A few weeks ago, I attended the Smart Girls Conference hosted by the Smart Girls Group. I became a member of this online group some time in 2012. The group empowers young women to network with each other, help one another, and ultimately live a well-rounded "smart" life. There is no membership fee for joining the group, all they ask is you to contribute your passions and interests to benefit the group as a whole. My contribution is writing for technology column on their blog called the Smart Girl's Loop. I enjoy writing for their blog and reading articles written by other girls just like me.
This group was only a virtual network I was a part of until I decided to attend their very first self-hosted conference. The conference overall was an awesome experience! It was the first conference I ever attended and it exceeded my expectations completely.
There were several interesting guest speakers ranging from media, blogging, fashion, and career, keynote presentations, lots of food and snacks, and incredible gift bags. Speakers such as Stephanie Ruhle from Bloomberg news, Makenzie Horan from Design Darling, Carly Heitlinger from The College Prepster, Kayla Webley from Marie Clare, Renata Mutis Black from Empowered by You, Lauren Lally from RewardStyle, Brenda Berkman the first woman firefighter of NY, Arthur Woods from Imperative, Shiza Shahid the CEO of the Malala fund, Soraya Darabi from Zady and many more!
All these speakers and presenters had great things to offer over the course of the 2-day conference. I learned a whole lot (10 things in particular that I would like to share) from the presenters and attending the event itself.
1. Saying I can't do this because (I have a family, I go to school, I have a job)... is not an excuse. You can make time for anything that is important to you.
2. Work hard on yourself, don't be hard on yourself. I took personally to this lesson because I am one to always be hard on myself, but it shouldn't be that way. We are all here to progress, not to finish the race.
3. Don't compare yourself, your brand, your blog, and your company to others.
4. Be sweet and kind to everyone, all the time, in every way.
5. Finding your purpose is a continuing process.
6. Take a vacation away from work, travel, and relax. Don't worry about work changes and deadlines while you're gone. When you come back, everything will be where you left off.
7. Traveling into NYC is not as hard as I thought it would be. I traveled to and from NYC both days of the conference and the second day I even found myself knowing where the nearest Starbucks was in order to pick up some coffee before the conference.
8. Becoming a grown-up means tailoring your professional decisions according to who you want to be as a person.
9. Media gives you the perception that success happens over-night, but you don't see the seven years of hard work that happened before the success.
10. Networking is hard to do. It's not easy approaching someone you don't know and making a good enough impression to hand out a business card that leaves them remembering who you are.
It was a great experience, I was able to meet so many of the people I e-mail and network with online, in-person. I even met the founder of the Smart Girls Group, Emily Raleigh. She's a wonderful inspiration and a very strong leader. Plus, she's only a couple years older than I am and she managed to create this community of hundred of girls striving to be successful!
I am certain I am attending next year's conference and you should too! If you do, send me a tweet and we'll exchange business cards!
P.S. This gift back was awesome and I love the Day Designer Planner by Whitney English!
1. Saying I can't do this because (I have a family, I go to school, I have a job)... is not an excuse. You can make time for anything that is important to you.
2. Work hard on yourself, don't be hard on yourself. I took personally to this lesson because I am one to always be hard on myself, but it shouldn't be that way. We are all here to progress, not to finish the race.
3. Don't compare yourself, your brand, your blog, and your company to others.
4. Be sweet and kind to everyone, all the time, in every way.
5. Finding your purpose is a continuing process.
6. Take a vacation away from work, travel, and relax. Don't worry about work changes and deadlines while you're gone. When you come back, everything will be where you left off.
7. Traveling into NYC is not as hard as I thought it would be. I traveled to and from NYC both days of the conference and the second day I even found myself knowing where the nearest Starbucks was in order to pick up some coffee before the conference.
8. Becoming a grown-up means tailoring your professional decisions according to who you want to be as a person.
9. Media gives you the perception that success happens over-night, but you don't see the seven years of hard work that happened before the success.
10. Networking is hard to do. It's not easy approaching someone you don't know and making a good enough impression to hand out a business card that leaves them remembering who you are.
It was a great experience, I was able to meet so many of the people I e-mail and network with online, in-person. I even met the founder of the Smart Girls Group, Emily Raleigh. She's a wonderful inspiration and a very strong leader. Plus, she's only a couple years older than I am and she managed to create this community of hundred of girls striving to be successful!
I am certain I am attending next year's conference and you should too! If you do, send me a tweet and we'll exchange business cards!
P.S. This gift back was awesome and I love the Day Designer Planner by Whitney English!