Welcome to The Spotlight! We are so excited to shine a little light on the partners who have made the 2022 Equality Summit possible through their generous support. Equal Playing Field is a collective of change-makers from around the world, and it takes everyone from individual volunteers to corporate donors to fight for opportunity, equality, and respect within the world of sport.
Next Up: Minute Media
We Power Passion
What does the phrase “equal playing field” mean to you and your organization?
Over the years we have been covering women’s sports on our different platforms by allowing female athletes to help raise their profile through our platforms and tell their stories in their own words. For the 2022 Womens EURO’s we focus on the excitement of this tournament: we make sure we cover the game, not the gender. As a company, this also provides the perfect backdrop for us to challenge ourselves and our peers in the sports business and to push the boundaries on women’s participation in sports off the field, as well as on the field. We are expanding the conversion, and aren’t afraid to have uncomfortable conversations if that is what is needed in order to invite more women into the sports industry that we love.
What do you wish to bring to the summit and the attendees, and what are you most looking forward to experiencing yourselves?
DE&I is a core business goal for us and we recently were accredited as a top 3 company for women's representation in Israel's busy tech industry with 50% of our R&D teams now consisting of female employees.
Our goal is to reach a similar result in our sports content business - and we are at this summit to share that we are looking for more women to join our teams and bring their own stories with them, but more importantly we are inviting other companies to join us in taking responsibility for breaking the barriers that prevent women from rising to the top in their careers, their communities and specifically in the sports industry.
What and/or who inspires you most to do the work that you do?
Minute Media’s brands have worked with over 3,000 athletes who have used our platforms to connect directly with fans around the world in their own words. We have helped to show the vulnerable side of athletes through written and video content around mental health and other important social topics such as race, gender equality and more. These athletes have also shared their authentic and differentiated points of view on the sports they love. One example of this is 90min’s football-focused podcast, hosted by Yael Averbuch, former American professional footballer and current GM of Gotham FC, called Football Americana.
Each athlete that has chosen to tell their story and use their voice to contribute to the social movements that they feel strongly about, is an inspiration and drives our passion for the work that we do everyday.
If you could impart a message of hope to a young woman athlete or entrepreneur who is just starting out, what would that be?
One particular campaign of note is our award winning You can be anything campaign we built with Barbie meant to encourage more women and girls into the world of sport. In this campaign we let incredible female athletes such as Sky Brown (professional skateboarder), Madison de Rozario (Paralympic athlete) and Aly Raisman (Olympic gymnast) send their own message of hope - which is stronger than anything we can send out to all those young women athletes out there!
About Minute Media:
Minute Media is a leading technology and digital content company. Our proprietary video and multimedia publishing platform, Voltax, powers the creation, distribution, consumption and monetization of third party publishers and advertisers as well as our own sports and culture content brands, including The Players' Tribune, FanSided, 90min, DBLTAP, Mental Floss and The Big Lead. As of September 2021, the company is ranked as a top three property within U.S. sports video unique viewership and U.S. sports reach according to Comscore. For more information, visit www.MinuteMedia.com.
About 90min:
90min, the world’s largest football community, represents the most authentic voices in football and transforms discussion and dialogue into best-in-class content and experiences for passionate fans. 90min makes the beautiful game accessible to all on a global and local level across 11 different languages. For more information, visit www.90min.com