Reflections from the 2020 First Virtual - 16th Massachusetts Conference for Women

Images above taken from Massachusetts Conference Advertisement Material

A Virtual Experience

The 2020 Annual Massachusetts Conference for Women took place this year on December 10th, virtually. Thank you #MassWomen for recognizing that this year has tested our resilience, values, and dreams like never before! The 2020 theme was: “Powered by Purpose: Achieving Equity for All”. I joined the many women from around the globe and took advantage of the more flexible virtual attendance, my eight- month puppy Tiberius (see photo above) also decided to listen in, although he did pick his moment (terribly!). As I was getting ready to enjoy the opening morning Keynote session (after having driven the children to school.. it re-opened this week, yay!).... he ran through his doggy door and started throwing up just as I was getting ready to meditate with Mallika Chopra! This is the absolute truth, as he was gagging (and this is the first time I have experienced this with a new puppy) Mallika was sharing a quick mediation exercise, along the lines of “I am”.... Throughout all the micro chaos I managed to block out everything else just for few a few seconds...that’s how good Mallika was! Thank you Mallika and yes, I’m trying to send loving-kindness to everyone, hopefully, this article is one way of achieving that. This conference allowed me to compare a pre- and post- COVID conference experience as I have attended a few live sister conferences at the Pennsylvania Conference Center in Philadelphia. The Massachusetts Conference for Women team seamlessly delivered on their goals and commitment virtually, as they still managed to allow their audience to hear remarkable speakers and heartfelt conversations through shared experiences and learnings. It was so inspiring to hear from women who have committed their lives to lift the status of women in every sphere of influence. Thank you #MassWomen and your Spotify MassWomen playlist rocks!

Reflections

2020 and the COVID pandemic changed all our plans. On a positive note, we had a record number of women voting, and young women voting, but on the negative side a record number of women are dropping out of the workforce. My seasonal gift to all my connections and beyond are my take-home messages from this year’s conference. For me, they were inspiring and powerful from an open and vulnerable exchange. Spanning from the Exhibit Halls where I met and networked with Career Coaches at the Career Pavilion Booths, (Thanks Kim!), Talent acquisition coaches (Thanks Susan & Jennifer!), & ISPE Women in Pharma Booth (Thanks Debra!), to Breakout sessions where I listened to speakers such as Laura Laura Huang “Turning adversity into advantage”, who transcended my thoughts to thinking about my first Uber ride, to truly understand the emotion of Delight (represented by

D in the acronym EDGE from her book). What a brilliant analogy! My first Uber experience was in the summer of 2019 when I found myself visiting my friend Poonam, one of our frontline workers combatting the Coronavirus (Thank you Dr. Gutt!) .

I went to Memphis, and only when I arrived did I realize that Graceland was only 20 mins away, reason enough to grab an Uber to pay Elvis a visit. My first thought was “I’m in an Uber, and I don’t need to hand over cash, I don’t know the driver and have no idea of where I’m going, and I have my two children Calvin & Darcy with me (See photo RHS)..... but it was soooo exciting!!!” Yes, absolutely Laura, I thought my first Uber ride was cool but at the same time I was terrified, shocked for a few seconds, and was thinking “what’s happening?”. So this is what it should feel like to truly “Crack doors open and DELIGHT your audience” so they want to know more, allowing you to show how you will enrich and provide value.

I loved the Key Note Sessions, where I listened to and laughed along with the likes of Alicia Keys (elegantly dressed in a white coat and white roll neck and positioned in front of a white upright piano), she truly recognized that this year had tested our resilience and values of the future and made us think about how to be our authentic self and “are we bold enough to tell this truth?”. Akwafina and her conversation with Lisa Lang, making us think about .. how do we move towards “ I want to put out a kind of energy” as opposed to “I want everyone to love me”. Their conversation was so inspiring, so powerful, and included “How do we move beyond a certain label and not be type casted?”. Doris Kearns Goodwin, what a legend! Sharing in a storytelling format “How can we learn from presidents in time of crisis? (who would have thought presidential history could be so much fun, Doris was subtlety hysterical!). Moving from Lincoln, who brought a team of diverse people who feel free to argue and share perspective & his “Hot Letters”, those that he put to one side and read later... and never sent, to LBJ’s quote : “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in”, and FDR’s cocktail hour where nobody could talk about the war, and his awkward encounter with Winston Churchill when he found him naked from his bath .. Churchill’s response “I have nothing to hide”. Some other motivational pointers included:

Lean into Sharp Edges - It’s the grit that makes the pearls - Know that hard work isn’t enough, study subtle signals and cues - Failure is Feedback - Give yourself permission to fail, and you will soar - Give yourself some grace - Remove the invisible barrier from our minds - Who is not on my LinkedIn list and why? - Who is missing from this table, from this room, and why? - Choose to collect your blessings - WE are who we need - Lead with love - Stop making choices that do not value my health & well being - It takes time to create - Transforming change does not come from the top-down, but from the bottom up - Progress is never a straight line

There was so much knowledge to take home, process, and reflect on, one day truly wasn’t enough! Check out the photo of Tiberius (see RHS photo) at the end of the conference to get an idea of how I felt (in a good way!!!). With that being said, I was so glad that I was also able to take advantage of the overflow of sessions the following day, my favorite was a facilitated networking session hosted by Gloria Larsons (Thank you Gloria!), with her underlying message “Be Bold!”.

I learned from her experiences on “Navigating Career & Life Transitions” and also from the diverse group of women that tuned in, including Rupa one of the new connections I made (looking forward to speaking with you soon Rupa!).

Thank you “MA Conference for Women” and Happy Holidays & Mask Up everyone!

By Fiona Mackenzie