Thursday, December 4, 2014

MA conference for women

I attended the 10th annual MA conference for women today at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. It was so beautiful out on the walk over.


EMC's excellent EVP of HR, ML Krakauer, kicked off the morning's keynotes.

John Jacobs, founder of Life Is Good, introduced his 2 year old daughter Lucy. He explained that he does not look at things like paying taxes as "I have to do this." Rather, he reframes it as "I get to do this." I love that sentiment and will remember to reframe my first-world problems as such.


I attended an excellent talk by Shelia Heen, who wrote one of my favorite business books Difficult Conversations. Her actionable tips on receiving feedback gracefully will definitely improve my ability to listen and process advice. I plan to read her book on this topic Thanks for the Feedback.

Katrina Alcorn was on the next panel about work-life balance. Last year, I read her book Maxed Out: Working Moms on the Brink, which really resonated with me. I felt grateful to have a cautionary tale to help me avoid many of the struggles she faced. I posted the photo below on Twitter and she favorited it!


After an inspiring, heartfelt speech from actress Lupita N'yong, it was time for the main event, Hillary Clinton.

I've seen her speak twice, here and at the Simmons Conference for Women in Leadership. She is an articulate, polished, passionate speaker. I related to her story about when Chelsea was 2 and sick with a fever, Bill was out of town, and she needed to be at work. Her guilt about calling in a favor to a friend to watch her daughter was palpable as she told her story. It made her so real. I never figured a former Secretary of State would have childcare issues!

No comments:

Post a Comment