Diversity key to Toni’s mission
Setting up an organisation in the hope that it won’t be needed in the future is a unique situation, but it’s exactly what this year’s Most Influential Person award winner, Toni McAllister, has done in order to promote diversity in the AV industry.
One of the biggest challenges facing the AV industry is that of staff shortages but, as the winner of this year’s Most Influential Person Award, Women in AV Australia’s founder Toni McAllister, says, it’s not a new issue.
Toni spoke to Connected magazine ahead of this edition and was delighted to be receiving the award: “Thank you to everyone who voted, I really appreciate it and I think it goes some way to saying that what I’m doing with the Women in AV Australia group is appreciated and recognised.”
By her own admission, Toni’s route into the AV industry was far from planned out.
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“I think a lot of people fall into AV from different avenues. For me, my background was initially in film and television, where I cultivated a love of seeing a vision come to life.”
Toni majored in film and television as part of, unusually, a Bachelor of Business and subsequently worked as a freelance camera operator before travelling overseas for a few years.
“During that period, technology changed a lot and when I came back to Australia, not only had my networks and connections moved around, but the technology had changed so much as well. So, I needed to look for a way to shift, perhaps sideways, into a career that would also be potentially more secure and consistent.”
Over the years, Toni has worked across various sectors including starting out in education as an AV coordinator, before moving primarily into live events where the innovation and evolution of technology has been stark.
“I started out setting up slide projectors and now we’ve moved onto LED screens and laser projectors. But, for me, I’m less concerned by what each black box is and more interested in what they can achieve. It’s really about what the client wants to achieve with an event and then putting the technology together in order to achieve that.”
Jobs without applicants
Two of the biggest talking points about the AV industry also happen to be on Toni’s radar as they are somewhat interconnected.
In recent times, the issue of staff shortages has been everywhere, and it’s affected every industry – from the airlines queues to the barista serving your morning coffee. But, as Toni pointed out, this isn’t really a new issue in the AV industry.
“It’s definitely the big issue that we face, going forward. And if we’re not addressing that from school-leaving age up, I think we’ve lost the battle from the outset. There needs to be more awareness of AV as a career opportunity. And that means, targeting schools and career expos to raise awareness of courses that exist, how you get into them but also what career opportunities are available within the industry.”
Toni continues to be impressed with organisations offering graduate programs and traineeships for those interested in getting their foot in the door, remarking that it helps to connect the theory to the practical.
But the rate of entry into the industry doesn’t tally with the demand for staff, at least not yet.
Toni does feel that there are opportunities, going forward, for the industry and how it addresses the skills shortage, pointing out that AV is having something of a moment off the back of the last few years of pandemic restrictions.
From her own experience, events that would otherwise have been cancelled managed to still go ahead, largely due to the AV industry’s ability to pivot to an online offering.
“I think that now is the opportunity to really harness and promote that versatility, getting the message out there about the possibilities within AV, and that convergence between live and digital, in order to attract a wider range of people to join the industry.”
Striving for diversity
It was that very discussion around skill shortages that prompted Toni on a different journey, one that would not only work to bring more people into the industry, but would also push to promote diversity within it.
“I had spent many years speaking within the industry about skill shortages and the different things we could do to try to attract more people. But looking around, it was always the case that there was only one or two women in the room.”
Toni felt that there was not only an opportunity in that anomaly to address the skills shortage but also to highlight the need to have women in the room and have their voices heard. And although there were plenty who agreed, there was little action.
“I looked around and I thought, you know what, if you want someone to make change happen, sometimes that someone has to be you. And that’s where Women in AV Australia began.”
Toni approached a number of AV companies and departments within her network, arranging several discussions where there was consultation over what the group wanted to achieve and how it would operate. Surveys were sent to a number of different companies and employees to try get a picture of what issues were arising.
The feedback, perhaps a little unexpectedly, was largely positive.
“The AV industry, on the whole, is a very open and welcoming industry to work in. There’s always going to be those rare cases where there are issues but generally, people find the industry a positive one to work in.”
Toni feels that it isn’t the case that companies aren’t employing women, it’s that there aren’t many women applying. In live events, she says there is interest in event management without much consideration instead of a career in the production side of that world.
“I think there are maybe some assumptions that you need to have a lot of technical knowledge to start with but, as we all know, in the AV industry so much of what we do is taught on the job.”
Research and consultation completed, and with a better understanding of the issues and challenges, Toni set about launching the Women in AV Australia group.
“It got to the point where I was like: ‘Ok, enough talk. Let’s put this out there and see what comes of it, see how people want to get involved and see how it evolves’.”
Unfortunately, like so many things, the pandemic put a stop to the relatively short gallop that Women in AV Australia had started out on, curtailing the opportunities for more in-person engagement and involvement.
Instead, the focus has turned towards promotion of women working in AV – interviewing and profiling them and their career journey online, and encouraging people (once safe to do so) to host their own events under the Women in AV Australia banner, to make the forum a truly collaborative and collective entity, working for the betterment of the industry.
Unlike other organisations that strive for longevity and ever-presence, Toni hopes one day that there is no longer any need for Women in AV Australia.
“It would be great not to need a body that represents women, but we do because we have a serious shortage of female representation in the industry.
“Our motto is ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ so the goal is to raise awareness of women working in AV in order to encourage more women to join the industry. And, importantly, to ensure that the industry is an inclusive environment for when they do get there. We want to bring women together, to inspire them, to connect them and empower them.”
Women in AV Australia can be found at www.womeninavaustralia.com.au
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