Women Driven event to launch at CIAS
February 5th, 2020
CADA is helping to spread the word about an important event that will be launched by the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) on February 20. Known as “Women Driven”, the event will showcase to women outside the auto industry the many rewarding and profitable opportunities available to them within the sector.
The launch event will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre where the Canadian International AutoShow (CIAS) will be held, and is open to attendees from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.. More than 300 people are expected to arrive and support the event — including a combination of industry professionals, and non-automotive professionals and students.
“The whole purpose is to bring everybody together for February 20 to launch the brand, which will be under TADA, and to start to educate our industry and women outside of our industry, about who we are and what it is that we do — and did you know that there are so any jobs out there,” said Susan Gubasta, President of Mississauga Toyota, the first female president of the CIAS, and a former president of TADA.
In an interview with CADA Newsline, Gubasta said four women joined forces to build the first-ever Canadian automotive event with a female focus. Gubasta is one of the four women, the others being Automotive Marketing Consultant Miranda Pyette; Justina Wilson, Marketing Manager at Mississauga Toyota; and Diana Conte, Conferences and Events Coordinator at TADA.
Gubasta said many different companies in the automotive space, whether it’s the dealer, manufacturer or vendor community, often organize their own women-specific event that seems to spread awareness within their own environment. Women Driven aims to take this concept a step further and expand and grow the community of women within the Canadian automotive industry by bringing all these concepts, projects and ideas under one silo.
“So far with Women Driven, we’ve gone to the industry and we have received nothing but positive support,” said Gubasta. “We have over 20 sponsors already, from dealer groups to manufacturers, to vendors — it has been unbelievable. They all want to be a part of it.”
The event will include experiential pop-up vendor stations, a fashion show that will take the form of an interactive showcase of industry professionals that will highlight their paths to success, networking, and food and drinks.
CADA is one of the sponsors supporting the event. Dealers interested in learning more about Women Driven can visit: https://tada.ca/womendriven.