether that’s in sales, marketing, PR, logistics, manufacturing or retail – can only inspire those just starting out on their careers in the industry. For her part, Vivid’s Quilter
received the largest number of nominations by far. Words such as ‘vibrant’,
‘driven’, ‘inspirational’, ‘dedication and
commitment’, ‘passion’ and ‘energy’ all cropped up frequently. Her CEO, Paul Weston, told us: “There really is no one else quite like her in the entire industry.
“We’re very lucky and
extremely proud to have her on our team.” In short, Quilter epitomises everything that we were trying to highlight when we launched the event. To all of you who came along to BAFTA, thank you so much, we really do appreciate your support as we look to grow Women of the Year even further. For those who couldn’t
make it along, we hope to see you next time, and take a look at the images on these pages to see just what you missed.
18 September
www.toynews-online.biz
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72