What did I learn from speaking on a panel for The Female Quotient @ #Canneslionfestival2024?

I had my first speaking opportunity in #Canneslionfestival 2024. One at the Ipsos ?panel and one with Female Quotient.? I speak quite often in Asia Pacific forums for both marketing and leadership. However, it is the first time that I am on the global stage. When this opportunity came up, I spoke to my husband and said that maybe he should come with me for this trip. He agreed immediately, but also suggested that we bring our 11-year-old girl along. I was hesitant at first as I was guilt-ridden about having to have a ‘full-on’ week and not being able to spend enough time with her. My husband reassured me to just be fluid and go with the flow, and that he will take care of her whilst I am busy at the croichette.?

It turns out to be one of the best experiences I had and that will go down the memory’s lane with my daughter.

I have also met many like – minded female leaders at the Equality lounge.????????

Given that it is so special, I decide to write down my reflections from this experience.

Firstly, let me dive into the topic that we discuss at the Female Quotient.

Topic: Beyond the Stereotypes: How Gender Diversity in Engineering & Insights Drives Marketing Innovation.

I was fortunate to share the stage with 2 very successful ladies in their own fields- Caroline Yap – Global Managing Director, Google AI Business and Applied Engineering and Karin Kimbrough- Chief Economist at LinkedIn. Both came from a very different field of expertise, vs me which is in marketing and insights.? So, the panel has an engineer, an economist and a marketer. The panel was facilitated by a great business partner – Philip Ryan, Managing Partner at Ipsos Strategy S3.? We did not meet prior to the session and in fact, the 3 of us just met 15 minutes prior to the session.

However, the conversation just flowed with fluidity when it started. Kudos to Philip – who asked some really penetrating questions, but I have to say, the 3 different perspectives from an engineer, an economist and a CMO, certainly cause some sparks to light up. Most importantly, the conversations were #Real and #Authentic – as the 3 of us all shared personal experiences of how gender diversity can help drive innovation, but most importantly, business impact and better outcomes for the business world.?

So, what did I learn from this session?

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1.??????? Power of authenticity

When like-minded people come together, MAGIC happens. I also love the 3 different perspectives, 3 individuals from different fields of profession and 3 people from diverse cultural background.

But what I like about the conversation is that it is not pretentious, we share our own experiences and was able to build on each other’s points.

?The conversation just flowed and even after the panel! ??

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2.????? ??Future of work is changing and fast evolving.

Karin – being the Chief Economist for LinkedIn shared quite a few statistics. Certainly, some of the statistics still demonstrate that there is still work to be done for the number of female representations in the engineering field at all levels, leadership, mid-levels and even entry levels.?

Her sharing also demonstrated that the #future of the work is fast evolving. The GenZ are expecting more integration, more flexibility and more fluidity at work. Gone are the days of hierarchy, structural approach that drives the way we work. Hence the implications of how organizations need to fast evolve the #way they work, #their incentives system, and also the way they drive diversity.

?What I learnt quickly is “Diversity not across just gender, but age, skillsets and cultural background”.?

?We spoke about #flexibility, #fluidity and #empathy #humility as key soft skills that need to have amongst the future leaders. And certainly, female leaders lead the way here.

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These resonate with me so much.????????

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3.??????? Asians going global

Caroline and I shared similar background. Caroline is from Malaysia but lived for many years in the US. I am a well-travelled Singaporean, living in Singapore but being exposed to diverse multi-cultural- having led teams across these regions and being in US and European MNCs and stayed in a few countries in Asia Pacific.

We spoke about how the world needs more representation and voice of Asians in the global stage and it has to start with us – really owning the voice and leading it. The “see it, be it” phenomenon just creates the cyclical approach, and this cyclical phenomenon needs leaders to really lead the way.

As an Asian who speak multiple Asian language, I feel that Asians is most adapted to deal with multi-cultural having come from a region that is not totally homogeneous but has its diversity in nature. We are in the best position to adapt and be agile and tell our stories at the global stage.

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4.??????? Building DEI starts young and leading with family.

In addition, I was glad that I made the decision to bring my daughter along for this trip. Most importantly, she was at the panel with my husband, cheering me on during the panel. At the end of the panel, at the suggestion of the photographer and Karin and Caroline’s warm welcome, she demonstrated the future generation of leadership, by walking up the stage to take the pictures with me and the speakers.??

After the session, I had a couple of female participants came up to me to congratulate me and for being brave to bring my daughter along for a work session.

Well, I did not have the foresight, but what turn out to be a simple decision, was a great learning experience for me and my daughter.

I was super glad to have brought her along (Kayla) to experience the beautiful and extremely inclusive and accessible Female Quotient lounge. I was extremely glad to have her listen to the conversation so that she absorbs the conversation on gender diversity fast and also learn real life experiences on a different multi-cultural platform. Most importantly, I was glad that she was able to demonstrate her confidence with grace through this experience.

So, perhaps, this is telling me the #future of work – which is going to be led by these group of Gen Alpha and Gen Z, captures inclusivity, fluidity and integration – much better than us GenX. We need to start embracing and experimenting and start them young!

Thanks to #Shelley Zalis for championing gender diversity and creating such an accessible platform – I am certainly going to bring her along for future Cannes and perhaps stretch her more for some part-time work at the event when she is ready!

?p.s. Thanks Philip, Caroline and Karin for being such great partners!

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Siew Ting Foo is a future — focused, human- centric growth leader. She has delivered growth across diverse industries, through helping organizations re-imagining brands, businesses and organizations. Siew Ting is highly energetic, purpose-driven collaborator, who believes in harnessing people’s potential to build brands, business and people. She combines “art” and “science” in marketing and harness community to build powerful brands. She believes in the power of building business growth through building brands with #SOUL, with the customers voice at the core and through the powering of the people across corporation