The POWER of Collaboration

After a beautiful event in the Mohawk Valley two Women TIES members sat down with me asking me when I was hosting the 8th Annual “Inspiring Success: The Women TIES Retreat.” I told them I was not sure if I could host it this year because my Boston Marathon training had taken me away from my business when I needed to be raising sponsorship funds for the event. With heavy hearts, they said they understood but wished I would reconsider.

Serendipity struck a couple weeks after that event when two of my local business friends approached me about their interest in hosting a meeting with all the female leaders of Syracuse’s women’s entrepreneurial groups to discuss the mission of each organization and to work on collaboration between the organizations. Because I have been a local pioneer supporting female entrepreneurs since 1995, I told them I would think about their intent and try to come up with some ideas for a gathering.

As I reminisced the pleas of my members to continue producing the Retreat and the desire of these two women to bring together CNY women in a more collaborative nature, I proposed the idea of P.O.W.E.R.” as a twist off the Retreat for one year to aid the women who had spoken to me.

P.O.W.E.R. stands for “Powerful. Optimistic. Women. Entrepreneurs. Retreat.” Together my two event partners Gwen Webber-McLeod and Laura Serway and I would bring together the women in leadership roles in the Central New York business market and their members to this event so we could all really get to know each other and be inspired together to making our region the most collaborative one for women entrepreneurs.

Since Women TIES is unique in its New York State and regional mission, I reminded my girlfriends any woman in any region around New York would be invited to join us. I have members from Albany to Rochester, Oswego to Binghamton and the Mohawk Valley to the Finger Lakes. I want them to know they were invited to attend because I believe regional women should be doing business together.

Serendipity struck again when the business card of someone in Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul‘s office and Juanita Perez Williams, who is a democratic woman running for Syracuse Mayor, both offered to ask Lt. Governor Hochul to speak at the event for me. How fortunate was I to be blessed with two new contacts to make that connection happen?

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you that women are collaborative in nature. Just when you might not know where to turn to get an answer to a problem, sponsor for an event, special guest appearance, partners, and marketing exposure, you get it. You get it because you are use to doing the same for other women. Women love collaboration.