(The following review excerpts from the GWAMIT blog are by Jean Yang, and used with permission.)
Keynote Address by Cindy Gallop
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Cindy Gallop, 2003 Advertising Woman of the Year and founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld, discusses personal empowerment through professional ventures. Cindy's background is in brandbuilding, marketing, and advertising.
From GWAMIT blog review:
Cindy Gallop, CEO and founder of IfWeRanTheWorld, opened the conference with a talk about finding power in unexpected places to an audience of over 100. Cindy described sources of power through a series of witty anecdotes from her personal and professional life, starting with her stage-acting college days to her days as a high-powered advertising executive to her present career as the founder of a web startup. She deconstructed power into, among other things, the "power of clothes" (finding self-expression and confidence through what you wear), "power of sorry," "power of money," "power of honesty," "power of not caring" (about specific achievements, about what others think, etc.), and, finally, "power of you." The main point of the lecture was a common theme throughout the conference: power comes from knowing who you are, what makes you happy, what you want, and how to best get what you want based on your resources and preferences. The lecture was followed by a Q&A session and a catered reception sponsored by Microsoft.
Communications Workshop—Communications Savvy: from MIT to Everyday Excellence
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Dina Napoli Good arms members at this workshop with the tools they need to be clear, concise and compelling communicators through their words, body language, and tone of voice. The workshop's objective is to improve how people present themselves in conversation through lecture, presentation, and mini practical scenarios. Later on, Benjamin Waber presents his work on the sociometer. A short Q&A session is given after.
From the GWAMIT blog review:
Dina Napoli Goode, president of Napoli Communications Inc., gave an engaging and interactive presentation to an audience of 50 pre-registered attendees. The workshop started off with a series of video clips from female celebrities to showcase the danger of bad communication habits. She then challenged the audience to recall and jot down key "difficult" questions (such as "How is your research progressing?" and "Why should we hire you?") that they wanted to learn how to answer effectively. Dina introduced two key communication tools: flagging, which helps one stay organized while talking, and bridging, which is effective in deflecting difficult questions. The audience practiced their new skills by forming pairs to practice their "difficult" questions. In the meantime, Dina recruited three brave volunteers to be video-taped in one-on-one mock interviews that were then shown to the audience for commentary and critique. During the seminar Ben Waber from the Media Lab also showcased the "Sociometer" application, which can provide useful communication skills feedback by measuring social signals such as voice modulation and level of gesticulation. One attendee said that the tools were "useful" especially "in situations where you are caught off guard." One of the women videotaped said, "I learned so much about myself from observing other's responses."
Online Personal Branding
This video is from MIT TechTV, and is not covered under our Creative Commons license.
This workshop is led by Nicholas Lamphere, a professional social media consultant and instructor, and Tilke Judd, an EECA graduate student. Lamphere and Judd show how to promote yourself and your work online through social media and the creation of a website.
Part 1: Nicholas Lamphere talks about online personal branding.
Part 2: Tilke Judd demonstrates how to make a personal website in only 15 minutes.
Other 2011 Conference Sessions
"I'm not a feminist, but…"
"Conversations on Modern Feminism with a Lawyer, an Activist, & an Academic" was the final event of the Empowerment Conference, with the tagline "I'm not a feminist, but…" to initiate dialogue on that often-heard phrase and contextualize the importance of feminism for the MIT community. The panel featured lawyer and Harvard Law School lecturer Diane Rosenfeld, writer and Women, Action, & the Media (WAM!) founder Jaclyn Friedman, and Harvard biology Professor Pardis Sabeti. The moderator was MIT Prof. Elizabeth Wood from History and Women's & Gender Studies.
Prof. Wood opened the panel with a thought-provoking discussion on the historical trajectory of "feminism" and its role in shaping the careers of young women. Panelists told stories of their feminist "ah-ha" moment, and shared experiences of successes and challenges within school and the workplace with regards to gender discrimination. Rosenfeld discussed current legislation on issues of sexual violence, healthcare, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Friedman spoke on representation and the influence of the media as both a tool of exploitation as well as empowerment. Sabeti spoke about unconscious bias in academia and the workplace and urged young scientists to stick to their convictions and push to "have a voice at the table."