April 17, 2024 -

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, Christina. Firstly, a very warm welcome to the team. Can you tell us what brought you to Datapath?

I’ve spent the last few years working as freelance marketing consultant, working for multiple companies at a time. It was a very fast paced and varied role, giving me experience in lots of industries. However after some time I was keen to work within a larger marketing team, channelling my focus onto one company and developing a wider communications plan.

After interviewing for the role I was pleased to find a good culture and a high performing marketing team where I could add value but also grow in my new role.

What are your first impressions of the AV industry so far?

One of the companies I worked for as a marketing consultant is an AV system integrator so I’m not new to the AV industry although control room solutions is a new area for me.

It is a very varied industry – one look at the huge ISE floor plan shows that!

Whether it be AV tools for in the home, workplace, events or control rooms there are so many places these solutions are needed and the industry is projected to continuing growing so it is a very good sector to be working in now.

Datapath prides itself on its diversity and offering equal opportunities to all. What do you think the AV industry can do to encourage more women into the industry?

Multiple studies have shown that there is underrepresentation of women in the industry. Most show that women only represent between 10-15% of the workforce and many of those roles are non-technical.

I think that is part of a wider issue within the technology and engineering sectors where girls don’t feel eligible for these types of roles and stereotyping is set in from a young age. Also generally many school children don’t know what roles are available for them if they continue studies in science and maths related subjects.

I think encouragement needs to start there and through into university. There is a huge pool of talent that isn’t being tapped into by the industry so I would say it is an important agenda to work on.

What does a typical day in your role for look like?

After an quick catch up with the team (and a cuppa), Im focusing my time on streamlining processes for the team and putting schedules in place to ensure regular high quality content.

So this working on getting the right systems in place and fully utilising tools available such as automation and personalised comms.

In addition to this I work with our PR agency on case studies, award entries and getting Datapath in the right articles in front of the right people.

I also work with the creative agencies and the wider team to deliver creative content across several mediums – social, email, website and advertising.

With advances in AI technology, how do you see marketing communications developing over the next few years?

I think as a tool AI can help create content, but it can’t produce the content without good input. I do think it will help teams produce more content overall but it needs a knowledgeable person creating a good brief to input into the system and then refining what content is produced. As it stands currently, it is quite obvious when Chat GPT has created content rather than a human. Human content is far more natural and nuanced, and AI just isn’t there…yet.

How do you spend your time outside of Datapath HQ?

Lots of walking! I have a 5 year old Dalmatian called Freddie who loves his walkies and needs lots of them. Sometimes we have my 4 year old little boy, Rio, join us but he’d much rather stay at home and play football with his Daddy.

I do like travelling and have been lucky enough to visit many countries and discover different cultures. As a big foodie I do like trying local cuisine – although I will say eating Durian in Hong Kong was a step too far (very much the marmite of the fruit world!)

Next on our holiday hit list is the Dominican Republic in the Summer and I can’t wait.

Tell us something people may not know about you…

I’m a big Formula One fan, and when I was 15 I did work experience at Alpine’s marketing department (back when the team was called Benetton).