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Community, strength, courage, support, laughter and inspiration are words that come to mind when I think about our most recent Digital Diva Surf & Yoga Summit.

1200%.  That’s the growth rate of attendees from our first event 7 years ago.  Over 150 women in the digital, media and entertainment industry attended the event this year.

The composition of attendees were about 40% agencies/clients, 40% digital media sales, 10% marketing and 10%  aggregation of various roles such as recruiting, technical, entertainment, production and content development. We had a wide variety of roles and titles from assistants to executive vice presidents.

Mother Nature must have sensed estrogen in the air.  It was a clear sunny Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica following a short summer season.

Breakfast nourished and prepared the women for the day ahead.  Yoga included partnering work and stretching with a clear view of the ocean! Surfing included multiple sessions for upright surfing as well as a small group of paddle surfers.   Many of the attendees surfed for the first time. Sharing the water with other women and partnering with others in the same community was an amazing and powerful visual.

The theme of this year’s conference was balance.  We worked on balancing our minds and bodies through yoga and surfing.  During lunch we featured two amazing speakers who discussed championing women and work/life balance.

Our speaker series was kicked off by Sara Bordo, founder of Women Rising. I love the philosophy of Women Rising “Our belief is simple: champion women so that they may be inspired to champion others.” Sara started her company after experiencing one too many stories of being bullied by other women in the office.  She believes women have a choice- to support one another in business or allow themselves to feel threatened by each other’s success.  Below are what some attendees had to say:

• “Sara was fabulous!  I particularly enjoyed her talking about the fact that women do not champion other women and it becomes extremely competitive.  It’s upsetting that this is so true for so many women, and I feel like the more we talk about it the better the chance to make a change for the future.”
• “Sara had me thinking about what I could do to help other women and be a mentor.”
• “Sara helped me realize that I wasn’t the only one with that ‘boss’ that made my career path seem a bit unbearable.  She provided such a good perspective on how to get away from that negativity and to seize the opportunity my job provides to better myself, and hopefully better the other women in the space”

Our featured speaker was Bettina Sherick, Vice President, International Digital Marketing, 20^th Century Fox International. Bettina, an admired member of our digital community, provided her perspective as not only a working woman, but also a single working mother.  Bettina discussed how it’s not about work/life balance rather “How does one find balance in life?”  She then shared with us her 5 tenets – “The Be List” -  that have shaped the business person, the friend, and the mother she is today.  Below are what some attendees had to say:

• “Bettina left me thinking about how I’m going to integrate my work and life to create my own unique balance.”
• “Bettina provided incredible perspective for any level on how to come across professionally and get the most out of your career, but also your life.”
• “I appreciate the fact that she was completely honest that life is hard, no one is perfect and you have to find what makes you feel the most content.  We assume that powerful women have it all, and are super happy, but she made me realize that happiness is truly within.”
• “Her broader personal deliverables resonated with me—and I think I’m going to adopt them as my own.”
• “I agree with her philosophy that you need to know what makes YOU happy, to prioritize everything to fit into your life and the balance starts with having clear vision of what you’re working toward, your own deliverable. Humorous and real presenter – spoke from the heart and incorporated personal stories which everyone can relate to”

We closed the day out with a networking hour allowing the women to discuss what they experienced while getting to know each other.

The day would not be possible without our sponsors.  In a down economy these companies and their representatives believed in the digital diva network.

The day also would not be feasible without the Super Divas. These are all professional women in our community who have full time demanding careers yet had time to volunteer and helped me reach some balance of my own.

You can check out photos from our event from the following links:

Beach Event Photos courtesy of Photographers Salina Canizales & Clarissa Gonzalez Jaspers

Lunch Event Photos courtesy of Photographer Robb Dickehut

Thank you all for attending.  You can continue the dialogue and stay connected with Digital Diva Connection on Facebook.

Marian Thomas

Founder, Digital Diva Connection

More information about our speakers.

Bettina Sherick, Vice President, International Digital Marketing, 20^th Century Fox International

Bettina Sherick is the Vice President of International Digital Marketing for Twentieth Century Fox, where she oversees the deployment of Internet and mobile marketing strategies and digital marketing content development for the international theatrical business. Her experience includes managing the development of international digital marketing campaigns for $100M+ box office releases such as AVATAR, ICE AGE 3, WOLVERINE, and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. She has also spearheaded the development of proprietary technologies to help manage the complexity of launching multiple versions of campaigns globally.

Ms. Sherick began her career at Fox as the Executive Director of Internet Marketing for the Home Entertainment International division. Previous to 20th Century Fox, Ms. Sherick was Director, E-Commerce Marketing, for Warner Bros. Studio Store, where she managed the marketing relationships and promotions, developed an e mail communications program, as well as launched and grew the affiliate network of e-commerce and fan sites. Before Warner Bros. Ms. Sherick was the Director of Marketing for Strouds, Inc., at the time a $200M+ company operating 52 stores across the United States, where she built and launched the company’s first website in 1997, and oversaw the development of their e-commerce site in 1998.

Ms. Sherick holds an MBA from Claremont Graduate University, with an emphasis in strategic marketing, and an economics degree from the University of CA, Davis.

Sara Bordo, Founder, Womenrising.com

Sara started her career in marketing for Clinique and corporate public relations at the Estee Lauder Companies in New York.  She then entered the advertising at GSD&M in Austin on the UnitedHealthcare business, pitched the Kinko’s  account and then managed the account. Upon leaving Austin, Sara joined DDB Chicago on the Johnson and Johnson  skincare business where she led the U.S. Launch of the RoC brand to #1 at retail and took Aveeno Body Care from #7 to #3 in its category.

She moved to Los Angeles where she joined FirstFireworks, an entertainment-marketing firm as Account Director on the GRAMMY Awards and eBay Strategic Partnerships businesses. She then joined the Interactive Media team at Paramount Pictures and created first-of-their kind online programs with partners including Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, XBOX and PlayStation.

As Senior Vice President of Marketing at SocialVibe.com, Sara oversaw Public Relations, Advertising, Member and Product Marketing, and Partnerships.  Her efforts helped to secure two rounds of venture capital funding as well as partnerships with Hayden Panettiere, Seventeen Magazine and Yahoo!.  In her most recent role, Sara led all online Advertising, Creative, Publicity, Social Networking and Mobile  as Vice President of Digital Marketing at MGM Studios.

Counting down to this year’s event on Saturday!  Please check out the Event Details page for location and details.

The event is sold out and there is a wait list.  If you cannot make the event please email me at marian@digitaldivaconnection.com

See you on Saturday!

Announcing our speakers for Digital Diva Surf & Yoga Summit 2010

This year we are proud to have 2 amazing speakers for the event:

Sara Bordo, Founder, Womenrising.com

Bettina Sherick, Vice President, International Digital Marketing, 20^th Century Fox International

Stay tuned for more information.

7^th Digital Diva Surf & Yoga Summit September 25^th!

Registration is now open! Limited Seating! http://digitaldivayogaandsurfsummit.eventbrite.com

Check out Photos from last year’s event! Click here!

We are also taking submissions for Diva of the Month. Nominate a friend or yourself as someone who you think is a Digital Diva. Send your entries to Amy!

Dear Digital Divas,

Thank you all for attending the 6^th Annual Digital Diva Yoga and Surf Summit. For those of you who couldn’t make it, we missed your company and hope you can attend next year. 

 As a recap to attendance, we had an unprecedented number of over 150 women. (80 Yoga, 55 Surfing, 140 Lunch).  The make-up of people who attended included  agencies and clients (45%),  media sales (40%) and varied programmers, product, marketers, agents, creatives, designers, project managers, consultants and others.

We had so many women attend this year with unique conversations, stories and experiences. We inspired 4 women to get their business off the ground during the event.  Many divas reconnected with old colleagues after having not seen them for many years.  Some divas made new friends.  And for others, they faced their fear of water and surfing or tried surfing and yoga for the first time.  I’m proud to claim that we stayed true to the overall theme of mentoring from the start of the day with yoga to the end with our speakers. If you are looking for a mentor or want to be a mentor, let us know on Facebook and we will start making those connections for you.

Please visit our Facebook Group http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34737878486 and let us know how this year’s event made you feel.  We would like to continue the dialogue online.  In addition, please visit our official site www.digitaldivaconnection.com  for updates as well as more information about our Super Divas, Speakers and Sponsors.

Our event would not be the event it was without our inspiring guest speakers. Thankyou to Romi Lassally and Theresa Gage-Durham for such encouraging words of wisdom.

 I also wanted to thank our instructors Anita Manglani from ConsiderYoga.me and Matt from Malibu Longboards as well as our volunteer surfing coach Mark Chu.  In addition to the Super Divas, we had many volunteers the day of and we are very grateful for their participation.

If you liked Anita’s class you can find her on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=25928092977, ConsiderYoga.me or email akmanglani@yahoo.com and ConsiderYoga@gmail.com.

 This event would not have been as successful if it wasn’t for the support of our sponsors.  Big thanks goes out to:

• Breakfast: CBS
• Yoga: AOL
• Surfing: Tremor Media
• Lunch:
• § Premiere Sponsors Yahoo! for lunch and Microsoft for hosted bar
• § Silver Table Sponsors: Comcast Entertainment, Fandango and Tremor Media
• § Gold Sponsorships: AOL, Premiere Radio and MTV
• o T-Shirts: MTV Networks Digital
• o Coffee: Starbucks
• o Water: Hint
• o Cake: Fondofcake (check out the photos – great for client mtgs)
• o Goodie Bags and Raffles :Fandango, Yahoo!, Yogaworks, Taboo salon, South Beach Boot Camp, Esthetica, Divine Caroline, Microsoft, Funny or Die, Alloy, The Ray Magazine, Dedicated Media, Premiere Radio, Vibrant Media, Univision, Stardoll, Digital Duchess, MTV Digital Networks, Step Up , Colleen Garrity Blends, Core Conditioning, ConsiderYoga

Sponsor photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/43085945@N00/sets/72157622277214819/

 Pictures from the event this year: Thank you Clarissa Jaspers and Salina Canizales for taking pictures during the event!
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/43085945@N00/sets/72157622351832300/show/ (slideshow)

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/43085945@N00/sets/72157622351832300/  (regular)

Attendees:

Alloy, AOL, Ask.com, Betawave, Black Rock Ent, Comcast, CW, David & Goliath, DB Group TV, Dedicated Media, Disney, Fandango, Fox Broadcasting, Fox Home Video, Gersh Agency, Initiative, Interpolls, MEC Global, MGM, MTV, Microsoft, Moxie, Mindshare, NBC, omd, Palisades Media, Phelps Group, Photo Bucket, TBWA Chiat Day, Round 2, Sony HomeVideo, Starcom, Stamps.com, Team One, Tremor Media, Turner, U.S. International Media, Yahoo!

Press:

• http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24325.asp

• http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS248417+08-Sep-2009+PRN20090908
• Featured on Hint’s Facebook http://www.facebook.com/drinkhint?_fb_noscript=1
• http://money.aol.com/article/boys-on-the-side-exclusive-gathering-of/660872?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_dailyfinance
• http://news.surfwax.com/surfing/files/Surfing.html

Thank you all for your support and see you next year.  Until then, let’s continue conversations on our Facebook Group with any ideas for next year.

 Marian Thomas

Digital Diva Connection, Founder

***************************************Sponsorship******************************************

This newsletter update from Digital Diva Connection was sponsored by Comcast Entertainment.  Comcast Digital Entertainment is comprised of leading online brands in the television and movie space, offering marketers access to over 15 million highly-engaged entertainment seekers.

Advertisers enjoy digital marketing solutions across highly reputable publishers, including Fandango, Movies.com, Fancast, Hollyscoop, Screenrant, and more.  Please contact Allison for more information amellon@fandango.com

********************************************************************************************

 Stories About the Experience from Attendees:

Yoga:  The location was a beautiful meadow facing the beach surrounded by stone pillars.  It was a cool coastal summer morning with the sun peeking to say hello. Over 70 smart beautiful talented women standing strong, not afraid of taking risks and with Anita’s gentle urging, sending each other warm smiles at the start of the day. 

We broke the ice by getting into pairs and trusting the process of twisting and turning and gently pulling and pushing and almost dancing together at our first meeting. She set the intention of the day through this engagement as equals, each offering something to the equation, just as mentor and mentee relationship. One is not better than the other.

Anita encouraged us to be in the moment and leave the caddy critic in the car. She reassured us that no one is watching, to just have fun and enjoy the process without worrying about performance. 

In this welcoming space, with Anita’s guidance, we all connected with each other and ourselves on a deeper level and shed some of our layers that held us back.

Anita got us grounded, in this beautiful setting, on the grass, yawning and stretching towards the sun, bowing to the earth and ocean and settling into our bodies in preparation for a dynamic day to come!

Surfing:  Matt and team were awesome as always!  Our digital men volunteers shined!!  Marc Chu especially.  He was interactive with all of the ladies in a really fun and supportive manner, and he came to lunch!!

This year we also offered paddle surfing which is becoming more popular.  It was a fully body work out and great for the core.  The instructors were patient and very support.

At least 5 women were afraid to surf and came into the day with some trepidation.  A large majority of the women who surfed for the first time stood up and we have pictures to prove it.  Congrats to you all

Lunch and Speakers:  I really thought this portion of the day was absolutely lovely.  From the goodie bags, food, drink, branding everywhere, the cake

 The speakers were amazing, inspiring and so much more. A few comments from attendees about speakers:

“It was so refreshing to hear the speakers discuss their career path and how they struggle with the work/life balance.  I left the event feeling empowered but also with some unanswered questions. Who is my mentor? What do I want out of my career? How will I balance a family?”

“My aha moment was when Theresa said we shouldn’t worry about where we are in the race and focus on our path ahead.”

“The speakers at lunch truly put things in perspective. It was great to hear Romi’s story, and know that I’m not the only one struggling to thrive in an environment with unnecessary negativity.”

“I appreciated hearing Theresa’ perspective on work-life balance.  She pointed out some very basic tools which we all have access to (developing a plan, determining what matters, deciding where we want to be in our career, how to balance work/life demands) that we can and should refer back to in order to achieve our own success.”

“I identified so much with what Romi was saying.  I now know I am not alone”

“Mentoring is important to me…I found it inspiring to listen to Theresa discuss her passion for philanthropy, her ability and message to stay focused on what’s important to us as individuals and career women…. And as women, to accept our nurturing nature to give back, no matter what your passion… Pay it forward. This is an important part of being a contributing member of my community.  I’m going to pay it forward and attend the next Step Up Women’s Network event with my free 6 month membership.” 

I wanted to introduce this year’s speakers who have been so gracious to join us. 

Romi Lassally is the founder of the website Truuconfessions.com and author of TRUE MOM CONFESSIONS: Real Moms Get Real. She has created a new kind of online community- an environment that gives women essential things they couldn’t get elsewhere: the reassuring knowledge that none of us is doing it perfectly. Like other fellow mothers, Romi has been (and struggled with the complexities of) all of the acronyms mentioned in her site’s confessions: a SAHM (stay at home mom), a WOHM (working out of home mom), and is currently a SAHWM (a stay at home working mom).  Also like her fellow moms she often thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the mommy divide, but deep down she knows it’s not.

Prior to Truuconfessions, she was founding editor for the Lifestyles section of The Huffington Post. She has also worked as a freelance writer and contributing editor to several parenting magazines. Before her online life, Romi spent more than a decade in traditional media, working as an executive and a producer in the entertainment industry. Romi currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and her three children Phoebe, Annabel and Owen.

Theresa Gage Durham, President Media Maven Consulting. Theresa Durham is an executive with over 15 years of experience in media relations, advertising, marketing and sales management. She is the Founder and President of Media Maven Consulting, a firm specializing in sales and marketing strategies for start ups.

Previously, she has been in executive management for Live Nation and Clear Channel, and has sold advertising for the Disney media properties and Westwood One Broadcasting. Her expertise includes business strategy, P&L responsibility, and new business development in media and entertainment.

Theresa is a graduate of the University of North Texas and maintains her ties with her alma mater as an advisor for the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism. She is currently Chairman of the Board of Step Up Women’s Network and a board member of Operation Hope. Theresa resides in Malibu with her husband and two children and spends much of her spare time in the Central American country of Nicaragua where she is developing an eco-friendly surf resort.

The theme of this year’s event is to inspire mentoring.  We hope to launch new relationships and spread some good karma. In looking for a qualified mentor – or if you are thinking about becoming one, here are some tips:

•  Finding the right fit. Ask someone whose skills are not too similar to yours; pick someone you can learn from. Skills can vary from being a good public speaker, communicating effectively, running good meetings, organization skills, networking, technical skills etc
• Clearly define relationship goals. When a mentee and mentor agree on a shared goal, decisions and actions will fall into place. Take into account what each person brings to the table and what you both bring to the relationship.
• Through respect you gain trust. Mentoring is building a relationship. Each person should respect one another. The mentee understands that their mentor is donating their time and experience to develop another person’s skills and potential. As the mentor is responsible and compassionate with their guidance.
• Open conversations are encouraged. The mentor is one who listens to whatever the mentee wants to talk about and in return the mentee is one with an open mind when listening to their mentor’s advice and opinion.
• Remember to give in return. The relationship between mentee and mentor is one that is mutually beneficial.

 Are you Mentor material?

• Do you want to increase your contributions to the industry/digital media and entertainment space?
• Are you looking for experience in leadership?

 Do you need a Mentor?

• Struggling with no leadership at your current job?
• Do you need someone to help guide you in your career?
• Looking to improve certain skill sets?

Mentoring can be either an informal or formal process.  What does it take to be a good mentor? Join other Divas discussing this topic on our Facebook Group

We hope to see you at this year’s Digital Diva Summit and wish you luck in finding your mentee/mentor.

As you may have heard our big event this year will be on September 12th.  This year in addition to practicing your Yoga poses, surfing those great Pacific Ocean waves, and our group lunch – we are adding two speakers and a theme to event. Stay tuned! More details about our speakers will be released soon.