The Womens Conference
The Nations Premier Forum For Women
Daily Blog
Seeking Architects of Change to Be The Face of Our Movement
- Architects of Change
- Maria's Post
Dear Conference Community,
Has The Women's Conference empowered you to be an Architect of Change in your own life or in your community? Did it inspire you to make positive changes, whether large or small, that made a real difference for you?
If so, we would like to honor your work as Architects of Change. In 2004, we set out to create a conference event and year-long organization that would empower women to become Architects of Change. This was our mission. And YOU have made this movement happen.
We want to feature YOUR PHOTO on the cover of our Main Event program cover that will be given to 14,000 attendees.
Your photo will combine with thousands of other headshots to create beautiful photomosaics of some of our favorite conference moments from past years.
If you consider yourself an Architect of Change, you are an important part of the success of this conference. Whether you are attending this year's conference events or not, we want to include you as a face of our movement.
To be featured on the cover of our Main Event program, simply email us a high resolution (300 dpi minimum) close-up photo of you to the following address: quick94one@photos.flickr.com. Sorry, we can't feature group photos -- just individual head shots.
The Subject line of your email should read "Architect of Change: Your Name". Please email your photo no later than next Thursday, July 15.
I am looking forward to seeing you!
Warmest Regards,
Maria Shriver
P.S. Stay tuned. We'll be posting the final artwork later in the fall on WomensConference.org and our Facebook Page for all to see.
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!
A Transformational Moment in Our History
- Maria's Post
When last year’s Women’s Conference sold out in just a couple of hours, it hit me that something profound was going on with women. We’d program a workshop on caring for aging parents, and it was standing-room-only. We’d bring in speakers to talk about how to start up a business, and the rooms were packed. We couldn’t book enough sessions on empowerment, activism, and spirituality. All of them were filled, and people were asking for more. I wondered what was going on.
We decided we needed to learn some new, hard facts about today’s American woman. Who is she? How does she live? What does she think? What does she earn? What are her politics? How does she define power? How does she define success? What does she think of marriage? What does she really think of men? How does she want to live her life moving forward?
The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything breaks new ground by taking a hard look at how women’s changing roles are also affecting our major societal institutions: our government, businesses, religious and faith institutions, educational system, the media, and even men and marriage. And we examine how all these parts of the culture have responded to one of the greatest social transformations of our time. We look at where we are and where we should go from here.
For the first time in our nation’s history, fully half of the American work force is female—and mothers have become the primary breadwinners in nearly half of American families. That’s a sea change from 40 years ago. With more and more men forced to stay home due to unemployment, more and more women are bringing home the bacon. Women are more likely than ever to head their own families. They’re doing it all—and many of them have to do it all. As you’ll read in this report, women have now taken their place as a powerhouse driving the economy.
As we move into this phase we’re calling A Woman’s Nation, women can turn their pivotal role as wage-earners, as consumers, as bosses, as opinion-shapers, as co-equal partners in whatever we do into a potent force for change. Emergent economic power gives women a new seat at the table—at the head of the table.
It’s a transformational moment in our history—much as the opening of the West, industrialization, the great 1960s civil rights campaigns, and the flowering of the Internet age have all irrevocably altered the fabric of American life. With working women now the New Normal, striving and succeeding in areas where they never have before, so many assumptions and underpinnings of our society are cracking open. The rumbling is shaking the ground in every corner of the culture, and many women and men are struggling to get their footing. The effect on every sector of our society will be deep, wide, and profound.
In 2009, women have more choices than they did 40 years ago. We’ve learned that while there’s much to cheer about, we still have a long way to go. Women’s expanding role in families, industry, the arts, government, politics, and other institutions is altering the American landscape. Women are learning they no longer have to shoehorn themselves into one stereotype or another, but they can do so if they choose—or they can make it up as they go along.
It’s in this new world that I’m raising four children. I’m trying to teach my boys to understand that the women in their lives will work and will have independent minds. I’m trying to teach them not just how to hold the door open, but how to do their own laundry and make their own mac and cheese. I’m also trying to teach my girls how to advocate for themselves, be smart about their finances—and to look not for a savior, but a loving, supportive, open-minded partner.
We hope this report will help inform us all about this transformational time and ignite a national conversation about how our institutions need to adapt to the unfolding of A Woman’s Nation.
Here at The Women’s Conference website, we’ve invited influential writers, journalists, opinion leaders, educators and business leaders – men and women – to be part of that conversation. Pull up a chair at Our Kitchen Table to check out what they have to say. Visit The XX Effect: Generation to Generation to learn how women across the generations answer the question, "What Do Women Want?" Then join the conversation on our Community Forum.
The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything is a study by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress.
Join Us at The Village
- Maria's Post
The response to this year’s conference has been overwhelming, to say the least.
For those of you who experienced technical difficulties this morning with ticket registration, we are truly sorry. We doubled our server capacity this year in anticipation of very high demand. We received hundreds of thousands of simultaneous requests at 9:00 a.m. and it overwhelmed our servers. Thousands of people did make it into the ticket queue before the servers crashed and were able to fulfill their ticket requests over the span of the next two hours. Tickets to the main conference event on Tuesday, October 27 sold out shortly thereafter, as did tickets to A Day of Transformation on October 26.
Tickets are still available for Night at The Village on Monday evening, October 26 and the special presentation of The Minerva Awards during the Afternoon Session of The Women’s Conference main event on October 27. Night at The Village – The Place to Be, will once again transform the Long Beach Convention Center’s exhibit hall into a 160,000 square foot women’s village of inspiring interactive experiences, offering attendees the chance to “Meet, Mix and Mingle with Architects of Change.” Night at The Village will include a main stage program featuring Martha Beck, chef Paula Deen, and fitness expert and best-selling author Jillian Michaels; three “stagette” programs featuring Seane Corn, Kathy Ireland, Victoria Jackson, Mario Lopez and many others on topics relating to mind, body and spirit empowerment; book signings by best-selling authors including Candace Bushnell, Kate Gosselin, Caroline Kennedy, Sue Monk Kidd, Mario Lopez, Greg Mortenson, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and others; live music; and hundreds of vendors with products and services geared to women.
We are so pleased that so many women want to be a part of the conference community, and we expand our conference every year to reach more and more women.
So, join us at The Village! And if you are not able to join us in person this year, we will be bringing you the best moments with live and exclusive online features and interviews throughout the day on our website.
We hope WomensConference.org becomes your daily visited “Home for Architects of Change” 365 days a year.
Be Who You Are…An Architect of Change. Pass it On
- Maria's Post
The Women’s Conference 2009, like all of us, is embracing change – evolving and moving forward in new directions. This year’s conference is set to be our most exciting event yet with a terrific lineup of leaders, innovators and thinkers. The main day of the Conference, on Tuesday, October 27th, will continue to be a time when we gather to unite around a common purpose, explore issues that affect our lives, share our inspirational stories, and empower one another to be Architects of Change in our lives, in our communities and in the world.
In response to your enthusiasm, this year we’ve expanded the Conference to last two full days. Join us on the morning of Monday, October 26th for a brand new event -- A Day of Transformation, special sessions full of Tips & Tools for How to Become an Architect of Change. Following the sessions, we’ll host an expanded Night at The Village – with even more speakers, authors, shopping and entertainment. The Village is The Place to Be…Mix, Meet & Mingle with Architects of Change.
The impact of The Women’s Conference has extended far beyond our annual event in California. For millions of women, and men, who want the opportunity to engage and connect, we have created a new gathering place here online, where -- every day -- we can empower and inspire one another to be Architects of Change as advocates, mothers, artists, caretakers, teachers, friends or entrepreneurs.
We invite you to explore our new website – a Home for Architects of Change -- and let us know what you’re thinking about, talking about and doing in your own lives. We want you to join our conversation at “Our Kitchen Table” where we talk about the most relevant issues in our lives – family, work, life balance, health and public service. Tell us what you're talking about around your kitchen table. This is where we are all free to be who we are -- to feel it, see it, use it and to pass it on.
We hope you’ll bookmark the site so you won’t miss the timely blog posts, articles, features and videos authored by some of the luminaries who speak at the Conference, as well as other experts, writers and journalists. And, if you can’t join us in person at the 2009 Conference, you can experience the energy and inspiration of the two-day event here online with amazing speakers and exclusive online interviews and content. You can even gather and watch with your family, friends or colleagues – at home or in the office.
Whether at the conference itself, or here on our website, the message remains the same: Be Who You Are…An Architect of Change. Pass It On. Who you are is here.
