The CREW Network Winter Leadership Summit was held in Santa Clara, California (Silicon Valley) on January 23 – 24, 2020. The Summit kicked off bright and early Thursday morning with an upbeat welcome and opening remarks by CREW Network CEO Wendy Mann, CREW Network President Christine Gorham and CREW Silicon Valley President Kristi Pearce-Percy. Christine set the tone with her football themed comments challenging attendees to “Bring Your A Game!”
Thursday’s morning’s Professional Development session was on Speaking with Confidence and was led by Casey Carpenter, Trainer and Coach with Global Public Speaking. This was an interactive session including one-on-one and small group exercises using the techniques Casey shared with us. The focus was on Impromptu Speaking and the recommended PREP Formula: Point, Reason, Example, Point.
Lunch was on our own, and Meg O’Brien (CREW Richmond President Elect), who also attended the Summit, and I enjoyed a fun Mexican lunch with a large group of CREW leaders from various chapters around the country.
After lunch, were Chapter-to-Chapter Breakout Sessions on the following topics: Finance, Governance, Marketing/Communications, Member Recruitment, Small Chapters and the Role of President and President Elect. I attended the Marketing/Communications session facilitated by Megan Cottrell, Web Content and Community Manager, CREW Network. We discussed new ideas for handling Chapter marketing, such as an Instagram take over by members. One chapter member is assigned to take charge of the Instagram account for the day, and is free to post whatever she or he finds to be relevant and interesting to post that day. The idea is to keep content flowing, while spreading around the responsibility for making it happen.
Next up were Leadership Meetings, followed by a sumptuous cocktail Networking Reception and Leadership Dine Arounds. Meg and I were in the same dine around group and enjoyed a fun and delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant in Santa Clara. Back at the convention hotel, several ladies congregated at the lobby bar for a night cap and more social time.
Friday morning started off with the Council business meeting followed by a Chapter Training session entitled, “Deepening the Bench – Cultivating Future Leaders.” The presenter was Karyn Nishimura Sneath, Owner of Npower. This session featured techniques for developing and expanding the reach for recruiting chapter board of directors members and other leadership. The Summit was concluded with a networking luncheon.
All session materials and presentations are available on CREWbiz for further details.
This was my first CREW Network Leadership Summit and I found it to be extremely worthwhile and great networking with CREW members from around the world, many in leadership positions but others just members who were there for the professional development opportunities. I encourage any member of CREW Richmond to sign up to attend the next Leadership Summit with Meg and me. It will most certainly be worth the time and expense, and the more members we have attending, the easier it will be to share all the great content with our Chapter members.
