TMCnet Feature

If you were wondering where all the women were at ITEXPO (News - Alert) East 2012 this morning, you could have found them sipping a cup of Joe, enjoying some fresh fruit, and schmoozing with other women for the second annual “Women in Wireless and Telecom Breakfast at 4GWE and ITEXPO.”

“The object of any networking event is to establish new connections,” Ruth Bridger, vice president of marketing Xorcom (News - Alert) and co-creator of the event, told TMCnet this morning at the breakfast. “The value of the one-on-one relationship cannot be underestimated. When you have a breakfast like this and you get other women in your field that have different perspectives and different experiences together, it is great.”

“It is very beneficial on the business level for women to have someone else to turn to, someone to bounce an idea off of, another professional like yourself that is in a male dominated field.”

This morning, every table was full as women from companies all over the world convened to network with other ladies in the industry, talk about challenges they are facing in the tech world and explore new opportunities to work together. Women were encouraged to hand out business cards to every person in the room and sit at a table with people they didn’t know.

Last year in Austin, Texas, at ITEXPO West, Bridger and Suzanne Bowen, vice president of business development and marketing for AstraCom, held the first women in telecom breakfast and this year’s event nearly doubled the number of attendees. Bowen was ecstatic about the turnout.

“There’s a very strong males’ club in tech, and I wanted to help ladies get to know each other early in the conference,” she told TMCnet. “Now they will be on the expo floor and will see each other and stay connected.”

“Oftentimes when we are in the expo hall, we are just not as comfortable showing how smart we are and what we are capable of doing, so something like this allows everyone to talk and that’s really what we wanted to do,” she added.

While 2011 certainly saw its fair share of women assuming high positions like CTOs and CEOs, women have a ways to go when it comes to being taken seriously in technology and breaking barriers.

One thing certainly not helping women gain respect in the industry is the ubiquity of industry described “booth babes,” or attractive women who are hired by companies to drive traffic to their booth, in the expo halls, according to breakfast attendees. Linda Elisha, commercial director of Emertec Limited, was certainly not thrilled to see the amount of “booth babes” on the ITEXPO showroom floor when it opened last night.

“I was pretty taken aback at the show last night with the number of what we in England call ‘dolly birds’ – the number of women in stands who clearly have nothing to do with the product,” she told TMCnet. “I can’t believe that people still think that kind of sales approach is acceptable.”

In addition to booth babes making it harder for women in telecom to be taken seriously, schools are also exacerbating the problem as they are not encouraging girls to get into technology at a young age, Elisha said.

“It’s been getting worse rather than better,” she said.

So aside from holding networking events at trade shows, what else can women do to break the glass ceiling?

“It just takes a certain spirit of the individual,” Bridger said. “It’s not so much whether the company will allow it women to get to the top but it’s about being that individual with the drive and self confidence to achieve that kind of status within the company. The women that we see in the higher positions have those characteristics.”

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 2012, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration click here.

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