Archive for October, 2010

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