Commentary – The ElevateHer report and FMBE

By Frank Wainwright – FMBE

At this year’s FMBE Awards, as usual we presented two Agency of the Year Awards, one for Brand Experience – recipient N2O – and one for Field Marketing – recipient Powerforce.

These two agencies share a few things in common, sound business principles that have created a platform for dynamic performance.

One striking similarity is the gender equity, with strong female leadership evident at all levels of management and event delivery.

Both have inspirational women right at the top of the business, founder Clare James at N2O, MD Bronwyn Andrew at Powerforce but this leadership alone is not a guarantee of gender equity.

As we saw through their awards entries both agencies have accountable talent strategies in place, and both get exceptional results from staff satisfaction surveys.

Both N2O and Powerforce are growing with forwards momentum. And both sprung to mind today when I read the new ElevateHer report, a report brought about by another of our industry’s best female leaders, Carina Filek, COO, Elevate Global.

Here’s the bit in the report that brought this to mind:

Productivity and Retention Impacts

Ignoring gender equity isn’t just an ethical misstep—it’s a costly one. Companies

allowing these disparities to fester are haemorrhaging talent. Research shows a

12% drop in absenteeism at firms offering strong reproductive health resources

(“The Red Paper 2024”). Meanwhile, firms prioritising retention strategies for

women can cut turnover by up to 40%. That’s not just better for the bottom line;

it’s a game-changer for innovation.

Both N2O and Powerforce enjoy superb data for retention of talent and both credit that talent retained for underpinning their growth.

The strong female leader presence at Powerforce and N2O is futher evident in their winner photos, below (Powerforce top and beneath, N2O).

Equally neither agency are complacent. They won’t rest on their current level of success and will look for ways to improve.

The ElevateHer report makes it clear that gender equity is still far off in many event businesses – either through evidential pay gaps – or more subtly, but equally damaging, through perception differences. There is a lag, for instance, between providing training for everyone and ensuring that it is perceived as being available for everyone.

ElevateHer is both a powerful initiative and an instructive report. It is full of actionable insight.  You can read it here.

Elevate Global was this year’s staffing partner for the FMBE Awards and the ElevateHer report was promoted at our tables via the their eco-coasters that were compostable with seeds.

The Elevate team also took gold for the People-Powered category, showing off their clear policy for staff selection across various contracts at the 2024 Paris OIympics.