A week of great advice

Last week was unique for me- I actually attended 3 different non ABI events during the week. The first was on Wednesday night. I went to the Women of Color Action Network meeting that we co-sponsored in our building here at HP. The women who presented were amazing. The lead presenter from Catalyst presented on their new study Unwritten Rules: What you don't know can hurt your career. Be sure to go to their website and download the study- it's a great read on all the things that you need to be aware of in your company and includes a great list of rules for advancement.

The next night I went with Rachelle to see Arianna Huffington speak at the Churchill Club, hosted by Microsoft. This was a very political talk, she was interviewed by a media person who asked questions about what's going on with the government, etc. Arianna was brilliant. I am so excited to hear her speak in May at the Women of Vision awards where her keynote will be tailored towards women. Her talk last week also addressed how she was able to very quickly build the Huffington post into a recognizable brand that clearly competes with traditional media. Some great quotes (and I may be slightly paraphrasing):

• Self Expression is the New entertainment (this refers to all the blogging, tweeting, etc that everyone is doing).
• The president needs to remember to encourage people to be part of the solution to the economic crisis.
• "People with accents need to stick together"
• Must remember Opportunity Cost (something I think of constantly from my grad school days) What we do, forgoes something else.

Saturday I spent the day at SWE's regional conference. I got to speak to an audience of about 45 on our research. I attended several sessions including one on finding a job that had a ton of great ideas come out of it. I'll share some of those in future blogs.

All in all a hectic and busy week last week but one that introduced me to a wide array of terrific women.