The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) and IntraFish Media announced Tuesday that ASMI will serve as gold sponsor of next month's Women in Seafood Summit in Seattle.
The summit will convene the industry's female leaders from around the world to discuss the opportunities to attract more women to the sector and the challenges currently faced by women in leadership positions.
"ASMI chose to sponsor the Women in Seafood event in order to acknowledge the hard working women in Alaska fisheries: the harvesters, the scientists who have made our fisheries the gold standard for sustainability, and the inspiring women in sales and marketing, many of whom serve on our committees," said Hannah Lindoff, international program director at ASMI.
"We celebrate their contributions to our industry and look forward to listening to the other attendees.
"Building a support network and understanding the challenges women in seafood face will allow us to better connect with this important, growing demographic as we design future programs," she said.
IntraFish Publisher Paal Korneliussen said the initiative is one IntraFish is proud to support and promote together with ASMI and others in the seafood sector.
"The seafood industry needs new talent. The fact is, we're missing out on a key demographic," Korneliussen said. "With IntraFish's reach and support from companies such as Trident, we're hoping to help expand the industry's pool of potential leaders."
IntraFish first launched the Women in Seafood initiative with a series of interviews with key female leaders in 2015 to a loud response to raise the issue even higher on the industry's agenda.
"We heard loud and clear that while women in the industry love the work, its people and the challenges, they also face numerous hurdles on their way to the top," said IntraFish Editor Elisabeth Fischer, who initiated the series. "And those same hurdles are keeping new women from entering the sector.
“This issue needs to be addressed and with the launch of the Women in Seafood Summit in Seattle IntraFish hopes to keep doing its part,” Fischer said.
Earlier this year, IntraFish conducted a survey together with the UK Seafish Industry Authority that found the industry needs to address serious challenges to attract and retain female talent.
In addition to ASMI's support, Lindoff and ASMI Executive Director Alexa Tonkovich will join the lineup of speakers at the event.
A full schedule of the evening will be released soon. Executives are encouraged to request a seat at the event by visiting www.intrafishevents.com/womeninseafood.
The event is held during the week of the SeaWeb Seafood Summit, the world's leading sustainable seafood conference.
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