IWIRC Leadership Summit
Jennifer Meyerowitz, Olofson Technology Partners
July 15 - 17, 2015
New York, NY
The IWIRC Leadership Summit is always my favorite conference of the year. It is a time when the Board of IWIRC and all the network chairs from around the world come together to learn more about each other, IWIRC, and ways to improve, strengthen and grow IWIRC, our firms, our connections and networks, our businesses and our personal brands. This year’s IWIRC Leadership Summit, held in New York City and hosted by the New York Network, was no exception. To sum it up – it was awesome! There were over 80 attendees at the Summit representing IWIRC Networks from Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, Canada, the United States and Europe. The opportunity to meet each other, learn each other’s practices, share business development ideas and tips and improve our IWIRC networks and personal brands was unique and invaluable.
Credit goes out to the New York Network for putting together an incredible two days of programming. The Summit included a dinner in Times Square at Tony's DiNapoli sponsored by KCC, IWIRC and IWIRC NY Network; a dinner at Ed’s Chowder House across from Lincoln Center; exquisite accommodations on Central Park at the Essex House; excellent lunches and breakfasts and beautiful conference space at the offices of Morrison & Foerster; and a speaker, sponsored by Epiq Systems, who engaged the group and challenged us to create and grow our own personal brands. At our business meeting, we watched a TED talk by the author of the book Break Your Own Rules, and we engaged in a thoughtful discussion of the book’s subject, developing leadership skills in the real world. It was enlightening and thought provoking to hear from women with different levels of experience, diverse backgrounds and business segments. Our discussion on personal brands prompted all of us to think of additional and different ways to get in front of clients and make our personal brands known.
After the business session, attendees traveled by subway as a group to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero for a guided tour and a separate walking tour. Experiencing the Memorial & Museum together, as a group, was an emotional, educational and enlightening experience for all of us to share.
The New York Network outdid themselves in the planning, coordinating and sponsoring of the 2015 IWIRC Leadership Summit. As we always say at the end of each Summit: the next network to host the Leadership Summit has big shoes to fill. That being said, I challenge all of the IWIRC networks to submit a proposal to host the Leadership Summit in your region and work to uphold the tradition of bringing women together for such an amazing experience of professional and personal growth and development. As Carren Shulman, Co-Chair of the NY Network, said “Bringing us together is the key to our development as leaders and lawyers.”
I look forward to seeing all of you at the IWIRC Annual Meeting in Miami in September, and I can’t wait to find out which IWIRC network will host next year’s Leadership Summit.
Jennifer Meyerowitz