- Chat
- Q & A
panelists
Gwendolyn Y. McNutt, CSEP
Regional External Affairs Manager, Comcast
Gwendolyn Y. McNutt, CSEP I Regional External Affairs Manager I Comcast
Gwendolyn is a Regional External Affairs Manager with Comcast, with more than 25 years of experience. In her current role, she is responsible for managing community impact initiatives, working with nonprofit organizations and administering event sponsorship opportunities. Some of her key initiatives include the Comcast Internet Essential Program, the annual volunteer day of service, Comcast Cares Day and the Comcast Leaders and Achievers Scholarship Program.
Gwendolyn is a lifelong resident of Illinois and has engaged with various community organizations throughout the area. She currently serves on the board of directors of Chicago Women in Philanthropy (CWIP), and is a past member of the International Live Events Association (ILEA) Board of Governors. In 2019, she was awarded a NACE ILEA Chicago Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award, by Chicago area members of NACE (National Association of Catering and Events) and ILEA (International Live Events Association) for her accomplishments within the special events industry.
Gwendolyn holds a Bachelor of Science degree in speech communication from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a Master of Arts degree in corporate communication from DePaul University. She also holds a Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP) designation, available to only an elite group of qualified industry professionals.
Gwendolyn has also contributed to a number of written and online publications including
USA Today, Nerd HQ and ILEA Experience.
Brent Rolland
Event Producer and DJ, Fig Media
Brent Rolland I Event Producer and DJ I Fig Media
Bronzeville native Brent Rolland graduated as valedictorian of the International Academy of Design and Technology with a BFA in Multimedia Production and Design in 2005. For 15 years and counting, Brent has grown as an artist with Fig Media as a DJ, host, audio tech, drummer/percussionist, and event producer. Clients have called him the "perfect combination of fun and professional” and is well-known and in-demand in the event industry.
Tiffanie Rosier
Owner, AllStar Photobooth
Tiffanie Rosier I Owner I AllStar Photobooth
Tiffanie Rosier is the owner of the Award Winning Photo Booth Company AllStar Photobooth. She is a motivated, determined and inspirational community business leader and also plans STEM Career Exploration Events for NOVA SySTEMic at Northern Virginia Community College. NOVA is the largest public educational institution in Virginia and the second largest community college in the United States. Tiffanie holds the Global Career Development Facilitator and Virginia Community College Career Coach Certifications, a Bachelor of Arts from James Madison University with an emphasis on Public Relations and a Master of Arts in Education with a focus on Higher Education from Western Kentucky University. She has presented programs, events and training sessions on a variety of topics at the local, state and national levels in education and in the event professional’s arena.
AllStar Photobooth is an Event Photography Photo Booth company in Virginia and Tiffanie has been recognized for her Outstanding Contributions in Business in the Hampton Roads Community! In her spare time Tiffanie enjoys doing Voiceover work and serving as a Director on the International Live Events Association Board of Governors. Tiffanie loves volunteering her time with various special populations and causes in the community.
Tiffanie’s Awards, Leadership & Recognition include; 2019-2020 ILEA Southeast Regional Vice President, 2018-2019 International Live Events Association Volunteer of the Year Award, 2017-2018 ILEA Spirit of Excellence in Membership Recruitment Award, 2018 Small Business Champion Finalist, 2017 Hampton Roads Chamber Top 6 To Watch, 2016 Inside Business Women in Business Achievement Honoree.
Creating Collaborative Partnerships!
Video: https://youtu.be/7krU6QduDLU
moderator
Nicole Zenner, CSEP
Owner, Officiant, Zen Events
Nicole Zenner, CSEP
Nicole Zenner, CSEP is ordained through the Universal Life Church and has been officiating for 3 years. Having begun her career in the event industry 16 years ago as a wedding planner, Nicole knows the importance of a unique and heartfelt ceremony. Through her guidance and ceremony planning tools, each couple is allowed to create a ceremony that truly reflects their love, their style, and more importantly, their commitment to each other. Nicole joined ILEA in 2010 and was quickly volun-told into a Board of Director position. She is a past Chicago Chapter President and International Certification Chair. Nicole is also a survivor of gun violence. Through her 20-year healing process she has become acutely aware of the systematic racism that plagues the US. She is actively learning and prioritizing anti-racism work in her life.
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exPEERiences
Thank you to our industry peers who generously shared their exPEERiences with us and contributed to this important conversation. Click "Read More" to read their full testimonial.
Amanda Ellis
Question: Have you faced challenges in the event industry due to race?
Unfortunately, yes. Since I have been in this industry there have been countless times where I have experienced a series of challenges due to the color of my skin. My biggest challenge in my career has been going on job interviews. A continuous challenge for me is the reaction I would get when someone would meet me and see that I am African American. This experience continues to be extremely bothersome and frustrating. An example of this is when I would go on interviews, the biggest giveaway would be the body language of the person, the “shock “look on their face. People do not seem to realize that your body language speaks for itself. There are times where I would immediately know that being considered for the job would not even be a thought. I always ask the question during the interview “Is there any hesitation about my resume that you would feel makes me unqualified for this position?” The answer would ALWAYS be no. It has never been about being unqualified for a job, it is more about whether or not someone wants to take a chance on me and how I would fit into the organization being the only person of color. During interviews, I have experienced the lack of interest including the interviewer being short with me or not making eye contact with me, even people not keeping their word and following-up with me after an interview. There have been times where I wanted to give-up and transition my career to do something else where I would not be the minority in the industry. However, planning has always been my passion since I was child and I will never give up on something that I am passionate about. I am thankful for those that have given me a chance to prove that I am more than the color of my skin.
Question: Has and how have culture and racial identity contributed to your success?
I have always strived for success, not only in my career but in my personal life. Like any other educated African American woman of color in this country I have always had to work twice as hard to get to where I am in my career and personal life to prove that I am more than a stereotype. It takes a certain level of confidence to be in this industry as a person of color, your skin must be thicker. I have always had to prove that I am just as talented as someone not of color for me to be taken seriously. I allow my work to speak for itself. This has shaped me to be a better person, to always strive for more and to achieve goals that seem unreachable, to break those barriers of being a person of color in this industry. It is my determination that has gotten me this far. At some point I told myself not to be bothered by those who are closed minded and think they are better than me. This journey has been far from easy, but I would not be as successful as I am if I did not push myself to never settle in life. This is just the beginning for me.
Amber Sanders
I love the wedding industry, the celebration of love, life, and the bringing together of family. Growing up as a dancer, I didn't see many images of dancers who looked like me and the same can be said for the wedding industry. Every month I purchase copies of Brides, The Knot, and Modern Luxury, and out of the 100's of pages, there might be ONE black bride or groom featured. So what does that say to black couples who have dreamt of their wedding days but don't see themselves featured in wedding magazines?
This makes it a lot harder for planners like myself to show value to these couples and get them to hire us, partly because they don't see the value for themselves and the wedding vendors who are likely featured in magazines or are consistently referred are white. I truly hope we can start to see changes that allow everyone to see themselves as they are- beautiful and in love. All couples deserve to be celebrated, acknowledged and seen!
Sophia Lin Kanno
When people speak about race and inequality, I sometimes feel like maybe I can’t speak or contribute to the topic in the same way. In many ways I feel that this may be attributed to the fact that I’m Asian-American and we are part of the so-called “Model Minority”. What’s interesting is that being different and growing up in a predominantly all-white community in the suburbs of Atlanta didn’t make my childhood any easier. Simply put, I didn’t look like them and they didn’t look like me. But even further than that, I wore really weird clothing with misspelled English words on matching sweatpants from Taiwan and ate strange foods that didn’t fall in line with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread. My parents didn’t understand the American holidays and all the school forms and many times felt left out when everyone arrived at school in their fun store bought costumes for Halloween. I was picked on often, teased and many times, battled the thoughts of wanting to be blond haired and blue eyed. Why—because I felt out of place and unwelcome into the community. Something I realized and fought off early on is that never will I wake up one day and somehow become a blond haired and blue eyed girl. I wouldn’t be able to become something that I am not, so I decided to take on the challenge of being the best version of me possible. If I was going to stand out, I was going to do it loud and proud, and as many who know me, I think I have achieved that.
When asked the questions about how I have faced challenges in the industry due to my race, I feel that as an Asian American, maybe I’m given a little more trust and credit from the beginning as a result of this “smart Asian” mentality. But I have certainly also been viewed or considered more less capable or able of producing an ethnic wedding based on my race and how it relates to the couple’s ethnicity. I think that might be very stereotypical, but frequently, people will feel more comfortable working with people that have similarities to them, based upon background, experience and yes, in many cases ethnicity based upon the commonalities they share. I cannot tell you how frequently I was told that I hadn’t been selected to design the big Jewish wedding, well, because I’m not Jewish and I wasn’t selected to design the big opening for the big celebrity Black American film studio because I wasn’t black. It works in both ways. At the end of the day, I have decided to ignore the noise, not to ask for the opportunity, but instead, to put myself in the place to highlight who I want to be and be so excellent in all that I do, that my ethnicity and race do not affect the decisions. Some days, I realize that by making myself light hearted about who I am, making jokes about Asian Americans but by putting those jokes out there, I have broken down the barriers of any discomfort about race, because I say, “Yes, I know these stereotypes exist, but guess what, I’m past that and I can laugh about it.” I think that being different, having fought through finding who I was at an early age and finding the conviction behind my passions has driven the success that I see today. Does race and culture play a role? Sure, but because there was a struggle and journey associated with my racial assimilation to the American culture. I think at the end of the day, it’s about acknowledging unique perspectives, celebrating those differences and being confident in all those elements that are going to bring us past this racial challenge.
I leave with one of my favorite quotes from Modern Family:
“This is the funny thing about growing up. For years and years, everybody's desperately afraid, to be different, you know, in ANY way. And then, suddenly, almost overnight, Everybody WANTS to be different.....And that is where we win.”
Harsh Singh
Based on the fact that I arrived in the US at age 5, I have had a lot of experience with being a minority/POC- in middle school I was the only Indian kid, even though our school had almost 700 students! Not much different in high school, but then I moved from the suburbs into the city of Chicago, and then I literally went from thinking life was an 8 box of Crayola's to the 64 box that you always have & inevitably get to see in any large city, and it was reassuring to me..
But when you apply my life to (and in) me owning my own business, there is a similar, and yet slightly different way I have to contextualize being a minority, which is mildly amusing as India's population is 1.3 billion! 2 examples that immediately come to my mind...1) The internal industry dynamic...I personally feel that a lot of industries are no different than high school- you have several smaller social groups that combine to form the 'mothership', but regardless of social media that doesn't necessarily equal everyone knowing each other, or being on the same level, playing field when it comes to referrals. I'm pretty sure that certain event planners assume that because I am Indian, that I only do Indian weddings, when in reality over the last 20 years I have worked a ton of American weddings, as well as so many wedding receptions with brides & grooms that are directly, or by familial lineage from across the pond, or even 2 oceans!
The perception of prospective clients can also be similar, though thankfully due to social media I can (and do) allay their potential concerns by posting every event that I work- I have a Crayola 64 box approach to both my life as well as work, so it is to my mind golden that I have had so much 'business diversity' with not only my clients, but also in the types of events that I get to work.
Sandi Robinson
Question: Have you faced challenges in the event industry due to race?
Unfortunately, yes. Since I have been in this industry there have been countless times where I have experienced a series of challenges due to the color of my skin. My biggest challenge in my career has been going on job interviews. A continuous challenge for me is the reaction I would get when someone would meet me and see that I am African American. This experience continues to be extremely bothersome and frustrating. An example of this is when I would go on interviews, the biggest giveaway would be the body language of the person, the “shock “look on their face. People do not seem to realize that your body language speaks for itself. There are times where I would immediately know that being considered for the job would not even be a thought. I always ask the question during the interview “Is there any hesitation about my resume that you would feel makes me unqualified for this position?” The answer would ALWAYS be no. It has never been about being unqualified for a job, it is more about whether or not someone wants to take a chance on me and how I would fit into the organization being the only person of color. During interviews, I have experienced the lack of interest including the interviewer being short with me or not making eye contact with me, even people not keeping their word and following-up with me after an interview. There have been times where I wanted to give-up and transition my career to do something else where I would not be the minority in the industry. However, planning has always been my passion since I was child and I will never give up on something that I am passionate about. I am thankful for those that have given me a chance to prove that I am more than the color of my skin.
Question: Has and how have culture and racial identity contributed to your success?
I have always strived for success, not only in my career but in my personal life. Like any other educated African American woman of color in this country I have always had to work twice as hard to get to where I am in my career and personal life to prove that I am more than a stereotype. It takes a certain level of confidence to be in this industry as a person of color, your skin must be thicker. I have always had to prove that I am just as talented as someone not of color for me to be taken seriously. I allow my work to speak for itself. This has shaped me to be a better person, to always strive for more and to achieve goals that seem unreachable, to break those barriers of being a person of color in this industry. It is my determination that has gotten me this far. At some point I told myself not to be bothered by those who are closed minded and think they are better than me. This journey has been far from easy, but I would not be as successful as I am if I did not push myself to never settle in life. This is just the beginning for me.
Kareem "K.W.O.E" Wells
When I first got into the entertainment business, people were actually mad that I was black and getting business. There was a lot of jealousy and I actually got threats. My personality is to let nothing stop me. Now, I run a successful interactive DJ company, providing jobs and opportunity for people from the South and West sides of Chicago. It's important to me to give back to my community and provide equity not just in this industry but across the board for black people.
With my love of music and being an artist, along with my race, I think it helps give an authentic experience that people are looking for at their events. I can communicate what people are trying to feel through music. Within the entertainment companies I believe there is more diversity but when looking at planners, decor, other vendors...I don’t see as many that are black owned. We need more diversity in the private event sector. Period.