Following a COVID-induced year off, the Women in Retirement Conference was back in person in January. Here’s a wrapup of this year’s event.
The day began with pouring rain as we arrived in Fort Lauderdale for our first in-person Women in Retirement Conference in two years! We were excited and had such great expectations for the event that no one even seemed to notice it was raining.
With great expectations comes real-life challenges—in this case, the rain kept us from enjoying a rooftop reunion. So instead we moved to the Oceanside Ballroom. It was full of amazing views and no high winds, proving challenges can lead to even better outcomes.
Once the excitement of being back in person subsided, we started with our theme for our time together: “Intentional Networking” led by co-WiRCer Jessica Fox. Jessica was brought back by popular demand from our Third Thursday event last June.
In her session, attendees were encouraged to find another person in the room they had not met and ask two questions: “what do you do?” and “what is your passion?” There was a brief moment of panic in everyone’s eyes as they realized they were going to have to go mingle with someone they had never spoken to after two years of sitting at home in their pajamas. Surprisingly, this exercise gave everyone the tools to jump into action, find a buddy, and start networking. We learned that those two questions made the conversation flow easily; by the time we needed to move on to dinner, it was hard to quiet the room. Thankfully, we were able to continue with our intentional networking exercise during dinner.
Once at dinner, the second round of panic set in, with assigned seating at the tables. Using our new intentional networking skills, the conversations were overflowing. However, the evening did not end there: there were optional activities to get out and enjoy Fort Lauderdale, including the famous Elbo Room, conversations and cocktails at the hotel bar, and ice cream on the beach.
With 80 first-time co-WiRCers, it was important for us to make attendees feel welcome and included even if they didn’t know anyone else in attendance. It is always intimidating to go to large industry events and having to scramble to find someone to have dinner with so you don’t have to eat alone! There was no such worry at WiRC—the entire event is programmed so that attendees can continue their days together and have activities planned to build conversations, continue learning, and inspire collaboration efforts going into each evening. Hopefully, at your next industry event, you will have a connection with someone you met at WiRC!
To read more, click here.
