Working Mother CEO Carol Evans Argues for Investment in Diversity Opportunities by Ad Community

Working Mother Inc personifies the media company of the future a fully integrated media marketing multiplatform events and public affairs company Acquired by Carol Evans just days after September 11 2001 Working Mother Magazine has been rapidly expanding its digital content and the Working Mother brand has evolved to one of the corporate world39s most valued and respected resources on diversity issues Today a significant share of Working Mother revenues are generated from conferences and corporate events the company39s programs honoring the most successful companies for working mothers in various categories and from international expansionquotWorking mothers are the number one users of the Internet for buying and informationquot Evans shared with Jack Myers Media Business Report in an exclusive interview quotWe know we have a valuable audience and we39ve transitioned from a small magazine company with a focus on events to understanding how to use the web in original and innovative waysquot expanding beyond working moms39 message boards and blogs to social networking photo sharing video blogs and ecommerce Working Mother has developed initiatives that expand on the successful Best Companies initiative including diversity programs best law firms for women best green companies for America39s children and best small companies with additional initiatives planned quotWith companies in the media and advertising world struggling with diversity issues it39s a hot topic for our businessquot Evans believes quotWe39ve created a huge platform focused on diversity that changes corporate culture and can change the culture of a whole industry We39re looking at whole industries one at a time to tell the diversity storyquot The next phase of growth is support for affinity groups that meet to support the advancement of specific groups such as gay and lesbian Asian women Black women Latinos etc quotAffinity groups are internal advocates and they can be external advocates for community relations talent recruitment and marketingquot Evans points out quotThey gather together in person and online in the spirit of good will as well as to communicate complaintsquot Earlier this month Working Mother hosted an Affinity Leadership Conference bringing together 500 diversity officers and affinity group leaders with corporate CEOs and senior management quotThe media and advertising industry is just waking up to the idea that these affinity groups can really help with marketingquot Evans believes quotWe are learning how affinity groups can influence product development and marketing Companies are using affinity groups as internal advisory boards The ad industry doesn39t yet know much about it but it is happening at their client companies Major national advertisers are all are looking to how their affinity groups can contribute to product development community relations talent development It39s cutting edge stuffquot says Evans Although Advertising Women of New York and Working Mother are hosting an Advertising Working Mothers of the Year event in January Evans suggests the ad agency community is lagging in development of affinity groups In the media community several TV network companies such as Turner Broadcasting and MTV Networks have established affinity groups Jack Myers Media Business Report is planning to work with Working Mother to support initiatives in the media company and media agency communities and is now in discussions with possible sponsorsThrough the Best Companies for Working Mothers program Evans has positioned wwwWorkingMothercom as an online resource for corporate human resources executives on diversity best practices offering access to available research and helpful information quotWe are the only company that has actual data on the representation of women of color in corporate Americaquot Evans says proudly quotWe are the only company that knows everything companies are doing to support working women and women of color As we build out the site we will have representation figures on all minority groups and will expand our services for both working women and the companies they work forquotAfter acquiring the company she had once worked at as publisher Evans focused on the 100 Best Companies franchise realizing it offered a platform for shifting corporate culture She invited a group of diversity officers from several companies to join her in New York to discuss their issues as part of the launch of a Best Companies for Women of Color program quotWe thought we would have 200 women attend and 400 came We were blown awayquot says Evans quotOne of the attendees told me to 39go home and tell your daughter her mommy parted the waters today39 No one had looked at women as a double minority or dealt with corporate diversity issues in that contextquot She continues quotour learning has exploded and we have uncovered the fact that white women don39t think of themselves as having a race they don39t know that women who are not white don39t trust them They think of white women the same way we think of white men amp8211 helpful individually but not collectively When we started our journey white women in our groups started seeing women of color were talking honestly about their feelings and the ability to talk across racial divides has impacted thousands of people The perception is we are on their sidequot When Evans realized how little was being offered to support diversity executives and working women of color she began scheduling town hall meetings around the country IBM asked the company to expand their program globally even though there was no international version of the publication quotThey liked work we were doing face to face and convinced us it was important for us to be global on their behalf A multiplatform company can grab onto opportunities With conferences we can extend the message and the brand globallyquot With underwriting support from IBM JampampJ Sun WalMart and HP Working Mother has developed three amp8211day diversity and best practices conferences to Canada and Brazil with additional expansion planned in the next years to Europe India China and other locales quotThere are strong brilliant women in emerging nation but like 15 years ago in the US they have to still cajole their husbands into understanding they have very sophisticated jobs Their environment is 15 year ago socially but contemporary in terms of responsibilitiesquot Evans commentsWith the acquisition last year of Diversity and Best Practices a membership organization of chief diversity officers from 175 companies Evans now has a platform to expand similar programs for minority men people with disabilities and other groups Working Mother is also expanding its conference business to vertical industries last year launching an event for 250 senior diversity executives in the pharmaceutical industry supported by fourteen leading companies The October issue of Working Mother was the biggest in 28 years demonstrating the value of cross platform initiatives to the core business For more information contact carolevansworkingmothercom

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Working Mother CEO Carol Evans Argues for Investment in Diversity Opportunities by Ad Community

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