I’m having a disconnect.

One of my women’s career networks – one that boasts an exclusive membership of business professionals, lawyers, politicians, scientists, doctors and more, just sent me an invitation to attend a webinar entitled “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough.”

Huh?

Ok, I’m not saying that this webinar wouldn’t include some valuable information for many of us women, but seriously, what does this have to do with the business network?

Can anyone actually imagine a situation where a men’s business organization would offer a seminar about how to find Mrs. Right?

Are they trying to reduce the size of their membership by marrying off their members to the first available guy?

Or, is this actually a ploy to get women to refocus on their career aspirations and achieve financial security so as to avoid having to settle for Mr. Wrong?

Regardless, it pays to note that the seminar is not even listed on their web site – maybe because it would ruin the credibility of the organization as a place for serious professionals?

…Ya think?

In a country where women are still earning about 80 cents on the dollar compared to men, women’s organizations have a particular responsibility to stop playing into stereotypes and start focusing on topics that can help us achieve the career success we deserve.

Here’s what that means to me…

For starters – let’s please eliminate the beauty and dress-for-success break out sessions at so-called women’s conferences.

(Digression #1: If you are clueless about what to wear, then pick up a copy of Glamour magazine, enlist the help of a personal shopper, or check out an episode of “What Not to Wear.”  Hint: this might be obvious, but at a simplistic level, just make sure you cover up your belly ring and keep your “girls” in check.)

(Digression #2: And, before you go thinking that I’m all business 24/7, I can assure you that it not the case. I love fashion and make up and all that “girly-girl” stuff.  Want proof? I’m on a first name basis with all the staff at Barney’s and Sephora. Seriously, check it out.  And, if you buy me a martini, I might even admit to thinking Hello, Kitty is super cute.)

Ok, now back to the subject at hand…

Seriously, LADIES! There is a right time and place for everything!

Make-up and fashion consultants, mani-pedis and mini back rubs at conferences make me cringe, as do flowery gift bags loaded with beauty products.  Do men do this stuff at conferences? Uh, no. They don’t.  Do we need this at our conferences? Uh, no we don’t.  Or at least we shouldn’t – idealistically.  IMHO. Feel free to disagree.

Instead, women’s conferences should spend time on substantive topics that could make a difference and perhaps open a few doors, such as:

• how to negotiate and get the salary or title you deserve
• how to get respect in a world of old boys’ and their old boys’ networks
• how to break through the glass ceiling and join the C-suite
• how to make sure you’re not outdated when you return to work after having a baby
• how to change corporate culture to embrace more collaborative, women-oriented workstyles and lifestyles
• how to project confidence and feel comfortable bragging about your accomplishments (come on, we all know it works)
• how to start your own business, etc.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, I need to dash. I have a webinar to sign up for.

Oh, and one last thing btw, if you’re not doing anything this afternoon, maybe we could meet up at Bloomie’s? I hear they are having an excellent shoe sale.

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Special Note: For women in Boston, there is an interesting conference coming up on Saturday, February 6, 2010.

The 19^th Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference – from the Women’s Student Association at the Harvard Business School.  Hope to see you there!

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After an entire month of rain in June (ok, well, almost an entire month), this year’s July 4th weekend in Boston proved to be quite a nice surprise. The weather was beautiful.  The skies were clear.  People were happy. Finally.   However, doubts did linger, and  I did see a considerable number of people toting umbrellas just in case. And,  if you put me in Room 101 (sorry, reference to Orwell’s 1984, which I just finished re-reading), I might just admit to carrying one myself.

Anyway, after making a solid but unsuccessful attempt at moonwalking, it was time to head down to the Charles. I was pretty excited to capture some photos  – I thought it was a special thing (my glass is half full) until my bubble was burst by a cynical friend (glass half empty) who commented that these pictures would look just like the ones from last year, and the year before that. Geez.  Anyhow, I ignored that comment and it’s a good thing because after posting them to Twitter, Universal Hub was kind enough to mention my photos in his post about last night’s fireworks.  So I got another 2 or 3 seconds of Internet fame.  Plus, amazingly, it got me to post to this frightfully neglected blog.  

Here are a few more shots. You can view the entire set on Flickr.   These were taken at the end of Mass Ave. in Cambridge, which is a GREAT place to watch the fireworks, although I highly recommend earplugs — it’s pretty noisy from this location.

It’s been over a year since I first posted about the format change of WBOS to Radio 92.9.  For those of us who liked the old station, the switch was KIND OF A BIG DEAL.

I’ve got a pretty low key blog here, and I generally find it distasteful when people quote their stats, but I think it’s interesting too look and see what type of activity I had over the course of a year or so. I’m hoping my buddies over at WBOS/92.9 will think so too.

I still get a decent amount of traffic to this site as a result of people searching on WBOS or Radio 92.9.  YES, PEOPLE ARE STILL GOOGLING THIS TOPIC! According to my WordPress Dashboard, I’ve had 8,398 page views for my WBOS posts. That doesn’t even include the people who viewed multiple posts from the home page. That’s a lot of views.  I’ve had over 200 comments.  The comments have, of course, tapered off, but once in awhile someone still comes along to express their disappointment. 

I said back then that I was listening to WBUR  more. I STILL AM. And, guess what — WBUR actually talks to their customers. In fact, they do an excellent job at cultivating a positive brand image using a variety of social media — such as via Twitter (@wbur), and their regular in-person Tweet-ups where they give fans a tour of the station, engage in conversation and then head out for drinks after. I’m wearing my cozy WBUR fleece jacket as I type this. I shelled out quite a bit of money for this jacket during their fundraiser last fall, and I did so happily because of my relationship with the station.

I also said that I would have loved to listen to The River 92.5 just down the dial from my old station, but the biggest barrier was the reception. Non-existent in my house. Not so good in the car either due to a damaged antenna. Well, guess what? I have a different car now and can listen to 92.5 all I want, which suits me just fine. Plus, just to complicate things, the new car has XM satellite radio. So there.

If you Google 92.5 or WBOS, you will see that my posts are still near the top — maybe not #1 anymore, but still in the top 20 or 30.  I’m still surprised that I never received any official communication from the station.  Way to go!  I was also disappointed at several local journalists who clearly referenced my posts but didn’t link back to my site. Oh well. I wasn’t really doing it for the publicity. In fact, the surge in traffic was a huge surprise. 

So you might be wondering, what ended up happening to the station’s ratings? Did they improve as they had hoped. Well, it looks like they did.  See the ratings: http://tinyurl.com/d6mxnu.  And to show their gratitude to Dana Marshall, the program director who took over in February 2008 and would have been part of this success, Greater Media laid her off in January along with some others. Nice. 

So, in the end, the business bots over at Greater Media will pat themselves on the back and say they did the right thing. Some of their previous audience is likely putting up with the new station because it’s close to their preferred format, and they’ve likely got a bunch of new, younger listeners who like a harder sound. The rest of us, well…we just moved on and it worked out great too.  So I guess it was a win win after all.

After all, it’s not personal, it’s just business.