High on MICE

Priti Khanna Monimita Sarkar Meera Charnalia Mansi Arora Vibha Bhatia Ritu Saigal Sunaina Chatterjee

Even though the 21st century is all about globalisation and gender parity, the soft gender is constantly striving to maintain a work-life balance. And it’s a notch harder when women enter a time consuming industry such as MICE. It was way back in 2011 that Susan Sarfati, CEO, High Performance Strategies and Liz Jackson, President, Jackson Consulting Inc, conducted a survey of 140 women working in the meetings, events and incentive travel industry. The survey showed that many women shared concerns about achieving a sustainable work-life balance and the major challenge standing before them was time management, especially with the ‘always-on’ social media. “But the MICE segment is inviting more women to this industry which was earlier male dominated. Having led the international MICE vertical at Thomas Cook India for over eight years, I can vouch that while they may still not be at par in absolute numbers, there has been a certain parity established between the two genders in this segment,” says Meera Charnalia, Senior Vice President–MICE, Thomas Cook India.

UPS AND DOWNS

But has anything ever deterred the soft gender? Veterans in the arena don’t think so. Priti Khanna, Chairperson, MCI Management India has spent more than two decades