It’s an experience. We aim for guests to leave with a sense of self-discovery they hadn’t expected. With new insights about their own career journeys and contacts who can be an integral part of those journeys. That’s what our female leadership conference is all about!
This past November marked the seventh annual RSM Signature Event, a day-long female leadership conference geared to a mixed audience, unlike anything you’ve seen. The vibe, the energy, the intense interaction never fails to turn the day into a memorable, shared experience.
What’s different about the RSM female leadership conference
From the beginning we built this event on three principles:
- We all have something to teach and something to learn from each other at all times, therefore, there wouldn’t be a distinction between “speakers” and “audience.”
- Audience and organizers would co-create the content of the event.
- It would be a mixed audience. Women and men, all backgrounds, a wide range of roles, ages and abilities from college students to the C-Suite.
True, this is not an easy feat to achieve. And it’s much harder to maintain your principles when people who only know traditional female leadership conferences constantly ask you to adjust your model. Yet, year after year we persisted, tweaked and improved our delivery, and here we are. With a hyper successful event that never fails to surprise and to teach each one of us something new and unexpected.
A female leadership conference that involves all stakeholders
One of the aspects that strikes participants from the get go is the wide range of career stages and backgrounds of attendees. It’s by design. Our method only works when you have people at every experience and hierarchy in the organization, the most diverse the better. So it’s a very unique opportunity for an analyst or a recent college grad to sit at the same proverbial table as a senior vice president or Chief Marketing Officer and give each other advice. It’s an exchange that enriches them both and leaves them with an entirely new perspective on what’s possible.
Engaging leaders in two distinct roles
It can be a challenge to engage leaders in a learning model that requires that they wear a different hat than they are used to. We interview our keynote guests, and they interview the audience. We ask executives to play the role of Explorer, asking questions instead of providing advice. We are really lucky to count on a remarkable group of influencers at every conference who not only play along but also help us create an even better event.
Aha moments shared by guests of the RSM Signature Event
We can tell you how wonderful the event was until we turn blue in the face. Yet nobody can describe the experience better than individuals who went through it. So here are a few insightful testimonials.
“The RSM event reminded me in a very vivid way that we all have the ability to add value based on our expertise and unique strengths. That I should always find that one thing that makes me different and that is the same thing that makes me stand out from the rest. That I should continue to be bold on expressing my aspirations and be resilient on the pursuit of them!” — Claudia Vazquez, Director, Product Management, GI/WSG, Prudential
“Excited, inspired and empowered by the Red Shoe Movement panel demystifying Failure. Failure is the key to grow! So instead of focusing on avoiding failure, re-learn, re-tool and re-engage!” — Maria Jose Gomez Silva, Commercial Director Latin America and Canada, Novartis Pharma
“It was a transformational experience and reminder that we need to use our influence and power to support each other.” — Beth Marmolejos, Executive Advisor and IT Account Manager, Anthem, Inc.
“In one of the mentoring circles I was able to see the healing power of a group of women that never met before, and how they impacted someone in need. Collective love, collective, true selves.” — Lorena Kuri Murad, AD Jakavi Brand Lead / D&I Champion Latin America and Canada Region, Novartis Oncology
The extra touches that make a difference
You can’t have the words “Red Shoe” as part of your company name and take yourself too seriously. That’s why we remind people we are at the intersection of self-empowerment and fashion. The fashion piece gives us the perfect excuse to keep humor as part of the courageous conversations we inspire. A little lightness goes a long way to get men and women to work together towards a more equal future.
As every year, we gave away over 50 pairs of red boots and over dozens of ties to participants. Thanks to our committed partners Farylrobin, once again, many of our female guests walked away with a new pair of boots to celebrate #RedShoeTuesday. And many of our male guests took home our new Signature Tie, by our partner Cyberoptix. Now they have the perfect accessory and a specific hashtag #RedTieTuesday to take a stand for gender equality every Tuesday. You can read more about the meaning of the tie here.
We also added a little extra sweet touch. Thanks to our partner Charbonnel et Walker, fine chocolatiers to the British Crown, we put a small “handbag” of chocolate stilettos in the hands of every attendee. Mmmmm… chic, and delish!
A female leadership conference as a culminating event
Year after year we work with scores of female talent inside medium and large organizations to provide specific tools that elicit self-leadership and mutual mentoring. It’s particularly poignant to see one of our past participants win the Red Shoe Leader Award for the work she’s done to promote inclusion inside and outside her organization, Microsoft, as a result of her involvement with the Step Up Plus program. More exciting yet, to have the chance to meet her in person —she’s from Guatemala— as she joined us in New York City for the Awards Ceremony and the RSM Signature Event.
Here’s Patricia Mejia of Microsoft in her own words (in Spanish.)
So you see, it’s not just one thing that makes this female leadership conference unique. It’s a constellation of people coming together to think about the experience of participants. What they are taking away. How they are truly transformed. How they will pay it forward by impacting others with their new insights. And as that experience is a moving target, we try to always be ahead of it, offering what guests didn’t know they needed and they are so happy they found.
