The Job’s Not Done
Hosted by the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations and the Moody College Honors Program, a two-day event titled, “Diversifying the Industry: The Job’s Not Done,” was held Feb. 22-23 to bring the best and brightest in advertising and public relations to share experiences and ideas on how the industry can aggressively move forward.
The event kicked off Feb. 22 with an evening panel on entrepreneurial women featuring Carol H. Williams, owner of the largest female-owned, African American communications agency in the U.S.; Krystle Loyland, co-founder of Preacher, a full-service agency based in Austin; and Jane Claire Hervey, founder of #bossbabesATX, an Austin-based event planning and networking agency.
Events were streamed live all day Feb. 23 and featured four panels of local and national executives who spoke on issues including racial identity, representation in media, inclusive professional organizations, and family friendly workplaces. All panel sessions are archived on the Moody College YouTube channel.
“Advertising’s lack of diversity stifles creativity,” said Associate Professor Lee Ann Kahlor, organizer of the event and minority liaison for the Stan Richards School. “Change is going to happen through mentoring. It’s going to happen with patience.”
According to a study by Forbes, diverse teams make better business decisions 87 percent of the time and applying the concept of inclusive decision-making can bring about faster change in business decisions at all levels. The study analyzed about 600 business decisions made by 200 different business teams in a wide variety of companies in the span of two years.
“In my journey of 40 years in this industry, the greatest leaders I have ever met all have a key element,” said Carol H. Williams, who led the keynote panel of enterprising women. “It’s empathy. That connectivity to be able to see things through the eyes of other people is what separates the good from the great leaders.”
For more information, visit JobsNotDone.com, the Stan Richards School’s Diversity Group or the student-led professional organization Diversity in Advertising and PR.
