Save the Date and Nominate – WICT RM Walk of Fame Gala

The Rocky Mountain Chapter of Women in Cable & Telecommunications (WICT) is now accepting nominations to honor the achievements of several of the industry’s most impressive leaders at the organization’s seventh annual Walk of Fame Gala. The evening event will be held at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center on Thursday, May 25, 2006.

This year, the WICT RM Walk of Fame Gala will honor industry leaders in five categories: Woman of the Year; Woman in Technology; Woman of Influence; Mentor of the Year; and Woman to Watch.

WICT RM’s Walk of Fame Gala honors leaders whose contributions to the cable and telecommunications industry underscore the organization’s mission -- develop women leaders who transform our industry. WICT RM is calling for nominations for leaders who exhibit a variety of: sharing their vision, inspiring, influencing and enabling others, taking risks and realizing success; driving technology; and demonstrating leadership through collaboration, recognizing others and acting as a mentor. Call for nomination information will be emailed to all WICT RM members directly, and will also be accessible on the chapter’s website at www.wictrm.org.

The Woman of the Year award recognizes the accomplishments of a woman who has significantly impacted the cable and telecommunications industry. She is a visionary leader who is highly regarded by her employees, clients and peers for her career achievements, strong interpersonal skills and work-life balance. Woman of the Year honorees are inducted into the WICT RM Walk of Fame.

The Mentor of the Year award recognizes an individual who has consistently mentored, supported and inspired others to achieve their best. This honoree is an outstanding leader who has demonstrated a commitment to on-going mentoring, coaching and developing others.

The Woman of Influence is a new award in 2006, and it recognizes a female leader who influences and enables other women to achieve their full potential, by demonstrating strong leadership skills and business savvy. She is someone who through her passion, words, and actions, influences and enables other women to achieve their full potential, and serves as a role model to those around her.

The Woman in Technology award recognizes a woman in a technical position who has contributed significantly to her organization as well as the cable and telecommunications industry. In addition to her technical expertise, she is a valued team member who is committed to supporting and motivating others.

The Woman to Watch award recognizes an outstanding woman who has become accomplished and versed in both her job and in her working knowledge of the cable and/or telecommunications industry and shows future leadership qualities.

In 2005, WICT RM honored Group Vice President of Operations for Time Warner Cable’s National Division Leslie Grayson and Senior Vice President of Customer Care for Comcast’s West Division Cathy Kilstrom as Women of the Year, and they were both inducted into WICT RM Walk of Fame.

2005’s Mentor of the Year was Ron Cooper, President and Chief Operating Officer of Adelphia Communications.

Rebecca Lim, Senior Director of Advanced Services for Starz Entertainment Group, was selected as 2005’s Woman in Technology honoree.

Maria Arias, Vice President of Law and Government Affairs for Adelphia Communications, and Wendy Farley, Senior Director of Government Affairs for Comcast’s Colorado operations, were honored as the 2005 Women to Watch.

Past inductees to the Walk of Fame also include Colleen Abdoulah, Ann Carlsen, Charlotte Field, Lisa Lee, Michelle Sie-Whitten, June Travis, Ruth Warren, and Linda Williams.

Walk of Fame Honor Drives Focus On Women in Technology

Rebecca Lim, Senior Director of Advanced Services at Starz Entertainment Group, received the first Woman in Technology from WICT RM last May for her pioneering work with the User Interface and Customer Experience for Starz Advanced Services. To help extend the honor, and drive additional support for women in technology roles, the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation donated $5,000 to WICT in honor of Rebecca’s passion for technology and commitment to balancing a challenging career with a beloved family.

"This has been an amazing year! I feel very honored by the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation for this truly special gift. I appreciate very much that WICT will have these funds to encourage more women to pursue excellence in technology."

Spotlight on Rebecca Lim
Rebecca started her career in journalism, and quickly became a television executive in Asia starting and running the Hong Kong bureau of Asia Business News, which today is CNBC Asia. She was one of the first Americans to film on the Great Wall in 1982.

Rebecca left Hong Kong for personal reasons – her son Xander was diagnosed with autism and Rebecca decided to relocate to Colorado where she found some of the best special needs services in the country. Rebecca and her family, which also includes her husband Nick and two daughters Marie and Olivia, have lived in Colorado for 11 years.

Besides being an executive, a wife and a mother, Rebecca finds time to give back to her industry and to her community. She works with the CableLabs Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) Programmers Group, and helped author the Enhanced TV UI Specification. She is a contributor to the CTAM On Demand Consortium and the CTAM Broadband Consortium. She has shared insight at SIGGRAPH, the WICT Technology Forum and the American Film Institute. She has mentored dozens of people, including many women in journalism, production and technology.

Rebecca also makes time to give back to the community. She has been a key contributor to the Denver Chapter of Cable Positive for nearly ten years, and her contributions include executive producing the stage production of the annual “Positively Cable Revue." This event has raised nearly $750,000 to support AIDS/HIV programs. She has also lent her talents to the Mile High Down Syndrome Association by assisting in creating the organization’s print materials and corporate video, along with Ellen Mednick and others under Che Che Mata’s group at Starz. She is also a supporter and donor to the Third Millennium Fund at The Cable Center.

“Rebecca is an inspiration to me, and to both men and women in the multi-channel industry,” said Michelle Whitten, Executive Director of the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation. “She empowers people to find more time and more effort when they thought they had no more left to give. It is definitely a gift.”

In addition to being honored with WICT RM’s Woman in Technology award, Rebecca is currently a member of Class XIII of the WICT Betsy Magness Leadership Institute.

Rebecca faced unique challenges as a foreign woman executive in Asia and continues to face unique challenges as an executive woman in the technology sector. Despite those challenges, she has proven herself to be an effective executive with many successes under her belt. She is determined to be a leader and a team player, to influence other women in a positive manner, and to persuade more women to enter the technology sector of our industry.

Rebecca has had to make many decisions during her career. She has put family before career, she has been brave enough to change careers. But through it all there has never been a doubt that she would have a career, a family, and a life in her community. She is an amazing role model for having a focused career, life balance and a very big heart.

About the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation
The Anna and John J. Sie Foundation supports the sharing of knowledge amongst peoples and cultures throughout the global community, with an emphasis on media, business, technology and education. The Foundation is a supporter of the Starz Film Center, the School of Science and Technology, the Denver Art Museum, various Down syndrome related initiatives and numerous other civic, social and educational institutions.

Customer Service Excellence – How Do They Do It?

The Southwest Airlines case study continues to be one of the top stories that gets told and retold by anyone seriously interested in customer service excellence. One of the reasons why its success story is still being used as a “wake-up call” for other businesses is the fact that no one has topped it. Their mission of being “dedicated to providing the highest quality of customer service with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit” is contagious, and we all can learn from their experience. Now that Southwest Airlines serves Denver, we are fortunate to have one of their executive leaders, Vice President of Public Relations and Community Affairs Linda Rutherford, join us to convey how Southwest Airlines bring their mission to life.

Within our own industry, there is also a fabulous story to be told on how WOW! has driven their level of customer service to the top of the JD Power charts. How do they do it? How can we replicate their achievements? Join WOW! Internet, Cable & Phone’s President and CEO Colleen Abdoulah as she kicks off this event by telling us how the company she leads has become the first cable company to rank highest in customer satisfaction in the past four years.
Unless you feel like you have cracked the nut on providing exceptional customer service, this event is one not to miss.

Thursday, March 23, 2006
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
Starz Encore
8900 Liberty Circle, Englewood, CO

Words of Wisdom – Lisa Gersh Hall

Lisa Gersh Hall, President, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of the Oxygen Network helped start the Oxygen Network by her close friend Gerry Laybourne. Lisa and Gerry shared the belief that younger women needed programming of their own, and that advertisers needed to find a way to reach this powerful demographic. After all, women influence the decision-making process to purchase 85 percent of all goods and services.

Lisa was in town late last year to address more 1,000 women at the 8th Annual Women’s Success Forum last winter, here in Denver. Noting that more than 85 percent of small businesses are women-owned, Lisa focused on several key strengths women possess which help them succeed in business.

Passion
“Passion is behind everything worth doing and it’s what is behind Oxygen and its programming.” Lisa said the motto at Oxygen is, “Passion, don’t leave home without it!”

Efficiency
“Women are efficient because they have to be – they don’t have a choice. Women are able to focus on more than one thing at a time and it helps us be efficient in everything we do.”

Intuition
“Women deal with ambiguity well through intuition. “When making a decision, we tend to go by our ‘guts’.”

Relationships
Lisa stated that female relationships actually help women live longer. She believes that women are experts in relationship building.

Work/Life Balance – or Imbalance
“You have to do your best to integrate work and family. But I don’t know that you can truly find a balance.”

Lisa believes that technology both helps and hinders us. She told of an experience she had with her oldest daughter just last week at her soccer game. “My daughter confronted me after the game and asked if I actually saw any of it. She accused me of looking at my Blackberry the whole time. And this past summer, my youngest daughter actually threw my Blackberry in the swimming pool. Both of these experiences were a big wake-up call for me.”

Lisa tries to focus on what she’s doing in the moment. “I can’t be ‘amazing’ to everyone all the time.” She said that while she was in Denver, she wouldn’t be able to be an amazing Mom, but she can help the company by representing it in an amazing way.

Mentoring
Both Lisa and Gerry believe in the power of mentoring. One of the most powerful things we can do to help each other is for women to help other women open doors to new opportunities.