2023 Agenda

Bushra has spoken at countless colleges and universities, organizations and international companies, with live audiences ranging from 25 to 15,000 people. She is a recent graduate from DePaul University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Indo-American Democratic

Organization (IADO), GenerationVote, Women Empowering Women in Illinois Legislation (WeWill) and SheVotesIL. She holds her elected seat on the Skokie Board of Education, as its youngest member, is a candidate at Kellogg, Northwestern School of Management pursuing her MBA part-time and continues to work as a Solutions Consultant at Google.

We all hold within us the capacity to become involved and lead – and we do not have the time to wait to be asked to do so. In this talk, Bushra addresses the stigma that leadership is something thought of as larger than ourselves, helping participants find their own voice.

In a 2019 study of 2,500 workers across different industries and roles, 70% of people admitted to regularly lacking confidence in themselves when it comes to their careers and speaking up at work.The closer we are to stepping out of our comfort zones, the louder our inner critic voices can get! When we act on these messages that don’t serve us, we may be limiting our potential, minimizing our ideas, and inhibiting our success. Also, our inner critics can impact how we interact with others, without even knowing it. In this breakout, we’ll learn how to identify our inner critics and start to build awareness for when and where they show up. You’ll also discover that our inner critics not as who we ARE, but rather act as a safety department within us. With this awareness we can start the process of truly taking back our power and confidence.

We live in a world of increasing pressure to do more and more… it’s time to consider what stress does to us, and our energy. Humans are not designed for chronic stress. Evidence suggests that perpetual high pressure can lead to inflammation, chronic disease, and… aging! Over the continuum of time, philosophies from Western and Eastern medicines, identify resilience and relaxation as key players in slowing and improving this process. Join me to learn and implement a simple plan to raise your vibration, and align with a healthy future; allowing your presence to flourish. During this break out session, the chemistry and energy changes associated with vagal nerve activation, the sympathetic nervous system, and background on Chakras, as well as evidence-based perspectives on thoughts and actions that you can implement to facilitate better health and quality of life, will be presented. This is the stuff we need to know.

Maybe you’re feeling it now…that exhaustion that sleep just won’t cure. The overwhelm at the sight of your packed calendar, the frustration with your coworkers, and the all carbs diet you’re on to try and make it through the day. Maybe you’ve felt it before, or know someone who’s in the vortex now.Burnout is on the rise, especially among women. A phenomenon that has its roots in the workplace, burnout has far reaching consequences to our health, our jobs, and it robs us of the lives we want to live. The good news is that it’s solvable. During this interactive breakout, we will be focusing on burnout in the workplace and helping you unlock easy solutions you can start using immediately to find your flow at work.

Public Speaking & Presentation Skills Whether you are a good speaker who wants to hone your skills or someone who panics or gets tongue-tied when having to speak to a large group, this will offer you techniques for speaking with ease in front of one or a hundred as well as simple things you can do to move from being a good speaker to a great one. Preparing a presentation is critical to the outcome, whether presenting to an audience, to leaders above you or clients. How you put your presentation together can make or break the outcome. Learn how to get their attention, keep them engaged and guide them to your call to action at the end without being derailed by your audience. Know how to do your research and present it clearly and concisely to support your goal for the presentation.

Are you tired of feeling like there is always a little something something off when you communicate?It is time to reclaim your voice and become an intentional communicator! In this transformative workshop, I draw on my 3A framework, to empower you with the tools and techniques you need to manage your triggers, lead through self-awareness, and communicate with purpose and impact. Don't settle for being a passive player in your own communication game. Take control, own your results, and start communicating with confidence and success.

Have you wished you could clone yourselves so multiple versions of you could divide and conquer the task list? Have you also had the fantasy of time freezing, and you get all caught up while the world stands still? How about imagining you were gifted an extra hour in your day? How would you spend it? How would you spend an extra day in your week? If you're feeling like there isn't enough time to do everything you want to or need to be doing, this presentation is for you!

Have you ever felt excited about a potential new opportunity, only to miss your chance because you were afraid to take action? Maybe you’re a business owner and need to increase your rates but you’re afraid of losing clients. Or perhaps you’re building a career and want to go for a promotion that seems out of reach. You really want to succeed, yet fear of rejection is keeping you stuck where you are. In this breakout session you’ll learn the skills and strategies of negotiation, self-advocacy, selling your ideas, and asking for what you want in money & business. You’ll discover what has been holding you back from achieving your ambitions, how to determine what you really want, and what you can do to move past fear and into confidently taking action so you get the results you desire.

Feeling unfulfilled and uncertain about your life ahead? We are living 30 years longer than our great-grandparents, so midlife is the time to start thinking about life choices and get clear on what you want in the second half of life. This is a significant time of transition for many women with changing family relationships, re-balancing work and personal life, re-discovering self and thinking about what’s next. As roles change, we seek new identities. The key to our navigation system through midlife transitions is accelerated by making intentional shifts in our mindset, getting clarity around our values to create our purpose, defining our physical, emotional and intellectual challenges and nurturing our relationships and connections to open up opportunities. Join this session to redefine midlife and aging by learning the THREE SHIFTS in Navigating Transitions Midlife and Beyond. This will be an exploration into What’s Next!

Today's working parent is living in a world that requires radical transformation at every turn. Faced with climate change, vast income inequality, and human rights violations making headlines everyday, it can feel overwhelming to consider more intentional community-based activism and philanthropy. Yet it is critical to start if we want to see change for our children and grandchildren. Join philanthropist, activist, and working parent, Alyssa Wright as she shares frameworks and resources that can help you in implementing simple practices, habits, and strategies that will allow you to feel the power of your social and financial capital at work in your community, family and story.

We’re raised in a culture that discourages talking about money, and as a result, many people are never taught healthy financial habits. Allison Bishop is a financial coach who helps her clients become good stewards of their money. She will review how to understand the foundations of your personal finances, as well as provide guidelines and strategies to prioritize among multiple financial goals. She will help you to figure out how to balance your competing priorities, from emergency savings and paying down debt to other savings goals such as retirement, college, and travel. We will do exercises to (1) recognize the areas of your financial confidence which could use some extra love and (2) identify and come up with specific steps to make progress towards a few of your most important financial goals.

Have you ever avoided sharing your opinions because a disagreement just isn’t worth it? Or blown up at a colleague and were left feeling guilty or embarrassed?Well, you’re not alone. Most women go out of their way to avoid conflict. And those who boldly use “straight talk” are likely not resolving conflict either. Most of us didn’t grow up learning how to prepare for a difficult conversation, handle conflict with a colleague, or set limits on loved ones.In this workshop you will: Learn practical strategies to engage with healthy conflict for more authenticity, less stress, and better relationships. Explore how the brain affects humans in conflict and what we can do to manage it. Learn and understand your conflict style (quiz), along with the pros and cons of 5 common conflict styles. Practice managing a personal conflict at work or home with a situation of your choosing.

Perfectionism is drilled into us everywhere we turn, and the results of a tendency for perfection aren't always positive. Perfectionism is an expert at disguise making it more elusive to overcome. How do we move past perfectionism and into productivity? First, we must understand our own perfectionist tendencies; how and when does the need to perfect show up for us? What does 'perfect' even mean? We then must realize the impact our tendency for perfection has on our work and colleagues. As leaders, how can we identify perfectionism tendencies in our team and cultivate excellence and quality without demanding perfection? In this interactive session, we'll explore all these questions and strategies you can use to increase productivity and leverage the positive impacts of perfectionism for yourself and for your team.

We are thrilled to have equity expert and TEDx speaker Dr. Lelia De Andrade present for the Maine Women’s Conference. Dr. De Andrade, a Portland resident, currently serves as the Deputy Secretary of State for Equity and Inclusion following her role as Vice President of Community Impact with the Maine Community Foundation. Additionally, Dr. De Andrade worked as Associate Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence in Portland and as an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Bowdoin College. In 2020 and 2021 she served as Co-Chair of the City of Portland’s Racial Equity Steering Committee.

Join us to hear Dr. De Andrade present “Equity in Maine: Why it still matters and what you can do,” where she will cover the importance of equity efforts for all Mainers and learn practical ways we can work to make Maine a more inclusive environment and positively impact the social and economic future of our state.

Dr. Brittney Ezell’s fascinating career spans coaching elite athletes, launching innovative startups, and driving business growth in a new industry. After a 20-year career as Division 1 Women’s Basketball Coach, Dr. Brittney Ezell pivoted her career from athletics to business leadership, where she now serves as an Executive Vice President for the startup Elite Entertainment Experiences (E3), CEO of Keller Williams in Johnson City, Tennessee where she leads a team of 200+ real estate agents. She recently launched KW Sports + Entertainment (KWSE), a new division that has grown to include more than 700 agents nationwide.

Join us to hear Dr. Brittney Ezell’s motivational keynote presentation drawing on her personal experience where she was forced to reinvent herself following a very public rejection. Brittney says, “Rejection is a redirection and often a protection.” Learn how to see adversity through a lens of abundance and opportunity rather than scarcity to rebuild your confidence and your life.