Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Monday, November 5, 2007

Last week, I set aside a day to recharge my batteries and gain affirmation as a female business leader and as a woman. On Tuesday afternoon, I departed the always-bustling Simple Living offices in Mount Airy for Charlotte, to attend the second annual North Carolina Conference for Women.

I am no stranger to such conferences, having spoken on simple living at the California Governor’s Conference for Women in Long Beach a few years back and last year presenting at the Texas Governor’s Conference on Women in Austin. The idea of these conferences—which are springing up all over America—is to gather women from all walks of life together for inspiration, for knowledge sharing and networking. This year’s theme of “Connect, Inspire, Empower” was compelling enough to attract 2,500 women (and a few special men) to the Charlotte Convention Center. The main sponsor was Wachovia, followed by a full roster of additional sponsors, including Time-Warner Cable, EMC2 and many others, constituting a virtual “who’s who” of important companies serving women in the Carolinas. One of the worthy goals of the conference was to be “zero waste”; to that end, everything given out was recyclable, including the corn based plastic-looking water cups, complete with Wachovia logo. (I plan to bury one in my backyard to test how long it takes to decompose, to watch the process.)

Speakers included CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien; Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue; Marta de Fox, former First Lady of Mexico; and Grammy-award winning singer Kathy Mattea, among others. Mattea confessed to those attending her session that she was “stepping outside her comfort zone” to present a program on “Global Warming: How You Can Make a Difference.” Mattea was introduced by my new friend, Roberta Bowman, the smart, proactive vice president of sustainability and community affairs for Duke Energy, the company sponsoring Mattea’s presentation.

With great energy and strong conviction, Mattea showed slides from Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” presentation and added comments of her own. She said that while Anderson Cooper had gone on record saying that there was “not much” one individual could do about a problem of such enormity, she begged to differ. “It’s about humility, responsibility, faith and the mystery of being human.” All of us departed that session recharged in the mission of making change, of transforming habits large and small. In fact, the impact of the morning session was felt in the afternoon when those of us attending a session on preparing for your financial future heard questions posed to a panel of financial planners from Wachovia on how to invest responsibily, how to invest in such a way that we would help stem global warming.

I loved meeting the women at my tables for breakfast and lunch, peaking inside the centerpiece box and receiving a remarkable DVD from Wachovia of the new PBS documentary, “The Spirit of Sacagawea”; it was a treat to meet other women who are involved in making a difference—including the doc’s Charlotte-based filmmakers, Beverly Penninger and Alyson Young.

It was especially meaningful to me to reconnect with Wachovia’s whiz kid, Ranjana Clark, an old friend from Mount Airy, who is now the company’s vice president of marketing. The personification of charisma, quick wits and a strong work ethic, Ranjana inspired me as she presided over the conference’s opening night reception, as I know she inspires all who work with her and for her.

What a remarkable day. In the end, I am left with many memories, including a heart-felt presentation made by Soledad O’Brien, who held everyone in the palm of her hand by telling her personal story of having an “outrageous” barrier-breaking mother, of experiencing discrimination as a light-skinned African-American, of the struggles she experiences even now, at the top of her game. Her message was universally applauded and undoubtedly inspiring. “The question to ask yourself,” Soledad told us, “is what do you imagine for yourself, your city, your world. Imagine it and go out and build it.” Well put, Soledad!