Tonight is the third Women’s Conference Night at the Village. GamingAngels has been at all three. During this night, there are inspirational talks on Mind & Body, Hot topics, and an area where all the book writers autograph their books.

This year Maria Shriver walked around the event quite a bit. The Night at the Village, not only has talks, but features various companies. From vendors to informational booths, thousands of women come to Night at the Village to shop, talk and network.

This year’s event was full of amazing events. I came back with two bags of goodies and plenty of information to pass on to you, wonderful readers. But for now, because I have to sleep, you get the best five moments of the day:

• Purchasing the Computer Engineer Barbie – Every year Mattel brings Barbies to sell at the Women’s Conference. This year they celebrated the career choices picked out by an online audience. Computer Engineer Barbie was one of the careers that won. As a Mattel employee informed me, it’s because of women like our readers that voted, we out-voted what young girls wanted which was a News Anchor. The News Anchor was picked next. While our voting had an impact, I would like to think that the impact is to help show young girls that being a computer engineer is cool and that Barbie would consider it for a career.
• Breasts - Breasts are very important at a Women’s conference because we all have them. Information was everywhere ranging from volunteer efforts, fundraising, and detection. I learned about a new ultrasound for women that have dense breasts. Another tip is to get your size measured. I found out that I’m wearing a number size too big and not big enough on the cup size.
• SeaSnax - This is an amazing snack that I’m hoping will replace my craving for chips. It’s a lightly roasted and seasoned piece of seaweed that tastes very much like a chip! The best part is that it’s low in calories! The Calories per snack serving is 16 calories with 40mg sodium.
• Kodak – Kodak is here at the Women’s Conference showing awesome new printing technology. Coming this December, on specific Kodak frames, there is a barcode that you can scan at any Kodak printing station. You know the frames that have different shapes in different spots? The ones that are hard to ever line up your pictures or keep them there. By scanning the barcode, the computer knows what frame you have and then places your pictures in the correct place. You can then re-arrange pictures, but they will always lock in place. It then prints as one sheet and you have a perfectly framed printout! I am super impressed with this technology and can’t wait to use it for my wedding photos.
• Meghan McCain- Meghan McCain was the only speaker I sat in on and she was a pleasure to listen to. Meghan has strong opinions and is not scared to not only voice them but encourage other women to use their voice as well. Meghan stated that women have to stop attacking each other. Which is something we talk about here at GA. We are in contact with her PR and hope to have an interview with Meghan on GamingAngels soon!
• Harmonix and Microsoft- Nintendo may be absent from the conference this year, but Microsoft is here with Kinect and Dance Central! They have a booth and all night women here lining up to eagerly try out the dance game. I spoke to Microsoft reps about being here and they are very excited to show off the Kinect technology to the women here. Welcome Microsoft and I hope you continue to support the event!

That was the Night at the Village. See you tomorrow at the Women’s Conference!

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: