In this special International Women’s Day episode of Skip the Queue, guest host Claire Furnival is joined by four influential voices from across the visitor attractions sector. Featuring Emily Popovich of KMI International and Ladies Of The Industry, Rachael Hamilton of I AM RACHAEL and Rise AV, Ruth Read of blooloop, and Liz Sanchez Rasking of Looking Glass Strategies and Entertainment SHE-nanigans. They discuss career journeys, ongoing barriers for women, leadership styles, and what needs to change over the next five years. The episode also highlights the growing Women of the Industry movement and the importance of community, visibility and connection in driving meaningful progress.
In this special International Women’s Day episode of Skip the Queue, guest host Claire Furnival brings together four leaders from across the global visitor attractions industry to discuss progress, challenges and what comes next.
Joining Claire are Emily Popovich of KMI International, Rachael Hamilton of Rise AV, Liz Sanchez Rasking of Looking Glass Strategies and Entertainment SHE-nanigans, and Ruth Read of blooloop.
They share personal career journeys and discuss the ongoing barriers women face, including pay gaps, unconscious bias, burnout, safety at trade shows and confidence in leadership. The episode highlights practical initiatives driving change, such as mentoring programmes, representation in awards and panels, pay transparency advocacy and grassroots networking groups.
The conversation reinforces the importance of community, allyship, visibility and self advocacy in accelerating equality across the sector, while recognising there is still work to do before women focused initiatives are no longer needed.
Show References:
Claire Furnival, Client Success Manager of JP Showsystems & previously Head of Engineering of Merac
Emily Popovich, Director of Global Business Development of KMI International
Rachael Hamilton, Managing Director of Rise AV
Liz Sanchez Rasking, Founder | Director of Business Development, Looking Glass Strategies
Ruth Read, Director of blooloop
There's an incredible line-up of events taking place for this year's #IWD that you can be a part of:
📅 5th March | 2:00pm EST & 7:00pm GMT
Live Chat: Empowered voices: Celebrating Women who Lead and Inspire hosted by IAAPA.
https://iaapa.org/event/live-chat-empowered-voices-celebrating-women-who-lead-and-inspire
📅 6th March | 1:00pm EST
The Power of Connection Webinar brought to you by MUSE and the Female Leaders of Amusement Parks and Attractions.
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/b47d6a8c-57f5-4e75-b0bc-ffc33c415d11@9ce37703-53e8-441e-8fba-26704215ed39
📅 12th March | 3:30 - 8:00pm GMT
Rise AV International Women’s Day 2026 | Give to Gain hosted by Rise AV.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rise-international-womens-day-2026-give-to-gain-tickets-1982282957688
Skip the Queue is brought to you by Crowd Convert. We provide attractions with the tools and expertise to create world-class digital interactions. Very simply, we're here to rehumanise commerce. Your guest host is Claire Furnival.
If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.
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Claire Furnival: Hello and welcome to Skip the Queue. I'm Claire Furnival and I'm delighted to be guest hosting this special episode to mark International Women's Day. Today we're bringing together four inspiring leaders who are helping to shape the future of the global visitor attractions industry. From strategy and storytelling to technology, media and leadership. We'll be talking about career journeys, the challenges that still exist for women in our sector, whether leadership styles are changing and what needs to happen over the next five years to create a more inclusive and sustainable industry. We'll also explore the growing women of the industry movement and why community visibility and support matter now more than ever. So to start us off, I'd love each of you very briefly to introduce yourselves and share a minute project or initiative where you felt that you were helping move the industry forward for women.
Claire Furnival: Emily, would you like to start with that?
Emily Popovich: Yes, my pleasure. I'm Emily Popovich with KMI International and yes, I'll give a quick background on myself. Basically my entire career has been in the attractions industry over 20 years, closer to 25 years now. Starting off with my days on IAAPA staff. I was with IAAPA for nearly 17 years and ended up the time that I left, I believe my title was Director of Global Sponsorships for the association. So I really a lot of wonderful experience there and was able to forge all sorts of fantastic relationships just by nature being with such a large and critical sort of industry association. I left IAAPA in 2021, went to a senior fabrication company but then left them after about four years and joined KMI and their team based in Orlando. Just actually six months I think today I've been with them. So still fairly new.
Emily Popovich: I serve on our eastern Board of Directors for the Themed Entertainment Association or TEA. I also serve as a mentor within the association, both for TEA and IAAPA and have been on a multitude of IAAPA committees as well. Personally, I have two daughters. I live in the D.C. area in northern Virginia and one of the initiatives, I believe you said that I've been involved in a few of us, not just myself. I can't take full credit for it, but we have started the Female Leaders of Amusement Parks and Attractions group which you can find on LinkedIn. It's a private group so you have to look it up by female leaders of amusement parks and attractions and then we would be able to wave anybody into that group. But it's been a wonderful resource to connect women in our industry.
Claire Furnival: That's a very impressive resume there, Emily. Thank you. So Rachel, would you like to Introduce yourself.
Rachael Hamilton: Sure. So I'm Rachael. I've been in the AV industry for almost 20 years. I've grown up in the industry. I started off working at AV magazine, sort of the leading publication for trade press across AV globally. I was very lucky. I did grow up through the ranks there and I got to a very, sort of the most senior position. However, I had a very public burnout through a number of the issues women normally face. Covid happened. I quit and I was like, what do I do with myself now? Spoke to a few people in the industry and they were like, you know, your value is you. People know you are respected. You know the industry inside out. So I started a sales and marketing consultancy and that's been going very well for a few years.
Rachael Hamilton: But then I've sort of always been sort of, kind of quite a public face for women in the industry. Working for a magazine, probably a little bit like Emily did, has been with iaapa. So I had the opportunity from Sadie Groome, who runs Rise Broadcast in the broadcast industry for 10 years, and she asked me if I would like to launch it for the AV industry. Having gone through a lot of challenges that women face in the industry, being quite a prominent figure. And I was absolutely over the moon to do that because it was sort of really sat and resonated me and I didn't want other women to suffer the way I probably had. So that kind of brings me today and we'll talk about what RISE is, but from an initiative perspective.
Rachael Hamilton: Recently we just had ise, which is the biggest show in the world for AV in Barcelona, and it was the first time that we did this thing called the Safe Car Initiative for Women. So if anyone knows, Barcelona is an absolutely atrocious place for getting Ubers anyway, and it's horrifically dangerous. The number one thing people talk about every day of the show is how many people end up in hospital. So we did this Safe Car Initiative, which was sponsored by almoad in the US, and over 150 women called up this free car service throughout the show. We hoped it would be more, but a lot of people were like, what? A free car? That's weird. So, but hopefully it's just going to drive momentum. And, you know, there was so much noise about it on social media from everyone saying, why?
Rachael Hamilton: Why is the trade show not doing this? Why is it an organ, you know, a small organisation doing it? So it kind of leads questions to the safety of women around trade shows. And so that was the thing I was really proud about lately, on a personal note, when I went through my burnout, my husband and I decided to leave London and move to Portugal. So we upped our dogs and moved to Portugal and we live there now for a much better work life balance. I'm still a bit crazy, but I have a lot, much easier, less stressful life around me. So it works much better.
Claire Furnival: Very, very impressive. So I hadn't heard about the CAR initiative, but I look forward to hearing about that with iaapa Maybe next time in Barcelona because it definitely was a conversation piece for a lot of the conversations I was having with women about the safety in the town. So Liz, could you introduce yourself and explain briefly about an initiative you've been involved with?
Liz Sanchez Rasking: Yeah. So my name is Liz Sanchez Rasking and I am relatively new to themed entertainment. I have a tradition engineering background, got a degree in chemical engineering, but I now do branding and business development for small to mid sized companies. And in terms of an initiative, I think I landed on your radar because of a little group that I started called Shenanigans or she Nanigans. I started that group mainly in response to that whole safety question and wanted very much to create some kind of a portal or a community of women that we want to support and that we want to have a safe space to exchange information within. So yeah, like Emily, I'm also serving on the board of directors for Tea for the North American division. And I am also a mentor and my mentee is in the Netherlands.
Claire Furnival: So yeah, wow, that's very impressive as well. Crumbs. Ruth.
Ruth Read: Gosh. Well, so I'm Ruth Reed. I'm a director at Blue Loop. I guess I'm going to use the same phrase, Rachel that you used. I definitely grew up in this industry. My parents actually founded Blue Loop. For those who don't know, I think probably everyone does, but I'm not sure it's much of a secret. But yeah. So I grew up watching Rachel and Charlie build what is now the most read news source globally for theme entertainment industry. So I'd like to think I know the industry relatively well, my age. There's lots I could say, I guess Rachel, what you've said about that safecar initiative would have been really helpful because I was definitely not having a good time in Barcelona. So that's really good to hear that things that's being set up and yeah, definitely hope to hear that more.
Ruth Read: But yeah, I guess one thing that we've done, there's not really one thing necessarily I love Liz's WhatsApp group.
Ruth Read: Emily, I love the group that you and the others created. I come to all of the events. I'd say, what do we do specifically? We work really hard to make sure that women are represented in our panels, in our events, our judges and the Blue Loop 50s.
Claire Furnival: Each year we see more women represented in the Blooloop 50, which is fantastic progress for our industry. But is that shift something you've consciously set out to champion or is it more of a reflection on how leadership across attractions and suppliers in the sector, how they're evolving?
Ruth Read: I would say it's a bit of both. So we definitely work hard to actively encourage women and other less represented groups to nominate themselves. So I know Liz, everybody, a load of women got behind the 50 nominations in the group and that was, I think, probably a big portion and big reason of why we had so many women this year. But actually over the last 10 years that it's been running, there have been more women each year. And I think part of that is that women are nominating themselves more and, you know, more women are in leadership anyway. But yeah, I think it's a mix. I think, I would say definitely there are more women in leadership positions, especially in tech.
Ruth Read: Rachel, I don't know whether you can speak more to that being so heavy in tech, but I think within the tech and theme entertainment crossover, I think there are more women working in that sector.
Rachael Hamilton: Our numbers quite shocking, I think so. Shocking that most male dominated industries that are traditional male dominated are even shocked by how shocking ours are. So, yeah, so that's, yeah, so we've, our industry is made about 9% of women and 2% of them are technical. And what's even worse is this year there's an estimated sort of skill shortage of 2.3 million skilled workers in our industry as well. And you know, we've got a real issue with bringing kids into the industry. No one knows what AV is, but actually if you look at the bigger picture, what is missing in our industry is women. So actually, you know, if we can just make the industry that bit more attractive, help break down those barriers, you know, we can solve this problem really quick rather than wait for, you know, gendered to come through.
Rachael Hamilton: So we've got a challenge, we've got an uphill battle, but you know, you've got to start somewhere.
Claire Furnival: Yeah. And have any of you experienced any particular barriers in your career? Subtle or overt? More likely overt, unfortunately. And how did you navigate them?
Emily Popovich: I certainly have. Although I, I want to say I don't Know that I believe in luck. I think that the energy that we put out sort of, we get what we're putting out. So I feel like maybe I have not encountered as many barriers as some weather subtle or you know, just very in your face sort of barriers. That said, I mean, I think they exist for everyone, not just women, but we have more, I would say, than most. For me, I particularly enjoy calling them out. If somebody is telling me, you know, you can't do this or I'm going to pigeonhole you into a certain category and sort of limit my capabilities. I don't know if that's a natural thing since childhood or what, but I will push back. And that has always worked in my favour. Sometimes, you know, that's not pleasant.
Emily Popovich: And as women we can be labelled, you know, all sorts of things, but difficult if we're speaking up for ourselves. But, you know, that's important and you've gotta advocate for yourself. And the one example that always comes to mind and obviously I wouldn't names that very early in my career I was pretty brand new and one of our leadership members basically tried to pigeonhole me into an admin sort of role, which was not my role at all. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that's, you know, traditionally sort of that female, hey, we're going to be a secretary role. And that really bugged me. So I did call that person out and was apologised for too.
Emily Popovich: And we had a good open conversation about how it's not okay to make assumptions and here's what it is that I actually do. And so that was a little bit jarring for me then. And the interesting thing was it was a woman who actually did that. But she did, yes, she did apologise. I think it was a learning experience for both of us. But yeah, I think these barriers exist for many of us and it's really important again to just have your own back and know your worth, to be able to stand up to those.
Emily Popovich: Yeah, but I think you identified a good part there of the, you know, valuing your worth and I think that's an element there of what a women. A lot of women, not saying men don't, of course, but a lot of women don't. It took my mentor to get me to the position to value my worth, to quit my job.
Rachael Hamilton: I said I was. I think I really like what you said there about being, you know, you Make your own luck actually. And it's true. So actually I wasn't very lucky to get to senior level at my company.
Rachael Hamilton: I made my own luck. I pushed back. I got to where I was. I deserved to be there. But mine was once I got there and the challenges I had to face to get there was that, you know, it's that slow, silent grind of just constantly battling every single day just to be. To be heard, you know, always being questioned, always being spoken. But the really typical 1001 of unconscious biases and then, you know, the over, you know, having to, you know, constantly, you know, prove yourself and, you know, then finding out you paid less and then asking for more resource, even though all your male colleagues had the resource and you had to work harder even though you brought more revenue than anyone else in the business in.
Rachael Hamilton: So mine was just a constant grind of shit for many years. And luckily my mentor, who was MD in the other part of the business, really helped me push back and I did achieve a few things, but it just got to the point where I burnt out and I ended up collapsing during a run one day with chest pain and ended up in hospital just before COVID for about a month. And to this day, we still don't know what the problem is that there was something very wrong with me. And I was being tested for about eight months throughout Covid.
Rachael Hamilton: And because there was nothing wrong with me, now they always say, oh, you know, it's probably all that stress you're dealing with at the time you burnt out and, you know, you've got fibromyalgia or whatever you want to, you know, put it. So I'll never know whether or not that was all the stress I was dealing with, but it kind of came at the same time as that.
Claire Furnival: I definitely think there's a place for Emily, your group, and Liz, your group in particular. Although saying that, Rachel, you also have rise av, don't you, for the ladies. But I think women supporting women and having each other's back and providing that support network for each other to be able to call this sort of behaviour out and to advocate for ourselves and advocate for women in general is very needed in our industry. So well done, all of you for doing that.
Ruth Read: I guess going back to the earlier question, if that's okay. But Emily, what you said about being confident and knowing your worth and same as you, Rachel, I think I read a really interesting statistic and it sticks with me a lot about what women do and the roles that they go for. So, you know, I mean, again, we can talk about this later, but you look at all of the. I think actually the TEA is different, which I think is really great, but you look at a lot of boards and a lot of committees, and they are 90% men, if not more. And people, you know, I hear people say, especially with, Even with the 50s, I hear people say, oh, you know, well, women aren't applying.
Ruth Read: You know, women aren't nominating all of this, but the fact of the matter is men will apply for jobs that they are 60% qualified for, but women will only apply if they're 100% qualified. So, you knowing your worth and knowing your confidence is. And having confidence is really important because actually men don't struggle with confidence. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but I think being able to advocate for yourself and having mentorship, Rachel, as you didn't, as Emily and Liz, you do, I think is a really important part of how things change.
Liz Sanchez Rasking: Well, and if I can piggyback off of that for a second, I think that the perspective that I bring to the table is very different from what folks that have been in the industry for quite a long time have. And I see the same pain points working in manufacturing, working in engineering, working as. As a process engineer in the oil and gas industry. There's a very prevalent bias that women, as has already been stated, that women constantly have to prove themselves. And I feel like when you feel you're the only one championing for you, it's daunting, it's overwhelming, because not only are you combating your own imposter syndrome, but you feel like you're taking on the entire world and you don't know if you're just screaming into the void or not, or if anybody is noticing you.
Liz Sanchez Rasking: And sometimes just having that one colleague or that one friend say, I see you and I value you, is enough for you to be able to overcome whatever hesitations you may have in challenging the status quo or in allowing yourself to be vulnerable. That's one of the reasons why I think it's incredibly important to create safe spaces for ourselves and to encourage one another to be able to open up and to share things so that we can have these uncomfortable conversations in a frank and constructive way and we can put our heads together and figure out, okay, what's the gap? What do we need as support and can we offer it to each other? These are small things that I've kind of picked up with every single career pivot. And I realised this problem isn't unique to one sector. It's intrinsic in business writ large. I would say.
Claire Furnival: Liz, following on from that, you're saying that things do need to change, but can you identify anything in particular that needs to change over the next five years or that not that needs to change but could change that could genuinely accelerate equality?
Liz Sanchez Rasking: Yeah, real simple pay transparency. There is no reason why, if you're applying for a job that salary should behind closed doors. Obviously it's going to be adjusted for your degree and for your, your work history, but it should still be publicly available to anybody that is applying for a job. And it should be the same for men as for women. You would think that if you have two candidates of different genders that have exactly the same credentials that the salaries that would be offered to them would be the same, and they're not.
Claire Furnival: Do you have legislation in the states regarding gender pay?
Liz Sanchez Rasking: In some states. I know that California has been a lot more proactive about levelling the playing field with regards to HR recruitment processes where they're required to be transparent and to say what the pay range is, that, you know, how much wiggle room there is there for any particular candidate. And other than that, I, I'm not familiar of any other initiatives. Maryland might have one, but it's certainly not a national initiative and it should be.
Claire Furnival: Yeah. So in the UK, this isn't my field of expertise, but I know in the uk, if a company is a particular size, they do have to declare certain facts about pay. It's anonymized, but they do have to, but it doesn't actually correct it ultimately change anything. So, Emily, do you think women lead differently?
Emily Popovich: Yes, absolutely. I've seen this, you know, personally and professionally. I think women in general, this is not, you know, necessarily doesn't apply to everybody, but I think we're innately a little bit more empathetic and good listeners. I even say that for myself and I, many who know me know that, you know, my attention span is all over the place. So maybe I'm not the best listener, but I like to think that I exhibit an extraordinary amount of empathy and I'm able to see things from other people's point of view, even if I don't necessarily agree with it. But as a leader as well, I think that's just so important to try to understand what is really making people tick. And I don't know that I see that men are that comes as naturally for them.
Emily Popovich: But at the end of the day, you know, we're all humans and we do the absolute best in any performance if we have some passion behind it, if we're motivated, if we feel appreciated, if we feel heard. So when those things are lacking and if there's, you know, any leader, again, personally or professionally in our lives that is not really listening to what we're saying, to our needs, to our struggles or, you know, to our accomplishments, if they're not recognising those, to Liz's point of, you know, being and feeling seen, I think that really affects performance. So for me, in my experience, I think female leaders do a better job in that they just do a better job in relating to people.
Ruth Read: So I guess, jumping on what you said, Emily, there's we're all human and I think everybody leads a little differently. I'm not sure necessarily it's as easy as men lead one way, women lead another, but I, I do think there's a massive gap in confidence with male and female leaders. I think that male leaders are often more confident in, I guess, you know, what they're doing in their decisions. And then if female leaders aren't as confident, they therefore may be more attuned to the way that their team are feeling. They may be more open to tackling things another way and maybe that could be it as well. I think there's quite a big confidence issue and of course that stems back to growing up, you know, in a world that doesn't prioritise women in the same way it prioritises men.
Emily Popovich: I think I should say I just to add in following Reese's comment, because that's. I completely agree and I think actually the best scenarios that I've seen are where you have a leadership team of men and women working together because that they, you know, the men do often have that confidence factor and nately, people look at them as leaders just because of that. But then you have the females who are attuned to, you know, the emotions and again, what make people tick. I think it makes a really good mix when you have them both. Not necessarily a team of all women leaders or a team of all men.
Rachael Hamilton: Well, we, we run a mentoring programme. We launched it last year, but it's been in the broadcast industry for 10 years. Just a bit of background. We do professional development for women at every stage of their career. So the sort of entry level, which is the mentoring programme, which is really based around mentoring and confidence. We've got a second one called Elevate, and that's for women in management running teams, wanting to take, you know, the Next step into leadership, we're launching our third programme, which we still haven't called yet by working title and amplify, and that's going to be sort of women in leadership already running divisions, sort of running strategy. And then there's a final one that's already been launched in broadcast called the C Suite and that's more of a retreat based thing for female founders.
Rachael Hamilton: But going back to the mentoring programme, when we do a really in depth application process, which we've just finished now, we ask the women, you know, what, you know, what is the key challenge and, you know, they'll go through various things. But we found this year that 87% of the women that came into last year's programme said confidence. That's the thing that they're looking to build more than anything. So, you know, our mentoring programmes kind of broke into a few different parts. We pair mentees and mentors. It's an application process. We go through applications to make sure that they're aligned, to make sure, you know, whether it's culturally, whether it's somebody who's got challenges of being a mother, whether it's a confidence, whatever it might be. But then we do a six month structured programme, skills building, and it's really focused around confidence.
Rachael Hamilton: So it's, you know, about being confident in public, speaking about present, you know, presentation, about networking, about communication, how to deal with conflict. So alongside the mentoring, it's the six months skills building and then the other two parts, it's quite a lot of moving path and it does work. But the other part is, you know, we said we upskill women learning how to network. We all know in our industry, both of our, in all of our industries, if you can't network, then got a bit of a challenge on your hands because you've got to be able to network competently. So we put them in situations where they have to network with the support of their mentors.
Rachael Hamilton: But fundamentally the best thing that we've done is which comes back to these WhatsApp groups which you guys have been spoken about and support Networks is these 30 women that were on the programme last year. We have a WhatsApp group for each cohort, so there'll be another cohort for this year. And there's 30 women that went into that group and I'm sat in all of them and my phone doesn't stop, which is great. But at the same time, it's so empowering to see the women like, you know, so many people made redundant last year. And women just throwing themselves, like, throwing themselves into, like, I know about this, do you want to go for a drink? You know, I can help you with another job.
Rachael Hamilton: Or somebody saying they've been like sexually harassed and then women getting straight into it and listing and supporting each other. Whatever challenge came through that mentoring group ended six months ago and it's still going so strong. So these women are going to carry themselves now throughout their career and that's what we're going to create every year with all the different programmes that we do is eat, you know, 30 cohort of women that will carry themselves forward. But the confidence is key. And it's not just entry level women. We, when we open that and we say entry level women, you know, sort of starting out in a career, but we had so many women of experience of 15, 20 years applying for it because they were just like, we're stuck, we can't grow because we are so not confident in what we do.
Rachael Hamilton: Please can we come on the programme? So we do make our mentoring programme open to anyone, because confidence is key. You're not going to go anywhere without confidence.
Claire Furnival: Do you find that the companies the women are applying from, they support the programme as well?
It's interesting because we're only a year into this one and when I was. We've got a global mentoring manager. She's the leadership coach and she's got a coaching and training background, but also in tech as well. So she was an MD in the broadcast industry and the broadcast industry. She said, yeah, everyone, because I think they're a little bit better when it comes to emails and kind of just a little bit further ahead than what we are in av. And she said, we never had any problems with advocacy from companies, but she said the first year of launching the AV1, we had a nightmare because women were like, I can't come to this.
I can't come to this workshop that's been in the diary for six months because my boss is basically telling me I can't have expenses to go into London from Essex. You know, just basic things like that. So it's something that we're really working on this year in the application format that have you got support from your team, from your leader, from your boss, whatever. So we are going to build that. But were quite disappointed, actually, that a lot of the businesses aren't quite behind it yet. But it could be that we just hadn't built our credibility yet, being the first year. So I think we'll give it A second year. And if not, then we'll be calling a few people out. I think few companies out. My world isn't visitor attractions, but AV is very much in villager attraction world.
So anyone that wants to be mentored or even be a mentor, that's another. Any of you guys that want to be mentors, you know, we try and pair you up with women that are in the same industry as you, but at the same time it doesn't really matter. It's about breaking down silos. An important fact, important thing to mention is our mentors, men and women, because we believe in, you know, not siloing it off even further. You know, we need to. Men need to be part of the solution here. They need to become allies, advocates or women. So yeah, that's my plug. Please please sign up to the mentor mentee.
Claire Furnival: And Emily, you helped create the female leaders of attractions that you mentioned earlier, the meetups at the trade shows. And why was that? Why did you think it was needed?
Emily Popovich: Yeah, that it came about. We like to call it, you know, a grassroots group because it came about very organically. I was still with IAAPA at the time and was approached by Una DeBoer of Whitewater who's a leader in the industry as well. And she said, you know, Emily, you have all these connections. It was her idea saying we need to bring women together. This is, you know, this is an issue and we need more visibility within this industry. So I can't take credit for the idea. I mean it was ultimately Una's idea. I can only take credit and rallying the troops, as I like to say, which is my skill set. But yes, I believe we started it about eight years ago and it started with a teeny tiny group of women at IAAPA Expo.
Emily Popovich: I should say it's not IAAPA focused. It's a very Switzerland, you know, non denominational group. We don't even. The events that we put on, they have nothing to do with the companies we're with and they're pay to play it's, you know, cash bar at the mixers. But it is a chance for women to get together at these larger events, particularly those I want to say that are a little bit less experienced or less connected to find that safe space, not just actual safety, you know, hey, can we share an Uber back to the hotel or something? But that is also a very important part of it, but just safety in terms of professional growth.
Emily Popovich: So often I think a lot of these women are able to forge new connections that give them that Confidence that they belong and they're in the right place and if they're feeling that they don't, they have this sort of tribe behind them by default just by being there. And I think that is really important to give them that voice. We actually, we do have that LinkedIn group. I mentioned female leaders of amusement parks and attractions and we are doing a webinar this, I want to say this coming Friday for International Women's Day and I believe it's Women's history month at 1pm Eastern live this Friday for anyone who wants to join.
Emily Popovich: But it's a great resource not just for those mixers and in person connections and networking, but just year round connection points which Liz's group that you know, shenanigans has also been a great resource for that as well. So you know, any day you can jump onto one of those and ask anybody a question, whether it's a, a great question, a dumb question, whatever. It's, it's welcomed and encouraged so we touch on a little bit of everything. But it's really been a blessing to bring all these women together. And then it's, for me it is very satisfying to see those newer to the industry sort of find their footing and feel confident and take off running. I just, it brings me a lot of joy.
Claire Furnival: I have to say Rachel, Liz and Emily in particular with the three of you having your initiatives in supporting the women out in the workplace, in the sector. But all of them have a sort of more pay to play approach to them which makes it very accessible because I know a lot of these events, you know, I am a member of and I enjoy the iaapa, the tea, all the different events that are available but they are quite expensive and they tend to be a barrier to entry. So I think, you know, that's absolutely wonderful that they exist and they allow that connectivity of women together in that safe space. So I know that Emily's just mentioned this that you've got your WhatsApp group, the entertainment Shenanigans. Brilliant title by the way. And I see that's growing daily.
I mean people join and they leave. And I don't take it personally when I see Number XYZ has exited the group. You know, some folks know how to mute notifications and some folks don't. But the thing about shenanigans that just kind of, it's, it started with 20 women and we're now at like just shy of 180 and so I, I have to be mindful that whenever I put something into the group chat that it's going to get broadcast far and wide. And so I try to make sure that in terms of moderating the content that's on there, that it, it stays light, that it stays informative, that it stays supportive of everybody that is in there.
If on occasion there are subjects that I think are better served in a sidebar conversation, I encourage people to start up breakout groups because then that way you're really able to connect with people and you can engage in meaningful discourse that way, as opposed this really long thread in shenanigans. But I'll tell you, the reason that I started shenanigans was because they're not even six months into just starting work within themed entertainment, a fairly creepy guy wound up propositioning me first for something that is not polite in mixed company. And so I was just like, oh, you're gross, all right.
And so I noticed that some really good friends of mine, some girlfriends of mine had put out a call for ride sharing and this same person was trying to inject himself into their conversation to try to take them up on that offer. And I'm like, oh, hold the phone. And so I needed to have a private conversation with my girlfriends. And I was just like, you know, you might want to reconsider that offer because I have it on good authority, namely me, that's not such a good idea. Then I thought, you know what, this isn't fair. We have enough stuff that we have to worry about. It would be nice just to have a safe space for us to confidently ask each other, who wants to be roommates, you know, at conferences, who wants to do ride sharing?
Does anybody have the inside track on a specific job posting? Or can someone make a referral, a personal referral? And I think just being able to do that and not have to worry about the different layers of misogyny that we constantly have to deal with is just, yeah, it's a modern day blessing is how I would put it.
I have a lot to say about this one.
Ruth Read: I think having heard especially from Emily, Liz, Rachel, your women's only groups, I can see why people think they're not necessary anymore. But I would say that, you know, I've been to women's events that have included men. I went to one recently and there were, I don't know, 300 women in the room, a handful of men, fine. And the speaker asked for questions at one point, at the end, and I think five people stood up when were able to ask questions. One of them was a man. And he, instead of asking a question, he told the audience what he had done for women. And while I'm sure he was a lovely person, he had, you know, he has daughters. And he was saying about how upset he was seeing his daughters face issues because of their gender. It's not the point.
Ruth Read: And you know, that space is a space that could have been given to a woman or a lady who wanted to ask a question or who wanted to say something. And I think spaces like Liz's WhatsApp group, where women feel confident and able to ask questions and feel safe asking those questions. Spaces like Emily and Una and the team have put together where I can walk into a club, I can have a drink, and I know that nobody spiked my drink. Those spaces are really important. And actually when there are still golf days association events and there are still drinking cultures and there are still spaces that women don't feel safe, they're not men only spaces, but I think they're not spaces that women feel comfortable being in for whatever reason.
Ruth Read: I guess as a younger woman in the industry, I definitely don't feel safe in those spaces. And I look to people like Emily, like Liz, like Rachel and see what they're doing to see what spaces are safe and see where these groups are. And yeah, the fact of the matter is, you know, you can have a women's networking lunch, you can have a women's group, but if you're having golf days, it's not the same, is it?
Emily Popovich: I don't think I just wanted to chime in too. I mean, are these events and programmes and whatever you want to call them still necessary? I think absolutely right now. But how ideal would it be, you know, down the road when this is not necessary anymore? You know, it's not even thought of that would be such a fantastic situation where we don't need to have these subsets of groups to bring attention to one another, to bring confidence to one another, to make one another feel safe. If that was just the norm, what a perfect world that would be. But we are nowhere close to that, I think. So all of these initiatives are very much needed and probably more so. Real quick, I just wanted to bring up an example of. It was actually one of the.
Emily Popovich: I have a chairman within the last few years, one of the only female chairs. I know we have another female chair of that association now, but she used to refuse. I don't know that it was if you refused. But she didn't love when people called her, I have a chair woman, because she didn't sort of want to call out the difference. You know, she was her own merit. She, she was badass. You know, she is a badass woman. So I, I love that she had that sort that vision of, all right, I am who I am and everyone else should be too, and I am chairman and that is it. But I also don't, I think for many that confidence level is near there for the reader group at all.
Emily Popovich: You know, I, I think looking around it, I think it was Ruth's point about various boards of directors. I mean, other than our TEA board that the eastern one that Liz and I serve on, which has a very strong, I don't know the numbers, but strong ratio of women to men, the majority of other industry look nothing like that. Nothing. So we're still not at that point of equal recognition. And, yeah, it's going to be an issue until it's not anymore. And that'll be a great day.
Claire Furnival: Yeah. And before we wrap up, is there one final thought from each of you that you would like listeners to take away? And also, if they did want to get involved, how can they connect with you or your group?
Emily Popovich: Sure. A big part of this industry that people don't realise is it is such a serious business. This is a multi billion dollar global industry. It touches on everything. There's so many different elements to it. So I think when people come in and they think this is all fun and games, yes, that's great. But no, we are all in business together. And, and I do want those who are at the newer parts of their career to have resources to reach out to for mentorship, for just, you know, general camaraderie or networking experience. This volunteer experience is. It's so crucial. So I think they need to realise that there are different paths to reach out.
Emily Popovich: You know, even looking at various industry websites, you get the associations you, TEA and IAAPA and WWA and AZA and AAM and all the things, just go to events, go network, reach out to other women that, you know, are active in the industry, find their contact information and, you know, find ways to volunteer. And I think ultimately women in general will build up their own confidence the more of that network they have behind them.
And then, Liz, my advice to listeners, women and people of colour, the LGBTQ community, is don't shrink yourself for the comfort of others. There's no reason why you need to dim your shine because someone else doesn't think that it's called for. And the single largest, single greatest support network that you can have are fellow colleagues that value that difference, that see you for who you are and champion you even when you're not in the room. Find your tribe and get involved as much or as little as you feel comfortable. But at the end of the day, just lean into your weird.
Claire Furnival: I love that, and Ruth.
Ruth Read: I think in terms of generally, I think, yeah, like Liz and Emily have said, fine, reach out to people, you know, women. I feel like we. I mean, I feel like everybody has a vibe, don't they? And if you get a good vibe from somebody and you feel like that's somebody that would support you know, tell them, be honest with them. I think the more vulnerable we can be with each other, the sleeper everybody feels. And, yeah, find me on LinkedIn. Reach out to me. I would say, for the blue 50s. Nominate yourselves, please. You know, the nominations are seen only by our judges and nobody else will ever know, but be confident in yourselves and be confident that you should be nominated and you deserve to be on the list.
Claire Furnival: And Rachel.
Rachael Hamilton: Rachael Hamilton: Yeah, I struggled with this question a little bit, actually, but I think I kind of brought it back to how I felt when I was a bit younger and going through what I was going through. And I think for me is I just. I just really don't want women to suffer in silence anymore. I feel that's been a real big thing for generations, and I think we're at a real breaking point now where, you know, vulnerability is being seen as a strength and it's authentic. So I think it's just, you know, as to echo what Liz and Emily and Ruby said, it's just be yourself, you know, show your superpower, be vulnerable and reach out. People do want to support you, so, you know, sharing is caring, you know, people out there that will support you. So I think it's.
Rachael Hamilton: I think it's that, if anything, wish I had a support network like this when I was younger, it probably would have made a lot of difference to my therapy bill. So, yeah, reach out for us. You can get me on LinkedIn. I'm very active on there. But you can go on to Rice's website. We have multiple ways. We have WhatsApp groups. We have different communities, we have different events. We do a lot of allyship events as well where we bring men and women together. Because actually. And we actually talk about key topics like learn, so we can try and break down the barriers. Like, what are the barriers that learn face and we kind of do it in a way that doesn't sort of alienate the man. It's about, you know, how do we do this together for a better, for a better world. So yeah, we've got lots of ways to be involved, so just cheque our website out.
Claire Furnival: Lovely. Thank you to my wonderful guests for joining me on today's episode and for such an honest and inspiring conversation. One of the big takeaways today was the importance of advocating for ourselves and for each other, whether that's building confidence, calling out behaviour that doesn't belong in our industry, or creating spaces where women feel supported enough to have conversations that really matter. As we heard, vulnerability isn't a weakness, it's a strength, and authenticity is what will drive real change now. Encouragingly, it would appear that there are lots of initiatives across the industry that helped us move forward, from the free Car for women initiative at ICE Barcelona this year to mentoring programmes such as Rise AV, regular Pay to Pay meetup events, WhatsApp groups and webinars.
Claire Furnival: Repeating Emily It'll be a great day when we no longer need these women focused events to champion equality in our sector. But until then, creating safe spaces, finding your tribe and leaning into what makes you weird remains important. Thanks at Liz for that one. If you'd like to continue the conversation, there are three fantastic upcoming events you can get involved with. We have the IAAPA live chat celebrating women who lead and inspire on the 5th of March at 2pm Eastern Time, a webinar on the Power of Connection hosted by the Female Leaders in attraction on the 6th of March at 1pm Eastern Time and an in person networking event hosted by Riseab in London on 12th March.
Claire Furnival: This episode was written by Emily Burrows, edited by Steve Folland and produced by Emily Burrows and Sami Entwistle from Plaster alongside Wenalyn Dionaldo from Skip the Q hq. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like share and comment on the episode in your podcast app. It all helps spread the word about us and the amazing attractions Skip the Q works with. Be sure to visit SkipTheCue FM for this episode's transcriptions and listen to the rest of the season so far. Thanks for listening.