A new brand that aims to attract more women to the automotive industry is set to launch during the Canadian International AutoShow (CIAS), with more than 300 attendees anticipated.
The brand Women Driven is being launched by the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) to help reach more women outside of the auto sector by sharing stories, experiences and information about the industry, the women that work in it, and the many jobs and career opportunities that are available.
“Our industry is not on the radar for women, period. Like, zero percent of women think ‘Oh, I’m going to grow up and work in the car industry one day.’ It just doesn’t happen. So how can we start speaking to women that are outside of our industry?” said Susan Gubasta, President of Mississauga Toyota.
Gubasta is also the first female president of the CIAS, a former president of the TADA, and one of the four women that came up with the idea to launch Women Driven. The others include Automotive Marketing Consultant Miranda Pyette; Justina Wilson, Marketing Manager at Mississauga Toyota; and Diana Conte, Conferences and Events Coordinator at TADA.
Gubasta said the dealer, manufacturer and vendor communities all try to do their own women-specific events, but that these events tend to preach to their own people. Women Driven aims to increase that reach to more than the people within those very communities by also targeting women outside of automotive, thereby bringing all these efforts under one umbrella.
Susan Gubasta, President of Mississauga Toyota
“When most people think automotive, they think car dealership, and well there’s two jobs: you sell cars or you fix cars, there’s nothing else. That doesn’t even scratch the surface,” said Gubasta.
“We came up with a name, Women Driven, to speak to, obviously the people, men and women within our industry, and then get them to start to engage with people — and in this particular case women — outside of the industry to say: ‘hey, take a look at us, give us consideration, because here are the opportunities that are available to you,” she said.
The launch event will take place on February 20 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre where the CIAS will be held, and is open to attendees from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. People supporting the event include a combination of industry professionals, and non-automotive professionals and students.
Gubasta said people don’t actually have to buy a ticket to get in, they simply need to register. More importantly, they must bring a female friend that is not part of the auto sector. “Your ticket into the event is that you have to bring a female from outside of the industry to come and experience who we are that night,” said Gubasta.
The event will feature networking, food and drinks, experiential pop-up vendor stations, and a fashion show that will take the form of an interactive showcase of industry professionals who will highlight their paths to success.
“We picked 20 people that come from all varied backgrounds, working in various different positions, whether they have been in the industry for a year or they have been in the industry for 30 years, we’ve tried to cover all aspects of it that brings everybody together, and it just shows that we are just real people like everybody else that work in automotive,” said Gubasta.
Four male models and 16 female models will share their stories with the audience. To learn more about the event, visit: https://tada.ca/womendriven.
