In February, 2010, Jodi and I presented three workshops in Venice, Italy for an organization named Generali. We were speakers during their "Leonardo Alumni Event," where over 100 people were invited to learn about professional development through deepening networks and relationships. This is an area of focus in both my advising and mentoring, and Jodi's newer company, No More Nylons.
During that conference, we met Kristin Engvig, founder of W.I.N., and heard her speak about her vision for W.I.N.: to ‘bring a more feminine, global and sustainable vision to work, communities and life’. The moment we found out about the
W.I.N. global leadership conference 2010
we bought tickets, and planned to attend.
THEN, the most incredible thing happened: Jodi decided she wanted to present a workshop based on her experience as an entrepreneur and community leader. Over the past 20 months, her Women's Business Social events have grown and grown; last month she had over 200 people attending her "get together and chat" event, here in Ojai, CA.
As a delegate and participating "male," I was one of a handful of men attending the conference. As such, I walked around with an interest and focus on seeing two very distinct things:
The Problems
The Solutions
As with any conference leveraging such interest as gender equality, leadership traits and future-thinking, I was astounded by the focus I felt coming from different people throughout the conference. For example, one speaker was Senator the Honourable Marlene Malahoo Forte from Jamaica. She spoke on the future of an island economy, and how the leadership there is focusing on education and rural, local, economic development to move into the 21st century.
One of the stories she told was that of the "purpose" of an airport: You arrive. You leave. In my notes from her presentation, I have a meandering line moving up the page with breaks in the line and arrows at each break; 5 arrows total. Looking back, I realize that all that goes into our "US" is the experiences we have arriving, leaving, arriving, leaving...
A comment she made that I wrote down in BIG letters in my Moleskine journal is: "If you need skills and you know what they are: Go get them!" I can remember still the smile on her face as she gave an audience of 700 people this advice. It was a good thing that she spoke on day one of the conference; I spent the next 3 days identifying skills to improve/enhance/learn.
Walking away from W.I.N. 2010, I'm as interested as ever in the "Leadership Quotient. (Quotient: a degree or amount of a specified quality or characteristic)
Realizing the need to share stories of hope, generosity, and achievement, I'm as committed as ever to my motto: "Just Show Up." I hope you are too.
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