Niles, IL (November 14, 2023)—Shure recently hosted the third in its ongoing series, “Celebrating Women in Technology,” with a panel of female broadcast sound experts from around the world discussing the challenges, opportunities and future of the industry.
Shure president and CEO Chris Schyvinck moderated the panel, which included video engineer Jillian Arnold; Apollonia van Dun, a professional boom operator in the Netherlands; Los Angeles-based broadcast A2 Robyn Gerry-Rose; Yezmin Blue, manager of broadcast engineering for the Seattle Mariners; and Lina Arja, a sound assistant at NEP in the Netherlands. Panelists shared the positive changes they’ve seen in the industry over time.
“There were very few women that I encountered through the years,” said Blue, who has worked with the Mariners organization for nearly 24 years. “That has changed in the last four to five years. We see women in all roles in the sports industry, which is beautiful. I was fortunate enough to have mentors that were interested in helping.”
They stressed the importance of educating younger women and those from diverse backgrounds to learn more about the wonderful opportunities in this profession.
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“A lot of young women don’t know these positions exist,” Arnold said. “I think when you go the traditional film school route, it’s director, producer, writers, maybe cinematographer, maybe sound mixer, production designer, but the more young women that I speak to, they don’t understand that there’s so many other jobs available. I think it’s really on us to be the leaders in that mentorship for younger women.”
The panel also took live questions from social media about how they got into their careers and what advice they could share with others.
“Be curious and let that curiosity guide you,” Gerry-Rose said. “Often careers—regardless of the industry—are not linear and you never know who you’re going to meet and what’s going to happen. So be open and network and be aware of the people around you.”
The panel replay is available at: https://www.shure.com/en-US/videos/events/webinars/celebrating-women-in-tech-broadcast-sound-shure.
