Lady Steps – a new ADC Romania initiative

The Art Directors Club of Romania (ADC*RO) has launched Lady Steps, a series of inspirational seminars where top women from creative industries come to share their success stories. The first edition brought together three of the most influential voices of the Romanian creative industry: Ioana Filip, executive creative director, MRM//McCann Romania, Laura Nedelschi, creative director, Kubis Interactive and Ioana Ciolacu, designer, Ioana Ciolacu.

„In our society the power of example is indestructible. If you can visualize your purpose it’s much easier to aspire to it. You cannot be what you don’t know it can exist. This is how Lady Steps was born”, said Simona Suman, group creative director Jazz Communication, who initiated this project alongside Sandra Bold (head of copy MRM // McCann).

When a junior reaches the creative department, mostly the balance women versus men on the entry level positions is 50/50. This start can be encouraging, but, while it regards the management positions, men have the majority of the leading jobs.

From all of the creative director positions in the world only 11 percent are taken by women. The situation is similar at a national level. A study regarding the managerial positions conducted by the International Labor Organization shows that only 30 percent of the positions are taken by women.

Every Lady Steps seminar has two components. The first part includes the presentation of personal insights in a simple format, in which every guest will share 10 steps of her personal success, 10 lessons that she learned during her career. The second part is a free discussion between the mentor and the guests, following which links and connections are created between the participants.