Networking Event

Within the past two weeks, I have attended two networking events that were both very inspiring. One was held through the Safeway Womens' Network and one was through the Network of Executive Women.  This was my first event through Safeway and second through NEW. My company is a national sponsor of NEW so we all usually attend the bi-annual events.

The Safeway event was interesting because there were two great women leading the event and then a panel discussion. There is this one woman, Larree Renda, who works at Safeway has quite a story. She began her career by working at a Safeway store when she was in her teens. She is now an EVP at Safeway corp. How is that for working your way up the ladder? Diane Dietz was also there and led the panel discussion. She was just voted Marketer of the Year and is the CMO/EVP at Safeway. She is a Mom with two young kids and holds this huge position at the company.

There was a panel made up of two women from Safeway and one from Kraft. The focus of the event was "Pay It Forward." The discussion was all around how do you pay it forward to help others move ahead in their career? How have others paid it forward for you? The key message I took away was that we all need to help one another get ahead. One of the panelist positioned it as "pull others up with you as you are moving ahead."

I met some great people at the networking event after the panel and was able to meet the Panelist from Kraft and was able to see my old boss which was nice!!

This definitely tied in with the new Lean In book by Sheryl Sandberg - which I'm currently reading.






























I actually met a woman at the event whose sister was the editor for this book, ironically.There are so many fans and ciritics of this book - both men and women. I'm just getting into the book so I can't give my opinion of it, yet. I'm sure it will give us all a lot to think about.