HITS

WiTH Foundation Update at Women’s SoCal Leadership Summit

Once programming concludes for the annual HITS Fall event Oct. 3 in Los Angeles, the Women’s SoCal Leadership Summit will immediately kick off, with a pair of keynotes and a discussion around the recently launched Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH) Foundation.

WiTH, first founded in 2014, has constantly had its steering committee work to build up community engagement through local charities, and earlier this year, the WiTH Foundation was formed, as a nonprofit corporation. The WiTH board of directors, advisory committee chairs and leaders, all organizing activity and individual outreach, will take part in a series of presentations to share how media and entertainment companies, employees and teams can participate in the foundation.

Nadya Ichinomiya, chair of the WiTH Foundation, Rachel Souder-Arguedas, president of the WiTH Foundation, Christina Aguilera, head of production asset management for Concentric Advisors, Denise Evans, EVP of operations for FilmTrack, Nina Skorus-Neely, VP of WB technology client solutions for Warner Bros. Entertainment Group, Karen Lane, director of business technology and workplace solutions for Warner Bros. Entertainment, Nancy Baca, director of licensing financial systems for The Walt Disney Co., and Cybill Miklaszewski, director of enterprise infrastructure and strategy for The Walt Disney Co. will be on hand.

The panel will be bookended by two keynote presentations, first with Susan O’Day, EVP of enterprise technology and CIO of The Walt Disney Co., offering her thoughts on the Women’s SoCal Leadership Summit’s theme: “Resilience and Risk-Taking – Keys to Success.” She’ll share ideas on how to inspire more women to take actions that will ultimately advance themselves as individuals, as well as the organization as a whole, with first-hand experiences about how resilience and risk-taking affected O’Day’s path to success.

To close the Women’s SoCal Leadership Summit, Joze Piranian, a TEDx speaker and comedian, will offer his ideas on how to confront adversity, by taking full ownership of what makes each person unique, and by repeatedly exposing ourselves to discomfort and leveraging fear as an impetus to action. His presentation — “Overcoming Adversity Through the Lens of Diversity & Inclusion” — aims to give audience members the ability to gain resilience, courage and perseverance, increasing their potential at work and beyond.

Both HITS Fall and the Women’s SoCal Leadership Summit will close the day with a combined reception, beginning at 6 p.m.