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Explore entrepreneurship, professional passions, networking strategies and how to discover your true potential at Business Report‘s 2024 Women’s Leadership Symposium.
This second annual event will take place on May 21 and will be immediately followed by the Influential Women in Business celebration. The Women’s Leadership Symposium is sold out, but you can get tickets to the luncheon here.
The symposium kicks off at 7:30 a.m. with networking and a continental breakfast. The program gets underway at 8:15 a.m., with 10 dynamic women sharing their insights and experiences on work/life topics. Speakers and panelists include C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, nonprofit changemakers and executive coaches.
Keynote speaker is serial entrepreneur Jaime Glas Odom. She holds dual degrees in petroleum engineering and international trade and finance, and is fluent in Mandarin. But she’s always had a passion for fashion, and that passion kept calling―even as she worked on a land drilling rig in Texas. Tired of wearing ill-fitting flame-resistant coveralls that were made for her male co-workers, this engineer decided to design her own as a side hustle that later became a full-time pursuit. Her company, HauteWork, was the first flame-resistant clothing line in the nation to focus exclusively on apparel for women in industry. In 2019, the newly minted entrepreneur sold her line to National Safety Apparel. Today, her third company, Queen of Sparkles, is a favorite of Coach Kim Mulkey and thousands of other women around the globe looking for some sparkle and glam in their everyday fashion.
The event will also feature two panels. The first, Building Your Network, features a panel of veteran connectors sharing their experiences on how to build — and nurture — professional and personal networks with authenticity. They’ll also share inside tips for getting in the door to serve on community boards and growing strategic connections through social media. The second, Discovering Your True Potential, explores how in a culture that focuses so intensely on success, it’s easy to feel like a failure or settle for something in our comfort zone. But maybe that’s because our views on achievement are wrong. Building on themes from the book Hidden Potential by author Adam Grant, panelists will share how they accelerated their own careers by leaning into discomfort and learning from challenges and failures.
Speakers and panelists include Julie Becnel, founder & principal of Little Rouge Hen; Sabrina Galloway, principal strategist of The Galloway Group and COO and co-founder of Ethics; Rachel Eggie Gibbs, owner of EGGIE Salon Studio; Katie Fetzer, co-owner and co-founder of The Wellness Studio; Christel Slaughter, CEO of SSA Consultants; Melissa Thompson, consultant and coach of Success Labs; Ann Trappey, interim president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber; and Kathy Victorian, Medicaid territory marketing manager for Healthy Blue Louisiana.
The Influential Women in Business Luncheon will follow, with a celebration of the honorees, who will also take part in a special panel discussion. The 2024 honorees are Jodi Conachen, COO, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center; Lana Crump, General Counsel and Partner, Kean Miller; Rachel DiResto, Managing Director, Emergent Method; Melissa Dotson, Expansion Manager, Shell Chemical Geismar; Meredith Hathorn, Managing Partner, Foley & Judell; Tessa Holloway, CEO, Kidz Karousel; Cheri Johnson, Senior Vice President of Patient Care and Chief Nursing Officer, Woman’s Hospital; Amanda Martin, President and CEO, Studyville; and Alicia Vidrine, CFO, Tiger Athletic Foundation.
Both events will provide opportunities for strategic networking and tangible takeaways for both rising and seasoned professional women, and are sponsored by Mercedes Benz of Baton Rouge, b1BANK, Kean Miller, Window World and Woman’s.
Get all the details and purchase tickets to the Influential Women in Business luncheon here.
