Sometimes the germ of an idea grows into much more. Such was the case with a project I recently completed on women in leadership in the housing industry.
It started as simply an idea for an article in the wake of three announcements close together about women being appointed to key roles in the industry. In discussing the idea with one of those women, she made the observation that it would be wonderful to have a group discussion about the topic with her peers.
And the project was born.
Organizing a time when a dozen of these women could gather together was a challenge and, in the end, three could not make it, but we still had nine powerful women executives having a frank and insightful conversation about their experiences, how things have changed in this traditionally male industry, and what still needs to be done.
It was an inspiring conversation for all of us, including the three Algonquin students who came in to videotape the two-hour discussion for myself and my All Things Home business partner, Patrick Langston.
Of course this was turned into an article — two, actually; a shorter one for the Ottawa Citizen and a longer one for All Things Home — but we had a second goal with this project. We saw this as an opportunity to educate and inspire the housing industry, those just coming into it and those still looking for a career choice.
To that end, the discussion was condensed into a 30-minute video and a pdf of the full transcript was created as a resource for others.
In all, this was a very satisfying project and my thanks go to these women leaders who agreed to share their time and insights.