Women in Sustainable Energy, WiSE 2023

Back in 2016, I was told that the consulting firm I worked for had no interest in renewable energy. I remember the senior leader’s serious face as they told me “there is no money in that.” It was a feeling of energy disappearing in an instant, as my excitement for being part of the workforce left me. But that energy was reinstated when I met Selina Liu, James Boak, and a gaggle of sustainability professionals with BCSEA less than a year later. Selina and James were recruiting volunteers to help launch their non-profit’s inaugural Women in Sustainable Energy networking event. As a recent newcomer to Vancouver, Selina dreamt up the idea as a way to foster a community for women in the sustainability space.

A group of volunteers acting silly with their arms raised
The inaugural WiSE volunteer team

Through this organization, I began meeting people actively working on spreading solar and wind energy across BC and Canada. I met my next employer, a marine energy company, and began working with a collection of individuals who I’m still close with today.

Fast forward to 2023. We have now run this event five times. Each year brings together 80 to 150 people, mostly women. Everyone is passionate about sustainability. Professionals who have been in their fields for over 20 years; political leaders; business owners; and NGO founders. Skipping 2020 and 2021, we refrained from turning to an online version of WiSE. A virtual event wouldn’t have the same impact. The volunteer team varies each year, but there are always a few folks from the previous planning committee who come back to run the event again. This year, our fearless leader Selina took a (well-deserved) step back from organizing. Our 2022 team was eager to continue the tradition and run WiSE again in 2023. But who would take on the arduous job of managing and running the show?

Preparing for WiSE 2023

Busy launching my own business and finding project work to advance local sustainable development, I was unsure I’d have the time to manage an event the magnitude and significance of WiSE. Since joining the BCSEA, WiSE has always been at the top when measuring the Vancouver Chapter’s project success. The task to take up the helm and manage such an event was daunting, I didn’t want to be the first one to screw it up. But my fellow volunteers assured their support this year, and their enthusiasm convinced me to take on the job. We set to recruit others to the organizing committee and jumped into planning WiSE 2023.

Big shoes to fill

Throughout my volunteer work with BCSEA, for some reason, we are constantly struggling to find marketing and communications specialists. Although we have had the fortune of working with a handful of talented marketing professionals, it’s a common role we need to fill again and again. I think a contributing factor is that the majority of our volunteer network is made up of engineers and scientists. Apparently many folks from that crowd lack design, communications, and marketing strategy skills. I remember the first WiSE we ran, and I fumbled my way through learning InDesign to make all of the promotional material.

It got easier after that, as I was able to hand off those duties to much more skilled professionals in subsequent years. All this is saying, I was utterly thrilled when someone with a marketing background volunteered for WiSE this year. Sahar Pakzad happily stepped into the role of leading our event marketing. She took on our communications plan, social media management, and generated much of our content for this year’s WiSE.

I am not great at marketing, but something I hate doing even more, is asking people for money. This is slightly problematic as a business owner, and I’m working on this competency gap… But for charity and non-profit-led projects, someone needs to be spearheading the sponsorship and/or donations effort. This is crucial since we have such a low operating budget, the events can’t run without sufficient sponsorship. I was again pleasantly surprised when a new volunteer stepped up and into this role. Emily Freeze volunteered to head up our sponsorship. She did a great job, helping me carry the burden of figuring out how to break even and leaving the door open for WiSE to be continued in the future.

So many details

In addition to marketing and sponsorship, what else does an event like this need?

There’s attendee management. Communications, collecting their information for registration, ticket sales, and handling their queries. We believe that cost should not be a barrier for attendance, so our sponsorship also allows us to provide funded tickets to some folks.

WiSE is a mentoring event, so one of the most important things is making sure we have a cast of cool mentors showing up.

A big part of running events is answering the question: where are you going to be able to book a venue? In a city like Vancouver, venue space books up quickly. It’s also quite expensive. Fortunately, Introba (previously Integral) has been keen to partner with us for a number of years. This year, they once again provided us with their beautiful event space. The representatives on their team have changed over the years, but I’ve always found working with Introba to be a great experience.

Women networking outside
Networking on the patio

No event is complete without refreshments

There is a ton of coordination for the food and beverages we provide our mentors, attendees, and volunteers. Our team consists of many foodies, so good quality food is important. We also care about who we support through catering. For the past two year’s we’ve gone with Tayybeh because we believe in their mission. Tayybeh is a social enterprise, supporting and empowering newcomer Syrian women chefs.

We have been fortunate to have beverage partners, who provide us with discounted beer and wine. This allows us to break even on our beverage costs and still charge reasonable prices for drinks. And of course we make sure there are non-alcoholic options (although I recently learned we should prepare a lot more of these). Marysol Escamilla and Emma Traulsen made sure we were well-prepared with all the food, drinks, and associated supplies.

The day of the event

On the day of the event, still more things need coordination. Nametag printing. Setting up the space. Getting ice. Setting up the cash/register. Setting up event slides. Making sure the attendees and mentors know where they’re going when they arrive and what to do once they get there.

An event of this magnitude, about 100 or more people in the room, you need a microphone/speaker setup. Even if speakers can project their voices well, it won’t carry in a packed room. Typically we rent a speaker and mic for this event

Volunteer setup

About half of our volunteer crew started setting up at 5 PM, in preparation for folks starting to show up at 6:15 and for things to start at 6:30. I should have given myself an extra half hour to run around picking everything up on my way downtown. But I ended up getting there at around 5:30 with a couple more volunteers, the beverages, nametags (that still needed to be put together), the cash box, speaker system, and mentor thank-you gifts.

Many of our mentors showed up precisely on time and one of our seasoned volunteers, Hannah MacDonald, was quick to get them organized in selecting their stations. Introba’s patio was the preferred spot to be! Around 6:30, attendees began to come through, and the volunteers worked tirelessly to get everyone’s printed nametags ready for them.

What would a modern-day event be without Audio-Visual issues? Of course the TV screen in the presentation area was discovered broken the night we wanted to use it. Fortunately, there was another TV, and one of our WiSE supporters took charge of getting it set up. I eventually got the speaker/mic set up properly. And after a quick welcome, each mentor spent about a minute introducing themself.

Making connections and finding inspiration

Speaker and a large crowd of women
Women in Sustainable Energy mentor introductions

The array of experience and range of backgrounds and sectors of our WiSE Women is truly inspiring. We couldn’t help ourselves from giving a little cheer as the mic was passed from one amazing mentor to the next.

Around 7:15, we avoided stampeding. Mentors headed to their stations, and those who had missed getting their drink ticket at the hectic start were redeemed. The night rolled on busily, but smoothly, with lots of networking, catching up, hugs and laughter.

Eventually, numbers dwindled and it was time to clean up. And once again, all of the volunteers were amazing.

Reflection

My heart is always full after Women in Sustainable Energy nights. This year is no different. Massive kudos to all of the organizing team and to our helpers who volunteered on the night! The magic of these events only happens because of them.

Before the event had even started, a friend asked if I was going to organize next year. I think that question would have been more appropriate after the event, but what I told him stands true today after the event too. I will have to see! Getting a business off the ground is no easy feat, and neither is organizing a 100+ person event, regardless of how awesome an organizing team you have. All of the little things add up. I love WiSE. The energy it brings. Bringing people together and showcasing just the tip of the iceberg of what women are capable of in making the world a better, more sustainable place.

I definitely want to see WiSE continue to be a thing. And helping that be a reality is something I’m more than happy to remain a part of. But, I will leave the decision on what to do next year, to next year. We typically start planning for each year’s event in January, and I won’t break with that tradition. Until then, we are always looking for interested volunteers who want to join in and help nourish Women in Sustainable Energy! Please send me a message if you want to learn more and get involved.

A group of volunteers in front of Vancouver buildings
WiSE 2023 volunteer group photo

1 thought on “Women in Sustainable Energy, WiSE 2023”

  1. Pingback: Women in Sustainable Energy Networking Night, June 8, 2023 - BC Sustainable Energy Association

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