MANALAPAN, FLA. — A powerful voice for women in Congress set the tone for the second annual Women’s Conference hosted by EmpowHER of the Palm Beaches.
“When women succeed, America succeeds, and so does the world,” U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, said to the more than 200 women and girls in attendance at the Women’s History Month event at the Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa in Manalapan.
The theme of the conference was Hidden Figures: Women Leaders are The Voice, The Catalyst, The Future. In an homage to the scholarly women portrayed in the motion picture “Hidden Figures,” several conferencegoers proudly donned orange plastic replicas of horn-rimmed glasses for a group photograph.
Frankel was one of several dynamic general session and breakout session speakers who revealed how they managed to succeed in male-dominated arenas and encouraged the women in attendance to never give up pursuing their passions.
Another such speaker was Sylvia Blackmon-Roberts, president and CEO of Blackmon Roberts Group, Inc., a public planning and management-consulting firm founded in 1992 with multiple offices locations in Florida.
Blackmon-Roberts, who often found herself the only female in the meetings she attended, offered five tips for enterprising women.
First, find a business mentor, and “make sure they’ve walked where you want to go,” she said. Second, time management is important. Learn the word “no,” she said, adding that “as women we try to do it all.”
Third, image matters. “People like doing business with people who look like they’re making money,” Blackmon-Roberts said. Fourth, find out what it takes to build a profitable business, even if you have to educate yourself.
Fifth, write a business plan and stick to it. “Sometimes it will be hard and you will hear a lot of no’s,” she said.
She concluded by encouraging women to become informed voters. “When we have a great candidate, we have to write some checks to support that candidate and then we have to show up at the ballot box,” said Blackmon-Roberts, who also serves as International Connection (Social Justice) Chairman of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
Also speaking at the conference was Palm Beach County business and political leader Priscilla Taylor, who reminded those attending that the time is now to move beyond rhetoric. “We must move beyond recognition of problems to working together to find solutions to these problems,” she said. “We must speak up and speak out if necessary. And it’s time to work alongside our brothers. We don’t have to do it alone.”
The final plenary speaker was a woman who has achieved success on a national stage. In 2003, Ericka Dunlap was the first black woman to be crowned Miss Florida in the 80-plus year history of the state’s pageant. She went on to receive the Miss America crown the following year. Today she is the founder of the Crown Jewel Foundation, and she recently ran for public office in her hometown of Orlando.
Dunlap, who has overcome a great deal of personal adversity since her reign as Miss America, offered additional words of advice to those in attendance. First, be true to yourself and then “learn to show up for yourself,” she said.
In addition, she advised the audience to “live out your purpose.” Although challenges will come, “you have to push through to be able to tell your story.”
In another photo-worthy moment, Dunlap surprised a member of the audience by placing the Miss America crown her head as a birthday present.
The audience included members of EmpowHER’s Leadership Academy for Girls, who recently attended the Florida Commission on the Status of Women 2018 Women’s Legislative Education Summit in Tallahassee. The teens also witnessed the 2018 Legislative Session, sat in on a committee meeting, met with legislators and visited colleges during their time in the state capital.
The emcee for the conference was WPTV-NewsChannel 5 anchor and multimedia journalist Hollani Davis.
