Once again, I was fortunate to join many of my Acacia and Cisco colleagues at this event. According to show organizers, this is the nation’s largest conference for women with more than 9,500 people attending! With an A-list of speakers on the agenda, it was hard to choose which were the best, so I’ll just pull out a few of my favorites:

Dr. Joy Boulamwini was the first keynote to take the stage. She is an artificial intelligence (AI) expert, founder of Algorithmic Justice League, a groundbreaking MIT researcher, a model and an artist. On stage, Joy shared her powerful poem “AI, Ain’t I A Woman” and talked about some interesting research she discovered around equality and AI. Through her research, she has shown that lighter skinned men are generally more easily identified by AI than people with darker skin. This creates bias in emerging AI applications such as facial recognition technology. As my colleague Victoria Fernandez pointed out, “Her work reminded us that for all the great things AI can provide, we need to consider how they are built and how this impacts different groups within our society.”

Another interesting presentation was from America Ferrera. While I knew her from her break-out roles in Ugly Betty, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Barbie – I did not realize she was also a long-time activist! America launched Poderistas in 2020, a digital lifestyle community and non-profit built to inform, affirm and inspire Latinas to leverage their power and transform their lives, their community, and their nation. She also co-founded HARNESS in 2016, a community of artists, influencers and grassroots leaders leveraging art and storytelling to power change and create a more equitable world.

America stressed the importance of women and leadership and our relationships with each other. As she stated, “Showing up for the women in our life creates a sense of sisterhood and a sense that we are not in this alone.” I could not agree more and was so grateful to spend the day with some incredible women colleagues!

The conversation with Margaret Atwood, two-time Booker Prize-winning Author of over 50 books, including The Handmaid’s Tale, was educational and entertaining. Her sharp wit and historical knowledge are evident in her writing. One of the inspiring messages she shared with the audience included “While you may not get a choice in making a bad environment way better, you do have a choice of keeping it from getting way worse.”

Connection and Inspiration

Victoria Fernandez (left) and Rachael Sozio at the 2023 Mass Women’s Conference

Colleagues Victoria Fernandez and Rachael Sozio both shared with me some of their favorite presentations. Victoria enjoyed Dame Jacinda Ardern’s presentation – who became the Prime Minister of New Zealand at just 37 years of age and has been a champion of woman’s empowerment. As Victoria pointed out, “Her discussion showed that you can be an effective leader with empathy and sincerity.”

Victoria also spent one of the breakout sessions listening to Jenny Odell’s presentation titled “Reclaim Your Time: A Tool to Revive Your Career.” Instead of providing tips on how to maximize your time, Jenny challenged the audience to consider the very construct of time itself. As Victoria recapped, “She showed the history of the time clock and how it was used to determine costs for laborers. This taught me to reframe the concept of time.” To make her point clear, Jenny gave an example of a flower blooming in February. As she explained, “When that happens, people often say the flower bloomed early, but the flower does not know it’s February. What the flower knows is it has gone through its own cycle and now it is time to bloom.”

One of Rachael’s favorite presentations was by Kimberly Brown who is a career + leadership expert whose mission is to help women and people of color navigate the workplace, make more money, and become industry leaders. Her presentation titled “Next Move, Best Move” provided a framework to help create a career strategy and determine what’s right for you short-and-long term. As Rachel stated, “the idea is to regain control so you can take a strategic approach for making your next best move.” Key takeaways included:

• Get clear on where you are coming from before you decide where you are going.
• Evaluate your past experiences to understand where you want to go.
• Establish a personal and professional brand that aligns with where you want to go.
• Put your plan into action and advocate for yourself in the workplace.

Massachusetts Women Leadership

As a resident of Massachusetts for most of my life, it was exciting to hear from the Massachusetts women leaders, Michelle Wu and Maura Healey, who are both firsts in their respective roles.

As the Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu is the first woman and first non-white person to have been elected mayor of Boston. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she was also the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council.

Governor of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, is the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person elected Governor in Massachusetts history. She is committed to building an experienced, diverse team that is focused on bringing people together and delivering results for Massachusetts residents.

Until Next year

A big thanks to Cisco for being a sponsor of this conference and making our participation possible. We all left feeling bolder, braver and more daring….and we have the benefit of being able to attend the first National Conference for Women, a groundbreaking virtual gathering on March 14, 2024! As Victoria said after attending this year’s event, “We get further in life when we provide meaningful support for one another.”

Like some of the other women’s conferences I have attended, it was inspiring to hear from so many successful women. Gatherings like this are essential for bringing us together and celebrating those accomplishments. It’s nice to see women advancing in every industry – even in optical communications, which has traditionally been male dominated. I was thrilled to see recently that three of the five plenaries will be women at the industry’s biggest event next year,  OFC: Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition.  This is the first time I can remember that happening in the many years I have been attending.

MA Conference for Women Highlights

My favorite interview at this year’s event was with Reese Witherspoon, an award-winning actress, entrepreneur, producer, and New York Times bestselling author. As an advocate and activist for women’s issues across the globe, she established Hello Sunshine, a media brand and content company dedicated to female authorship and storytelling across all platforms.

I appreciate Reese’s passion for literature and her work ethic.  When she was told by a movie studio head that the studio was only developing one women-centric story per year and no more, she flipped the script and turned being underestimated into an advantage by investing her own money to develop projects with women at the center of the story. That changed her entire career.  A great tip she shared was, “Look for inspiration in other people’s actions.” Well, I’m certainly inspired by her story.

One of my colleagues, Wen Wu, also had some insightful feedback from the show.  This was her first time attending the conference and she was in awe at how large scale and inclusive it was. According to Wen, “I loved networking with women from different backgrounds, particularly after a tough three years where we were not able to connect face-to-face that often. One of my favorite presentations was from Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett who co-designed one of the first vaccines for COVID in only 66 days from the viral release. Her dedication to viral immunology, as well as being an advocator for STEM education and vaccine awareness in some underserved communities, was truly inspiring. I admire Dr. Corbett as a scientist, an advocator and as a women leader. I can’t wait to attend again next year and learn more about the amazing group of women!”

A few other notable presenters from the conference include:

• Viola Davis,the first black actress to win Tony, Oscar, and Emmy awards. With her husband, she founded JuVee, which focuses on giving a voice to the voiceless through strong, impactful, and culturally relevant narratives.
• Misty Copeland, a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre and the author of the New York Timesbestsellers Life in Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, and the children’s picture book Bunheads, as well as the award-winning children’s book, Firebird.
• Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who holds a degree in electrical and computer engineering from Olin College and an MBA from Harvard. She spoke about how she made the courageous decision to blow the whistle on Facebook.
• Marlee Matlin, academy award-winning actress and advocate who became deaf at 18 months old, gave solid advice on how to make your voice heard.

Big thanks to the organizers for putting on such an insightful and inspiring show.  If you have the opportunity, I recommend attending. My colleagues and I can’t wait for next year.

Demonstrating its ongoing commitment to support the professional development of women, Acacia, now part of Cisco, participated in the annual Simmons Leadership Conference. While virtual this year, this conference has engaged, impacted and inspired over 100,000 leaders from around the world for the past 42 years and Acacia employees have benefited both personally and professionally through their attendance over the years.

The themes of the 2021 conference were resilience and authenticity and bringing to life the best understanding of these concepts for practical and inspired application. Keynote speakers included Jenna Bush Hager, Co-host of TODAY with Hoda and Jenna, Mindy Kaling, Writer, Producer and Actor, and Tiffany Dufu, Founder and Author of the Cru. In addition, the Simmons Leadership Committee extended it to be a month-long learning event – they followed up the first day with additional speakers every Tuesday throughout April concluding with Ally Love, Founder & CEO of Love Squad, Peloton Instructor & Host of Brooklyn Nets.  She was definitely one my favorites. I enjoyed her closing keynote on women empowerment.  She’s a great storyteller and her belief that “True self-care is taking care of the 3 Ms: your Mind, your Matter, and your Meaning.” really resonated with me.

I sat down with this year’s Acacia participants to find out what their key takeaways were from the event. Almost all of them were impacted greatly by the over-arching message of “authenticity” and the call to bring their authentic selves to everything they do. This was never so apparent than this past year when work and home lives converged as people hunkered down in their home offices with their kids going online right next to them. While most people admitted to generally having a “work voice” and a “home voice,” these different voices became less apparent as people everywhere exposed more of their personal lives to work colleagues as a result of the new “work from home” environment.

Here are a few notable comments from some of the Acacia team on what they found most insightful from the various speakers.

Samantha Surprenant, Executive Assistant
“Dr. Tererai Trent’s story was completely captivating. I could have listened to her all day. This is a woman who launched herself into the unknown, guided by her fierce determination to beat the odds. Nothing scared her and nothing seems to have deterred her. She was humble and worked hard.  She looked to and learned from others for inspiration and mentorship and then she shares her collective experiences as well.  Many of us can relate to the premise of her story, but she takes that desire to survive and thrive to a whole new level.   I just loved her story and I love the confidence in the way she tells it.”

Valeria Arlunno, Ph.D., Technical Consulting Engineer
“I loved how the speakers made the point of realizing who they are based on the previous generations of women that came before them. It was what they accomplished and sacrificed that paved the way for women today and we are much better off because of them. I found this true in my own life and I also agree with the point made about being the best version of yourself even if it might not please everyone. When I was younger, it was assumed if you were a girl you could not be smarter than a boy. It took me a long time to realize that I didn’t have to pretend to not be as smart. I learned I could be myself which might not have been what people expected of me, but it was my true self trying to do what was best for others.”

Wendy Kump, Project Specialist
“Lynn Perry Wooten’s story about the broken Japanese bowls really resonated with me. We can all find beauty in the broken – and take things that break or impact us and use them to make ourselves stronger.”

Christiane Schnaidt, Product Lifecycle New Product Program Manager
“I liked Tiffany Dufu’s presentation. Her talk about being intentional about your job is spot on.  It’s important to know where you want to be.”

Karen Gellatly, Leader, People Consulting
“This was, by far, the single most informative and enjoyable seminar I have ever attended.  Rhonda Henley, Sr. Director, Global Partner Organization at Cisco really resonated with me. She talked about evaluating oneself to be their authentic self at work and how it can be empowering if you do show that true side, and the benefits of working at a company that allows us to do so.”

Finally…. a Good Virtual Conference
In a time where most people are complaining about COVID fatigue and the ineffectiveness of online conferences, the Acacia conference participants unanimously agreed that The Simmons Conference knocked it out of the ballpark as a virtual event. Several thought it was even more exciting online than in person.

We can’t wait to see what next year’s conference holds and until then, as Samantha Surprenant said “Let’s be open to learning from those who are willing to share their experiences with us. That’s how we pass the baton.”