Andi Mastrosavas, Chief Executive at Pladia, is leading the charge to make tech more accessible for arts organisations and create more inclusive spaces.
As a queer leader, Andi is passionate about increasing visibility for women and queer people in the C-suite, while also revolutionising how we experience art and culture through technology. In this interview, Andi shares their personal journey, the challenges arts organisations face with tech, and how Pladia is set to change the future of visitor experiences.
Andi, as a queer CEO, you’re breaking boundaries in the tech and arts industries. How has your personal journey shaped your leadership approach, and why do you believe gender representation in the C-suite is so important?
It’s no secret that the further away you are from the cis-gendered, heterosexual, white, male demographic, the more likely you are to face additional challenges in your career. And mine has been no exception.
Author and journalist Mary Ann Sieghart articulates it best when she talks about the authority gap, “Men are assumed to be competent until proven otherwise, whereas a woman is assumed to be incompetent until she proves otherwise”. Unlike my counterparts who are afforded trust, credibility, and respect by default, I have to perform additional labour to develop that trust, build credibility, and earn respect as I am not inherently granted those things because of my identity, regardless of my experience, education, or seniority. It can be exhausting, but it has shaped me into a leader that is uniquely positioned to build and support diverse teams. The upside to the downside.
Countless research has confirmed what is already intuitive, diversity of thinking, background, and experience is good for business. Without adequate minority representation in the C-suite, crucial perspectives are lost and businesses can fail to enable diverse teams to feel included and be heard. Hiring for diversity is often easier than creating the supportive environment needed for diverse team members to thrive, particularly when faced with the authority gap. Lived experience builds empathy for that reality allowing the C-suite to create better conditions for success.
Pladia is such an innovative platform, designed to enhance visitor experiences in cultural spaces. What inspired Pladia, and how do you hope it will change the way people engage with art, culture, and tourism?
Pladia is the culmination of over a decade of expertise and learnings from crafting visitor experiences and place-based media. Incubated inside of Art Processors who have been innovators in experience design and creative technology since 2011, with the invention of The O, the world’s first location-aware museum guide at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Tasmania. Co- founders Nic Whyte and Tony Holzner were inspired to build Pladia, realising other cultural institutions and tourist attractions could benefit from a similar solution. My role in that journey has been to understand market needs to shape existing technology into productised offerings that could serve specific market segments, while transforming the organisation into a commercial product business.
The pandemic accelerated the shift from physical offline experiences towards digital-first interactions. For organisations with on-site experiences in physical environments such as cultural institutions and other tourist attractions, integrating the physical and digital is becoming essential as visitor needs and expectations evolve. While visitation rates to physical environments have largely recovered, the desire and need to rely on digital has remained, creating new expectations for integrated experiences.
Pladia is able to complement a physical experience, offering content personalisation, and enhancing visitor convenience and autonomy. It offers accessibility and inclusivity when visitors can’t be adequately supported with physical signage and printed materials. By combining physical wayfinding with digital navigation ensures that visitors can switch between modes of discovery throughout a site. In one mode, wandering and discovering naturally, and in another, being guided to a specific point of interest. Providing a complementary digital experience that delivers additional and accessible content allows visitors to navigate and connect with what interests them most in a physical environment.
Your work is rooted in making technology more accessible for arts organisations. What are some of the unique challenges that these institutions face when adopting new tech, and how does Pladia aim to bridge that gap?
Funding in the cultural sector is constrained and government support has softened coming out of the pandemic. This often means that organisations lack the internal resources and infrastructure needed for technology adoption and diffusion. The maintenance of legacy tech can be quite cumbersome.
Pladia approaches these unique challenges in a few ways. Instead of institutions investing in expensive, bespoke applications that are difficult to maintain, Pladia offers a product solution that is far more affordable, with continued investment in product development. This ensures that organisations are future-proofing their solutions without the maintenance concerns.
Pladia prioritises a seamless customer experience. From the very first touchpoint, all the way through to onboarding and implementation. We tackle the ongoing training of new team members and the platform itself strives to always exceed industry standards of usability making it intuitive for anyone using it.
You’re passionate about the arts, both professionally and personally. Are there any exhibitions or cultural spaces around the world that have particularly inspired you and that you’d recommend to others?
Visiting the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City had a profound effect on how I viewed her work afterwards. Standing in her bedroom, where she spent many months bedridden from the bus accident, looking out the very window to the garden that inspired so much of her work was incredibly moving.
In keeping with the theme, the other work that has stayed with me is the Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The scale, artistry, and detail are all very impressive but when contextualised within a city that experienced significant industrial decline many decades after imbues a very different meaning in the work and unintentionally connects Detroit’s past to its present.
Balancing your role as a CEO in a tech-driven company with your love for the arts must be exciting but also demanding. How do you find time to stay creatively inspired, and do you have any daily habits that help you recharge?
Every morning my wife and I walk the foreshore of Iron Cove Bay in Sydney’s inner-west. It feels more like a fishing village than just outside of a major city. Being close to the water, surrounded by songbirds, fresh air and my wife and I mulling over life’s absurdities is like a massage for my mind before the work day starts.
Pladia has been designed to help visitors navigate complex spaces and experiences with ease. In your opinion, what role does technology play in shaping the future of arts and tourism, especially in creating more immersive and inclusive experiences?
I mentioned two museums above that a lot of people may never get the opportunity to experience due to travel distance. With major tech advancements bringing us closer to the immersive realities we’ve long anticipated, I imagine a future where someone is able to be transported to experiences all around the world through technology. Able to stand in Frida Kahlo’s bedroom, looking out the window to the garden, or in front of a Diego Rivera mural without leaving their home. The democratising nature of that possibility is exciting. To be virtually transported to a location previously prohibitive due to cost or mobility challenges, while also delivering associated content in your preferred language, is not unthinkable in the near future.
For young professionals, particularly women and queer individuals, seeing representation in leadership roles is so powerful. What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to break into the tech or arts sectors and rise to leadership positions like yours?
You have to manage your career yourself. No one is going to do it for you and it will likely be harder to obtain the mentorship and internal sponsorship you need to progress. Journalist Kara Swisher has said ‘Tech has thought itself a meritocracy, but it has too often actually been a mirrortocracy instead.’ The bias is real, whereby people who look and behave like other leaders are more likely to get promoted or be given the best projects and opportunities to be visible.
Therefore, look for diversity on leadership teams. Specifically, see if a minority is in a revenue-generating role because it will make your ability to be taken seriously and respected that much easier, as they have already broken down barriers for you.
It’s okay if your career path isn’t as linear as your non-marginalised peers. Jane Campion, brilliant New Zealand film director, and the first female director to receive a Palme d’Or once said (and I’m paraphrasing) that women in the film industry are often pushed to the margins, relegated to background roles, but that there is power in the background, as it is a much larger space to play in with greater creative freedom.
So leverage the background, don’t be afraid to take up the extra space it affords while you hone your craft and develop your leadership capabilities. Choose roles and companies carefully, where you can learn to create meaningful value. It will make you that much more successful when you muscle your way to the foreground.
