Today I attended the 9th Annual Mass Conference for Women held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center which was such an amazing opportunity. It is the largest womens business conference in the world with ten thousand people attending. About a month ago I received an email that I was nominated and chosen by my company to be an attendee and was ecstatic, especially since I knew Kerry Washington would be speaking (via satellite :()and Scandal is one of the best shows on TV, but it was some of the other speakers I will talk about that brought me to tears with such inspirational stories.
Naturally about ten minutes after I found out I was invited I started planning my outfit, suggested attire was business casual. I wanted to wear something classic with something bright, J Crew and Lilly Pulitzer seemed like the obvious combination. I went with the pink Lilly Pulitzer Leighton blazer (bought on Ebay) and the Jcrew scallop dress (bought on sale with additional % off) and my go to Jcrew patent wedges.
The day was filled with speakers, seminars, shopping and networking. I received an awesome swag bag filled with great things like Essie nail polish, an Alex and Ani MAKE YOUR MARK bracelet, pashmina and lots of other goodies along with some of the books I purchased.
The first speaker that really moved me was a woman named Linda Cliatt-Wyman who is the principle at Strawberry Mansion. If you can, watch this video of her with Diane Sawyer to see how remarkable she really is and what a difference she is making at this school that was close to being shut down.
The second speaker that was totally awesome was Blake Mycoskie, the founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS. He has such an inspiring story about how he founded the company and his idea behind TOMS is brilliant, the idea of one for one. I purchased his book Start Something that Matters today which also means a book will be provided to a child in need, one for one.
Some of the other people I saw today were Robin Roberts (via satellite) , Nancy Richardson, the vice president of digital and brand strategy at Lululemon and Randi Zuckerberg (sister of Mark) who is the CEO and founder of Zuckerberg Media and author of two books. Each woman had such passion for their work and what they do, it was a true honor to listen to them speak and tell us their story. Robin Roberts also reminded us that we are all a little bit stronger than we think and optimism is a muscle that just gets stronger with use.
All in all the day was filled with so many wonderful people and learning opportunities. I am so thankful I was able to attend and hopefully will be able to attend next year as well. Here are a few photos!
With Love,
Ashley
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