“Moms of Reinvention” and “Standing Out in The Crowd”
Last night I attended two great events. I’ll write about one and give you the website where you can view the entire webcast of the second one.
The first event began at 6pm. To my dismay, I didn’t even get on the subway until 6pm (arghhh!). I really love being a mom, but one of the things about motherhood that challenges me the most is time…my schedule is not my own anymore. I have to wait for my husband or babysitter to get to my house before I can leave for any other commitments. (I don’t have to, but I would probably lose custody of my son if I left him at home by himself at the age of 2.) By nature, I’m a “15 minutes early is on time” type of person, so this time crunch can drive me crazy at times. Anyway, I knew the event wasn’t really going to begin until 6:30….the first ½ hour was for networking/refreshments, but I still wanted to be there by 6pm. Anyway, I’ll move on.
I made it to the first event, the “Moms of Reinvention” session at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, at around 6:20pm. I briefly spoke with the two founders of Role Mommy, (http://www.rolemommy.com), Beth and Yvette, before the program started. I was also very happy to catch up with a fellow “Mom in the City” member who I hadn’t seen in a while. The last time that I had seen her she was (very) pregnant and considering how she was going to balance everything post-baby. In the interim, she had quit her fundraising job and enjoyed bonding with her (now 6 months old) baby girl. She was currently in the process of figuring out her next step career-wise, so this panel was perfect for her.
The panel portion of the program began around 6:30pm (I was right…stressed for nothing!). After a brief intro from Yvette and Beth (who have a new book, Peeing In Peace: Tales & Tips for Type A Moms coming out in early 2007), Cindy Hsu and the rest of the panel took the stage. The panel consisted of a group of women who had reinvented their careers to strike a balance in their lives. You can read more about the panelists at http://rolemommyevents.blogspot.com. One of the first questions that were asked of Jennie Baird from AOL Coaches was, “What are women looking for?” The number one answer….TIME…time for selves, time to give back to their family and community, time to juggle all of their responsibilities. Some insights regarding time were: set priorities; learn to say no; do things for the right reasons; set limits; etc. One of the audience members, a former attorney, shared how she had started her own business (http://whereismybaby.com) in order to do business on her own terms. An overriding sentiment was that the corporate world doesn’t always conform to our lives as moms so we need to either (a) attempt to change our corporate cultures and/or (b) branch off and create our own businesses. Ultimately, it came down to choices (doesn’t it always?). We need to think about our priorities and structure our lives, including our careers, accordingly.
On the subject of choices…I chose to leave this event a little early in order to get to another event on time. As such, I didn’t hear the very end of the discussion, but I’m sure that it was great. Overall, I thought that the program was very helpful. I didn’t necessarily learn anything new, but it’s always good to be around other women who are fighting to live their dreams…it creates a sisterhood.
Next, I met up with a friend and we went to an American Express OPEN forum, “Standing Out in The Crowd”. This event was also great. It focused on three topics: 1. Finding Your Brand; 2. Creating Customer Demand; and 3. Keeping Your Business Moving Forward. I’m not going to write about this event though, because you can soon see the entire thing on webcast at http://www.openforumonline.com/event.html and form your own opinions. Enjoy!
The first event began at 6pm. To my dismay, I didn’t even get on the subway until 6pm (arghhh!). I really love being a mom, but one of the things about motherhood that challenges me the most is time…my schedule is not my own anymore. I have to wait for my husband or babysitter to get to my house before I can leave for any other commitments. (I don’t have to, but I would probably lose custody of my son if I left him at home by himself at the age of 2.) By nature, I’m a “15 minutes early is on time” type of person, so this time crunch can drive me crazy at times. Anyway, I knew the event wasn’t really going to begin until 6:30….the first ½ hour was for networking/refreshments, but I still wanted to be there by 6pm. Anyway, I’ll move on.
I made it to the first event, the “Moms of Reinvention” session at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, at around 6:20pm. I briefly spoke with the two founders of Role Mommy, (http://www.rolemommy.com), Beth and Yvette, before the program started. I was also very happy to catch up with a fellow “Mom in the City” member who I hadn’t seen in a while. The last time that I had seen her she was (very) pregnant and considering how she was going to balance everything post-baby. In the interim, she had quit her fundraising job and enjoyed bonding with her (now 6 months old) baby girl. She was currently in the process of figuring out her next step career-wise, so this panel was perfect for her.
The panel portion of the program began around 6:30pm (I was right…stressed for nothing!). After a brief intro from Yvette and Beth (who have a new book, Peeing In Peace: Tales & Tips for Type A Moms coming out in early 2007), Cindy Hsu and the rest of the panel took the stage. The panel consisted of a group of women who had reinvented their careers to strike a balance in their lives. You can read more about the panelists at http://rolemommyevents.blogspot.com. One of the first questions that were asked of Jennie Baird from AOL Coaches was, “What are women looking for?” The number one answer….TIME…time for selves, time to give back to their family and community, time to juggle all of their responsibilities. Some insights regarding time were: set priorities; learn to say no; do things for the right reasons; set limits; etc. One of the audience members, a former attorney, shared how she had started her own business (http://whereismybaby.com) in order to do business on her own terms. An overriding sentiment was that the corporate world doesn’t always conform to our lives as moms so we need to either (a) attempt to change our corporate cultures and/or (b) branch off and create our own businesses. Ultimately, it came down to choices (doesn’t it always?). We need to think about our priorities and structure our lives, including our careers, accordingly.
On the subject of choices…I chose to leave this event a little early in order to get to another event on time. As such, I didn’t hear the very end of the discussion, but I’m sure that it was great. Overall, I thought that the program was very helpful. I didn’t necessarily learn anything new, but it’s always good to be around other women who are fighting to live their dreams…it creates a sisterhood.
Next, I met up with a friend and we went to an American Express OPEN forum, “Standing Out in The Crowd”. This event was also great. It focused on three topics: 1. Finding Your Brand; 2. Creating Customer Demand; and 3. Keeping Your Business Moving Forward. I’m not going to write about this event though, because you can soon see the entire thing on webcast at http://www.openforumonline.com/event.html and form your own opinions. Enjoy!
