Morning session:
In the morning session the real standouts were Maria Shriver and Michelle Obama. Maria took the opportunity to reflect on the past 7 conferences. She spoke of her family and the fact that she doesn’t know what will come next. As Arnold’s term comes to end in California, Maria says she feels unsure as to what is coming but is just going to relax and let things happen.

Michelle Obama took the opportunity to talk about community and women helping each other in terms of military families. She spoke of the struggles wives have in terms of continuing education, helping the family adjust during moves and trying to find jobs.

What happens when Women Lead:
This panel started out very low for the volume and so I have more fragmented thoughts from it rather than a real Q&A session. While things are tough in Silicon Valley for women, if an idea is fantastic it doesn’t matter what your gender is. Although there has been recent discussions on TechCrunch about whether or not women do have it difficult in Silicon Valley or if it’s a matter of lack of interest. The most recent Women in Tech panel, turned into a fight instead of anything constructive. The jockeying for position is a major problem in companies and will only stop when there is a more even distribution of genders and races.

Work Life balance always comes up at a women in business talk and this one is no different. This time, however this talk led to solutions. Make sure when you are with family and friends that you are engaged with them. That means put the crackberry down and get off of twitter. Okay maybe you’re allowed to tweet that you are with friends.

Another great piece of advice is to sit with your family and discuss what events you can attend. That way everyone is aware and you have managed expectations. You have to take control of your career and make sure that you tell companies what is important and works for you in term of work life balance.

For the emotional, don’t fret, you can still be a leader. Be a human being as a leader, but remember that problems are just that and are not emotional. Part of leadership is that you don’t wear your emotions on your sleeve. It was suggested that women should act more in business and sometimes that means acting confident even when you aren’t. Which is something I have to do often in my role as CEO of GamingAngels. I get shy, and nervous and then I have to kick my butt in gear and make myself get out there.

Lunch session
Disney Television co-chair Anne Sweeney states that the conference is about finding ways to constantly move forward. Not about empowering but that all of us have the power already and the conference helps us find that. Diane Sawyer leads the talk which is a conversation with The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg and The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor. “Every bird flies faster together than they do alone.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out that women shouldn’t react in anger particularly when a sexist comment is made. React with intellect. Sandra Day O’Conner said to say when you need to say and then shut up.

Eve Ensler gets to the mic to talk about the gift of cancer. She was just here a year ago full of life and performing and this year she arrived with no hair and talking of her illness. Cancer forced Eve to take in love and be cared for and that she now lives with death as a companion. Point that we idolize people that take our money instead of people that serve.

Very interesting talk with Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger about election and the position of governor. Meg, “the price on inaction is far greater than the price of making a mistake”. Jerry Brown states that everyone knows too much about him. Schwarzenegger did agree with Meg about the state that schools are in. Matt Lauer is taking both of them to the task by asking them both to pledge to get rid of negative ads off the air. To enable some time before the election to have no negativity. Not sure that that should be a focused topic when California is in such dire straits.

In the end, the Women’s Conference provided another great event for women to gather, network and be inspired. I wish that there was a stronger tech presence and that the business discussion was not limited to stories but to talks that encourage action. Business discussions that begin with VCs, maybe host a pitching session. I was very disappointed to hear from the Business session host, that women just needed to start to sell. Instead of really work on their business and protect their brand/IP. No one knows what will happen to the Women’s Conference next year, but these past few years, GamingAngels has covered the Conference and it’s been an honor. Now to get to work on my book, so I can speak at the event next year.

Watch videos from the Women’s Conference here.

GamingAngels has been a part of the Women’s Conference for the last couple of years. We have been honored to cover the conference and interview the speakers. It’s incredibly humbling and inspirational to attend this event. You will be filled with the most amazing feeling of sisterhood.

This year’s Women’s Conference goes on sale tomorrow (Wednesday, June 23) at 9am PT. This year will feature more than 140 speakers and span over three days. The event starts on Sunday, October 24 – Tuesday, October 26. The lineup includes:

Laila Ali, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, Martha Beck, Mary J. Blige, Erin Brockovich, Campbell Brown, Deepak Chopra, Rosario Dawson, Paula Deen, Giada De Laurentiis, Linda Ellerbee, Giselle Fernandez, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Gregory, Arianna Huffington, Women for Hire CEO Tory Johnson, Donna Karan, Billie Jean King, New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof, Matt Lauer, Omega Institute Co-Founder Elizabeth Lesser, Journalists Laura Ling and Lisa Ling, Jillian Michaels, Former Chairman & CEO, Xerox Corporation Anne Mulcahy, The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, Poet Mary Oliver, Suze Orman,Dr. Mehmet Oz, Robert Redford, Tony Robbins, Deborah Roberts, Al Roker, Diane Sawyer, The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop and Primate The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Howard Schultz, Maria Elena Salinas, Jessica Simpson, Anna Deavere Smith, Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks, President, Disney/ABC Television Group Anne Sweeney, “The Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro, Kerry Washington, Ali Wentworth and Oprah Winfrey.

“I am honored to again be hosting what has become the nation’s premier forum for women,” said Shriver. “With this year’s theme of ‘It’s Time,’ we are hoping The Women’s Conference inspires women to see this challenging moment in history as an opportunity to come together and transform ourselves, our communities and our world as Architects of Change.”

Sunday, October 24 is a March on Alzheimer’s and a Night at the Theater event. On Monday, October 25 is a Day of Health, Wellness and Transformation with the Night at the Village starting at 4pm.

On Tuesday, October 26, the Main event takes place all day. The theme is “It’s Time…To Be an Architect of Change”.

Some of the sample breakout conversations are:
· Diane Sawyer will moderate a “once-in-a-lifetime conversation” between The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg;

· A “kitchen table conversation” between Matt Lauer and Arnold Schwarzenegger where the Governor will reflect on lessons learned from his seven years in office and discuss what’s next;

· Dr. Oz and Lisa Oz will moderate a conversation titled “It’s Time to Talk About Marriage and Relationships: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” between Al Roker & Deborah Roberts and Hal Rubenstein & David Nickle;

· Campbell Brown will moderate a conversation titled “It’s Time to Talk to Women Who Know Firsthand What It Takes to Lead” between Carol Bartz, Anne Mulcahy, The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori and Anne Sweeney; and

Tickets are available at WomensConference.org website tomorrow at 9am PT. They will sell out, so please visit tonight and determine what tickets you may want. Trust me, if you can attend this event, you should definitely go.

This is my second year covering one of the most inspiring conventions I attend, the Women’s Conference in Long Beach, CA. Maria Shriver has used her time as First Lady to create an event that not only makes an impact on individuals, but has made an impact economically and socially. As part of the Women’s Conference, Maria Shriver has created the WE (describe We program briefly) and the Minverva awards, recognizing women that have (explanation) . The event is a two-day event with an added Day of Transformation this year.

The Day of Transformation is a full day conference to help women learn skills to be a business leader in their community. The night event, Night at the Village, has speakers covering the following topics, cooking, mind, body & soul, and author interviews. The floor has various businesses reaching out to women. Everything from (wine company) who sells bottles of wine to raise money to purchase wigs for chemotherapy-treated women to Wii Fit Plus. That’s right, Nintendo is back for their second year at the Women’s Conference. Instead of showcasing all their holiday titles, Nintendo brought over Wii Fit Plus. It was great and entertaining to see women attempt the new exercises, having fun with their girlfriends trying out a new game.

The talks I did see at the Night at the Village event were Kate Gosselin, from Jon & Kate plus 8, and Cheryl Saban, Ph.D., writer of What’s your Self Worth. Kate did not allow anyone to take pictures as she spoke about her latest book, which is a scrapbook with scripture that she made for her kids. She did state that she has a cookbook in the works as well as a sequel to Multiple Blessings.

Cheryl Saban, PH.D., seemed to not have alot of time to talk. Her friend, Arianna Huffington moderated the post but spoke so much that Cheryl could hardly get a word in. One of the things Cheryl did point out was that women tend to think if we do good enough than we’ll get rewards. But she was quick to point out that we need to be negotiators and go after those rewards ourselves. I will have a review of Cheryl Saban’s book, “What is self-worth?”, up later this week.

I was disappointed in two things that night. The first was that the one author I stood in line to get an autograph from (I just bought her book at the event) never showed. Claire Shipman author of Womenomics, left 10 of us waiting for over thirty minutes before we got word that she wasn’t going to show.

The other disappointment was the lack of technology or addressing technology at the event. Not a single showcased author had a focus on tech or the web. All that was available was the stereotypical self-esteem, makeup and cooking. Like that’s all women are expected to enjoy. I was sorely disappointed to see a lack of any booths from tech companies. Momology was the only website. Windows could have had a Windows 7 or Bing booth. Last year Apple attended but did not renew that support this year.

The second day of the Women’s Conference got off to an early start! 5am to be exact. Media was told to check in by 7am, in order to guarantee press spots for interviews. By 8am the Women’s Conference was kicking off with the National Anthem and Paula Zahn speaking. I missed most of that because I was on the purple carpet, getting interviews. The interview system was new to me this year and I have to say that it was the best part of the event. The next article will showcase the interviews but they were all good and insightful. I loved that the staff was very helpful, letting us know when someone was about to arrive and I think overall they did a great job. Unfortunately, toward the end of the day people just stopped coming by and it seemed that the people in charge had little they could do. Maria Shriver was rumored to come down the purple carpet three times and in the end never showed up. Much of the news media left by 5pm due to the slowdown in interviews. Again, I don’t believe this was the convention organizer’s fault, but hopefully that will be improved on for next year.

Unfortunately for us, media did not get to attend the breakout sessions. Two of the sessions would have been specifically useful to us: Changing the World through the Web and Women in Power: What happens when Women run things. Both of those sounded astounding and had a great lineup. But instead we watched on stream two other sessions: Women who use their Voices to change the World and Once-in-a-Lifetime Conversation (with Dr. Jane Goodall). Both of which were actually pretty good. Just not ones I would have attended.

Here is a quick abstract of things said that are inspiring and useful.

Robin Roberts – “Our path our journey is a series of decisions that we make for ourselves. The more you use it, the stronger you become. Make a decision! Get in the habit of making those choices. “

Sir Richard Branson brought up the idea that companies need to be more flexible to people’s lives and when asked for advice for women wanting to start their own business said, “You’ve got to screw it and just do it. “

Madeline Albright: “Women provide a great deal of the wealth and economic well being. People depend on women power. society is better off if women are economically and politically powered. ”

Katie Curic: “I love the smell of estrogen in the afternoon.”

Maria Shriver did mention one more year of the Women’s Conference. 25,000 women gather together for an incredibly two day event which showcased some of the most amazing women of today. I would recommend watching the Women’s Conference website for when tickets for next year go on sale. This is an event no woman should miss.

Here are pictures I took at the event:

I woke up at 5am to head out to the full day of the Women’s Conference (watch intro video here). Turns out that traffic and looking for parking would both affect my ability to be on time. It’s amazing how full a parking lot can get when 14,000 women are there for a conference. I spent 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot and then ran over to pick up my press pass. I walked over to the main arena for the opening ceremonies. Jennifer Lopez walked onto the stage to start her speech at the conference. Glancing around the arena, it was breathtaking to see how many women were there, ready to take in all the speeches from the day and to be inspired. Lopez’s talk covered her family and how her family has led her to start a foundation working with kids. She was the first to say what I heard often throughout the conference, “listen to what you want”. The small inner voice that many of us seem to quell because we are too busy, or too stressed. But that inner voice will let you know what you should be doing.

After her speech, I headed to Hall A for the first panel. With that many women in attendance, I knew the panels would be packed, so I wanted to get their early. Fortunately, the flat screens in Hall H continued to broadcast the opening speeches in the main arena.

Next up was Governor Arnold Swarzenegger and Warren Buffet. Chris Matthews was there to question both of these men on the economy and get their advice for women. The first question was about the stock market taking another dive and what people should do with their stocks. Buffet stated that one needs to stay in the market and maybe just move things around. Buffet believes that things will work itself out and stated, “the country works even if the economy get dumbed up from time to time.” The next topic was is capitalism works to which Buffet responded that it works extremely well. The average person in the US has improved their worth 7 to 1. Buffet’s advice for investing was to, “Invest in a business that is so good that even an idiot can run it because sooner or later an idiot will.” Extremely good advice since that really does seem to happen in the business world.

Arnold and Warren try to explain what happened to the economy. Buffet puts it this way, 300 million Americans believed that the value of homes was going to go up every year. People were willing to lend money to anyone because the theory of the home’s value always increasing. When the housing market dropped by 20%, no one wants to lend, but people need money to help pay those loans which is why the government has to step in. Arnold brings up that the majority of women run the finances in their home. There are almost a million women owned businesses in California and we’re one of them! Arnold feels this is great, but he wants to work harder to encourage women to go into public service, to lead corporations. For the question about politics and women, Arnold stated, ” Women have made tremendous strides forward but challenge is to break through the glass ceiling and really move forward.” Buffet believes that there have been major breakthroughs for women in politics and that America is ready to elect a women to be president.

Next up was CNN Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. She has been working with CNN for 25 years and knew that she wanted to go into journalism to tell people’s stories. Christiane uses her career as a way to voice the truth and communicate atrocities to others. The last 20 years, Christiane worked on the road covering International issues. While sharing her passion for her craft, she lamented that there is a crisis going on in the world of Journalism right now. Anyone can be a journalist, and journalism itself is long on sensation and short on seriousness. We are seeing that within our own gaming communities where journalists may write sensationalist headlines or articles for the sake of getting hits. But can that really be called journalism? Christiane goes on to say how in her experience, women can be architects of change. There are more women holding positions in high office in other countries than here in the United States. Even so, we should not vote in a woman just because she is female, she needs to have the qualifications for the position as well. Real journalists need to hold their ground, “In the midst of idiocy of gifted amateur”. Christiane wraps up by reminding us to use our success to change the world.

First, I have to say that it was incredibly difficult to choose which breakout session to go to. They were all amazing and I’m certain you can get something from each of them. I chose to start the day with How to start your own business and enjoy it. Since I own and run GamingAngels.com, I hoped to take away some advice with what I can do to build our business. As the guests fill in, women start to go crazy taking pictures of the panel. Mostly because Heidi Klum from Project Runway and a million other things is taking part in this panel. The panel consists of Journalist, Willow Bay, Leslie CEO of Bare Essentials, Author Chici and Author Aurion. The panel starts by explaining their story and how they ended up doing what they love. Leslie knew she wanted to be in makeup her whole life but also wanted to make a product that was different. Aurion made a complete change in her life which inspired her to write a book about change. Heidi says she has a long list of things she wants to accomplish and sometimes you take that risk and fail, but that you get right back up and try something else. Chichi states that while there is no Spanish word for empowerment, Latino women are inspired by the American Dream and are very entrepreneurial. The panel was in agreement that women offer a very unique aspect to running a business. Women are great multi-taskers and Leslie says that you have to bring your personality out and don’t let anyone tell you what to do. Heidi states that we should learn every day and try out things that you may not have done before. The economy rears it’s ugly head again when the panel is asked if this is a good time to start your own business or not. Chichi states that it’s a perfect time and women should visit their local Small Business Association (SBA) to get started. Leslie feels that if you have excitement and innovation then it doesn’t matter what is going on with the economy. Many of us were in attendance to hear what the panelists had to say about running your own business and managing stress. Hiedi says you just do it, run the business and run everything at home. Aurion mentions how she started relying on other people more and to always take care of your health which means exercising and making sure you get enough sleep. Both are things I am horrible at. Of course, it wouldn’t be a women’s conference if we didn’t take the time to find out from Heidi about the future of Project Runway. She stated that they filmed season 6 and had many wonderful guest judges. But no word on when it will air.

Next, I headed back to the main arena for lunch and to see Maria Shriver speak as well as a conversation between Condoleeza Rice and Indra Nooyi. Maria has a background in journalism and she has an amazing way of telling a story. In her afternoon talk she addressed fear. Fear that she has had to face again and again both in her personal and business life. She describes how she confronted fear in various situations, and how each of us have to be able and willing to admit when we are afraid and think about how we can conquer our fear and achieve our dreams.

Condoleeza Rice and Indra start by discussing how the glass ceiling may not be a factor as much as it was. Rice states that women are starting to appear in more leadership roles, but her concern is thinking about young girls and if they will go into careers in the sciences. Indra states that she doesn’t believe the glass ceiling will go away until you have women helping other women within their industries. Something we’d like to see get started where with a mentorship program on GA.

The day came to a conclusion with the Minerva awards and a speech by Bono. The rock star came to speak to us not as a rock star but as someone that wants to see the world become a better place. Bono talks about Red which is the consumerist side of things and One which helps the poorest of the poor.

That brings one of the best events I have ever attended to an end. I recommend that every woman makes a pledge to attend the Women’s Conference. It’s inspiring, informative and will make you want to help in any way you can. I have decided to help out through the Step Up program starting next year, and of course bringing up challenging topics for us to discuss about women’s rights and challenging yourself.

Enjoy this video of Reggie Fils-Aimé at the Women’s Conference playing a skiing game on Wii
Fit.

The conference kicked off Tuesday night with Night at the Village. The Night at the Village is setup to give women entrance into the 160,000 square foot Long Beach Convention Center exhibit hall. The hall was packed with vendors, book signings, health screenings, and ways to volunteer for your community. The Night at the Village also featured experts with advice on beauty, cooking, and fitness. Raychael Ray and actress Valerie Bertinelli spoke along with Jillian Michaels who’s fitness game for the Wii comes out this week.

“Every year, women tell us they would love more time at the conference to just be and more tickets to the conference to be with more of their friends, ” said Shriver. “Since we now reach capacity so quickly for the Women’s Conference, we believed that adding an event like Night at the Village was the perfect solution.”

Fighting against LA traffic, I did arrive about two hours after the event started. The unfortunate part of that is I missed all the night speakers. So instead, I chose to work the floor. In fact most of my pictures from the event came from the Night at the Village. The next day, was too busy attending talk sessions to spend much time on the showroom floor. Walking in, I was surprised at the scale of the event. The room is packed of women and packed of vendors and companies there to talk to women. Dove showcased their Love your body slogan and donated $1 for every signature on their wall. Of course I had to put GamingAngels.com on it. Lean Cuisine had taken mirrors and placed slogans about loving oneself on them. They also were giving away necklaces that you can attach a gem that showcased what you were looking for in life. The Red/One campaign was there to inform and selling $10 shirts made by women in Africa. Drugstore, CVS was giving flu shots and analyzing people’s skin. Turns out my skin is pretty healthy. While Walgreens and a Women’s Health Center were conducting health analysis. This included BMI check, bone density check , cholesterol and blood pressure. The health areas were very crowded, but rightfully so. I found out for the first time that I am at moderate risk for Osteoporosis, and am now starting to take Calcium tablets. My blood pressure was high, but I think that is more from the excitement of the event.

Over at the Nintendo booth, women crowded the booth having fun trying out Wii Fit, Wii Music, and various DS games. These women were laughing and having a blast as they challenged their friends to beat their Hula Hoop score. It was amazing to watch and really helped reinforce what Nintendo has accomplished over the past few years. While we hardcore gamers might be wary of the casual nature of the Wii and DS, watching these women that probably never played a video game before laughing and having fun playing enforces that what Nintendo is doing is right. They are expanding gaming for everyone. Not only for fun either. At the conference they showcased a title for the DS that featured various recipes and assisted you in cooking. As I went through the recipe, the voice read aloud what the next step was and moved along with me. It’s what I would call a useful application for my DS. Perhaps with that, I might actually enjoy cooking since my biggest problem with cooking right now is not knowing recipes. I did get into the action with a hands-on of Wii Music. Unfortunately the Nintendo songs were not unlocked yet, so our choices were a bit slim. The Nintendo rep and I settled on a Monkey’s song. I was ready to play my xylophones. For each of the instruments, you do play with the Wii-Remote and Nunchuk a bit differently. Also some instruments are easier to play than others. The song was fun to play, but I’m definitely left with the feeling that this title is more for the families than individuals that are looking for an alternative to Rock Band or Guitar Hero. While at the Nintendo Booth, Reggie Fils-Aimé and Cammie Dunaway were playing and meeting with women in the booth. I caught the video below of Reggie playing the skiing exercise in Wii Fit. Even though they were busy, Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway took a few moments to talk about the Women’s Conference and the Wii.

While wondering the hall, I found this great program called Step Up. It’s a volunteer program where you mentor a teenager, and they find you a professional mentor. A professional mentor can be crucial to helping you figure out your place in the professional world and this is a great way to give and receive something in return.

The night wasn’t all business and charity. I couldn’t resist the lure to shop. The first thing I bought was a t-shirt from a company that is about positive messages. The shirt says I luv who I am, and has angel wings on it, so I knew I had to purchase it. Then came the booths with expensive purses. I walked past those because I couldn’t afford it. One booth was re-selling designer purses, and I didn’t see one under $1000, yet that booth was full of women buying. Who says there is a problem with our economy? I also purchased a 100% Cashmere scarf because the vendor was selling them for $10. Does it get cold enough in Southern California to wear a scarf? Sometimes, but either way at least it didn’t cost me much. Another merchant option that was popular was jewelry. The jewelry booths were packed of women picking out various sparkly items. In one island, there were women vendors who went though a program setup by Maria Shriver to help them start a business. All the women are from low-income backgrounds and are trying to build a business to better themselves. In this area, you saw some of the more creative things to buy and it was a great feeling to see these women achieve their dreams.

All too soon, they announced that the rooms were closing. I left the Night at the Village with various swag, and a warm feeling in my heart. After seeing and speaking with some amazing women that night I could not wait to see what the full day would bring.

My write up of the Women’s Conference 2008 will be up later in the week.

Here is a link to my pictures from the Conference on Flickr:

www.flickr.com GamingAngel’s Women’s Conference 2008 photoset