A musician, a public relations and ethics specialist, a Doctor, an Engineer, and the VP administration walk into a room. While this sounds like the start of a really crappy joke, it actually was the start to a really inspiring and interesting day spent talking about Success and leadership in the Community.
With all honesty, I was a little less than enthused when my boss asked me to attend this conference. I felt a little out of my comfort zone heading downtown Hamilton to attend the event. When I first sat down for the opening panel, I started thinking that the day was going to feel like I was in a live audience taping of The View, but my assumptions were far from correct.
The group of women gathered to speak as a part of the keynote panel were quite inspirational. I was pretty much blown away by their stories and how hard they have worked to get where they are in their professional lives.
Throughout the day there were various workshops to attend with different themes related to women’s leadership to explore.
The last part of the day included writing a pledge – a pledge to take what you express what you learned, and share how you will carry this forward. It was empowering.
My pledge was to be resilient in my goals and continue to push all people into realizing their individual potential.
In reflecting about the Leadership Summit for Women, I feel proud. The summit offered something all people could connect with, regardless of gender and it was really, really, well done. The Women’s leadership summit changed my perception of feminism.
In the end, stepping outside of my comfort zone and attending an event that I wouldn’t normally be first in line for tickets, encouraged me to be more open minded about what is going on in the city around me. You learn something new every time you courageously step outside of that comfort zone, just give it a chance once and a while.