Our next woman in VoIP came to know the industry through a family connection…her husband! Liz and Ari Rabban are a power VoIP couple, deeply involved in the industry since 1997. Liz manages the marketing of Phone.com, handling all the promotion of their virtual office systems as well as VoIP for business and home.
How long have you been in VoIP world?
Officially for about a year, unofficially for the last 10 years…I am married to a VOIP pioneer who works around the clock from anywhere in the world, much of this time at home, so I have absorbed a tremendous amount of information about VOIP by osmosis, and he has brought me into certain projects over the years as a consultant.
What is it like working as a woman in the VoIP world?
It is interesting, because there are really so few in executive or technical positions that I have met to date. I do not believe there is a traditional glass ceiling, but there just aren’t a lot of women in these roles yet, especially in the start-up ventures that presume working 24/7 is the only way to succeed (and they may be right) which can be more challenging for women, especially those with children.
What are some of your networking/marketing methods?
Hmm, should I divulge my secrets? I will say that in my current position we do not have unlimited budgets, so we are innovative in our approach to different target audiences, for example looking to local or regional professional associations for good opportunities to do outreach.
How is it working with men in VoIP?
Tell my husband it is FANTASTIC. Tell the rest of the world that it is actually interesting to see the different perspectives that the men have. They are certainly not monolithic, but as a rule are very methodical and will go through a much longer process than I would to get to a viable product or even to a marketing decision. It can be both amusing and frustrating when I feel a beta or a product is good enough for at least a soft launch but the product guys will not release it.
What do you see for the future of women in VoIP?
I would love to see more female engineers, computer programmers, and designers as well as management. They just bring something inherently different to the table.
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ENOUGH ALREADY!!! We love women in voip, but your going over the edge with this. Can we have something a little more informative please.
Sorry Pat, its a series, and there are a lot of great VoIP pioneers out there, men and women combined. We have many other informative articles if you are interested in exploring them.
Thank you for reading!
@Pat
As the editor here, I am typically thrilled to see participation and reader feedback, however, in this case I think your comments are less than productive to furthering the conversation or improving our content.
1. This is a 20 part series about Women in the VoIP industry. Nicole is passionate about telling the story of other women working in a predominantly male industry. She (and they) have a voice and it will ALWAYS be heard here.
2. We post a variety of content daily. Most days we have 3 or 4 posts from a variety of different writers.
3. No one is forcing you to read the stories. Most people do not read every article in their daily newspaper...If you do not like reading about the great things women are doing in VoIP, do not read the post...move on to the next.
4. Since you do not find women in VoIP interesting, I invite you to write a guest post for us on a topic of your choice within the VoIP or IP communications space.