The Womens Conference
The Nations Premier Forum For Women
Daily Blog
A Message to Our Community
The Women’s Conference team would like to extend our apologies again for the technical issue experienced during registration last Wednesday. We understand how disappointed and frustrated many of you are with the process.
We’ve investigated the problem and wanted to make sure we fully understood what happened. After reviewing our server records, we've discovered that the technical problems resulted when thousands of users continually refreshed their browsers. When registration began, we had about 10,000 unique users produce approximately 500,000 requests to the server. Because this same problem occurred during registration last year, causing the site to crash, we posted a warning about it last Wednesday on the homepage of the registration site informing people not to refresh more than once and to use only one browser. We now realize that the warning was not enough as our servers could not handle the load. We’re confident that this problem will be addressed and resolved so that, in the future, the entire process can accommodate the overwhelming demand by our community.
We pride ourselves on creating empowering experiences for our audience and this has clearly fallen short of that. For many years, The Women’s Conference was a one-day event. Because of popular demand, we have continued to expand it over recent years so that more and more women could attend. Now, in 2010, the conference includes three days of six amazing events with top level speakers and authors. While the Main Event is currently sold out -- and there are simply not enough tickets for everyone who wanted one -- tickets do still remain for several of our other extraordinary conference events.
A note to our Women’s Conference Facebook community -- You are part of an important forum to help us better understand what’s on your mind. The complaints and posts during the registration process were very valuable to us and, as you may have seen that day, many of the posters were contacted directly by the registration team. By Friday, we felt it was important to use our Wall to promote the other events that were available for attendees. We received calls in the office from many people unaware that these events were still open and we wanted to get that information out via Facebook without confusion. The intention was never to censor any of your posts. If you have something to say – we want to hear it.
Again, we are truly sorry about the problems encountered last week. We hope that you will consider joining the 30,000 attendees for a life-changing experience in Long Beach in October.
7 Top Tips for Conference Registration
- Architects of Change
Tickets to The Women’s Conference 2010 are now on sale. We’re thrilled that registration day is finally here. In an effort to make the process as easy for you as possible, we’ve listed 7 tips:
1. Be informed. Visit our Welcome to The Women's Conference 2010 page before registering. Here, you can learn about the Conference events – and decide which available events you want to attend.
- Be prepared. Have your credit card ready. All registrations require a credit card to purchase.
- Be patient. Because of the huge demand for tickets, you may be put into a "waiting room" on the registration site, where you will be updated regularly on your status in line, as well as ticket availability.
- If you are online waiting to register, DO NOT REFRESH your page, it will be done automatically for you. And do not use the back button – it will cause you to lose your place in line.
- Ticket availability for events will be listed – and updated -- at the top of The Women's Conference homepage throughout the morning.
- You'll need to sign up for Maria Shriver's March on Alzheimer's separately -- sign up here!
- If you don’t get a ticket to the event you want, visit Our Forum, where ticketholders can sell their unwanted tickets for the value of that ticket. And remember that you can enter The Great Giveaway for a chance to win 2 tickets to the Conference.
We look forward to seeing you in October!
It’s Time…
- Architects of Change
- Maria's Post
Along with The Women’s Conference team, I am thrilled to announce our most extraordinary lineup of speakers and events yet for the 2010 Conference on October 24 - 26. For our theme this year, we have chosen “It's Time.” It’s a phrase that so many of us use without really thinking about it. We use it when we're finally ready to make a decisive change in our lives. We often say, "It's time for me to find a new job or start my own business or work on a cause I care deeply about.” We just know when It's Time. And that's what our conference is all about. At this challenging moment in history, we want to inspire women to see this as an opportunity to come together and transform ourselves, our communities and our world as Architects of Change.
Every year, we try to take The Women’s Conference to an even higher level by expanding our events to reach more women with these life-changing experiences. This year, for the first time ever, The Women’s Conference is growing to three full days with six new and expanded events featuring more than 140 amazing speakers. We’ll kick off on Sunday afternoon, October 24th with my March on Alzheimer’s and a candlelight vigil. Thousands will join us to help defeat this mind-blowing disease with proceeds going to the Alzheimer’s Association. Later that evening, we’ll come together to celebrate at a brand new event – Night at the Theater with a special performance of Love, Loss, and What I Wore, an intimate collection of stories by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron.
On Monday, It’s Time…To Take Action! Due to popular demand, A Day of Health, Wellness and Transformation has doubled in size with a full day of world class experts and interactive sessions on how to personally and professionally become an Architect of Change. Then on Monday evening, 10,000 attendees will gather at our third annual Night at The Village where It’s Time…To Experience the Best – the best speakers, authors, chefs, shopping, and entertainment.
On Tuesday, It’s Time…To Be An Architect of Change at our Main Event featuring our signature once-in-a-lifetime conversations and news-making moments where the world’s most influential voices discuss the issues that shape women’s lives. It’s an incredible lineup of speakers. Then on Tuesday afternoon, I’ll host a special ceremony to honor The Minerva Awards 2010 winners - Remarkable Women and Remarkable Legacies. You won’t want to miss this inspirational event and special concert.
To help you learn everything you need to know about our amazing 2010 Conference events, we’ve created a special page here on our website as your portal to all of the latest information -- Welcome to the Conference. We’ll be updating the site regularly over the coming months.
So, mark your calendars: Tickets go on sale next Wednesday, June 23 at 9:00 a.m. PDT.
I hope to see you in October!
Announcing The Great May Giveaway Winner
- Architects of Change
Just last week we announced the recipients of the 2010 Minerva Award®. This week we want to share with you the many, many more Minervas among us in The Women’s Conference community.
On May 1st we asked you to tell us when you first realized that you could make a difference -- What was your Minerva Moment?
Hundreds of you have had Minerva Moments and recognize the power you wield in your day-to-day lives. Many of you have started foundations and nonprofits to answer a need in your communities and the world; others have used your time and skills to raise money or awareness on behalf of others. Some of you have stood up to abusive partners, and still others of you have taught your children the value of giving back.
Explore The Women’s Conference community’s many Minervas and Minerva Moments here, My Minerva Moment.
Below is The Great May Giveaway winning response, as well as the three honorable mentions. These women found the strength – sometimes in the face of adversity – to help the women in the Congo who had been brutally raped, to remember that giving back is something we can do every day, to reach out to AIDS patients, and to help other women who have been in abusive relationships.
Winner:
Kate
My Minerva Moment occurred when I was a senior in high school. My mother was watching the Oprah Winfrey show as she normally did after work. One night she called me into the room and told me to watch something very important.
As reporter Lisa Ling told the horrific stories of women who had been brutally raped in the Congo I sat there, tears falling from my eyes. I was so moved to do something—anything!
My heart ached to help so I went before my school administration with the idea of a fundraiser. I was denied at first—told the topic was too racy. I fought for these women because their story needed to be told.
Eventually I received enough support. I ordered the transcripts from the Oprah Winfrey show, created a slideshow of images and retold the stories of these women in front of my entire community.
I put faces to stories, which made the topic real for people, who knew nothing of third-world suffering. There wasn’t an empty seat in the house.
I organized a weeklong bake sale to raise awareness. Donations came pouring in with notes of encouragement. We raised $1,100 and sent it to Women for Women International.
This was my Minerva Moment and it has become my life’s calling. I now work for a women’s magazine in NYC. There is no greater bond than that of one woman to another. It is a bond that knows no boundaries.
Honorable Mentions:
Sally Ann
How great would it be if we were all capable of not only having "Minerva Moments" to share, but we can share what it means to have a "Minerva Lifestyle". So I challenge you all who are writing about your "moments" to really think about not just having "sprinkles" of kindness, greatness, compassion....but consider living a life full of these "Minerva Moments". So many of us take on causes which we excel at but we fail in our day to day life to be loving to our children, kind to housekepeers, compassionate with our .....you know where I am going with this. It is our interaction and relationships with others that allows us to live a "Minerva Lifestyle". Do you inspire every person you meet to be better in some way? Do you bring sunshine as you enter a room? As trivial as this may sound, it is these little acts that send out energy to others that they also deserve a "minerva lifestyle" and hey...before you know it, we are all "minervaing".....if such a "verb" even exist. And if it does not, well maybe it should since Minerva is a word of action so it should be a verb;-) Best of luck to all of you!
Trudie
In 1995, my husband and I were active in a local church. Our pastor was very dynamic but vehemently homophobic, a trait I found troubling. After working for years in the fashion industry, I had many gay friends and a great compassion for the gay community. Rather than change churches, we decided to confront the issue by spearheading an outreach to AIDS patients. The church wanted no part of our proposal, so we pursued the ministry on our own, launching a weekly Bible study at a nearby hospice. Many of the men we ministered to were wary – they had never received love and acceptance from Christians before. One evening, a very ill young man learned I was going through fertility treatments and offered to pray for me. His sweet, simple prayer touched me – he’d wanted nothing to do with God just a few months earlier. He passed away right before his prayer was answered – I gave birth to my son eight months later. At his memorial, the young man’s family thanked me for making a difference in his life. In truth, he was the one who made a difference in mine. Today, my husband and I are still called to reach out to those the traditional church rejects and have a passion to touch all people with God’s unconditional love.
Joanne
Being in an abusive marriage, hiding behind lies and not telling anyone because I felt ashamed; I took this energy to help others. One day at work a supervisor came to me and pleaded with me to help one of the female worker's who had been out "sick" for several days by asking the owner not to terminate her. She was getting out of the hospital after her husband abused her. She did not want to press charges because she had two small children and was afraid. I went to my car and brought a handful of domestic violence brochures in Spanish that I helped create with the Los Angeles DA's office explained that she needed to be safe for her children and her was a list of programs and shelters. The next week the supervisor asked for more brochures. She wanted to hand them out in her neighborhood and she found out there was another lady at work who was also being abused. I gave her a box of the brochures and later learned that the female worker was in one of the shelters and getting help for herself and her children. I decided to start a program "Refuse to Abuse" for high schools along with celebrities, the Los Angeles DA office and people who had been effected by abuse to educate kids and make them accountable to stop the abuse and don't become part of the cycle.
