Off Zoom + Into IRL
I have spent most of the last two years talking to you through a screen.
Zoom squares, replays, comment threads at 11 pm. All of it real, all of it useful. But something shifted for me after I gathered 100 women in D.C. last fall and watched what happened when people were actually in a room together. Phones down. Real conversation. Actual friendship, not “let’s connect.”
So I"ve booked a few flights.
Three of them, in eight days, in the middle of a back-to-school season that already has me running swim carpool with a laptop in the passenger seat. (Four daughters. One September. You get it. This is going to be wild.)
Here is where I’ll be. I would love to see you at any of them.
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SEATTLE // Monday, September 15, 6:00-8:30 pm PT
The Exhale: Put Yourself First
My friend Kim O’Hara is hosting this one through The Delicious Life, in partnership with The Riveter and Elevate Consulting Collective. Here’s what it is not: networking. No one will ask what you do. No one will mention their goals or their title or their pipeline.
Here’s what it is: live music from a local female performer, light snacks, a Laurel Denise weekly planner in your hands, and two and a half hours of figuring out what small thing you could actually give yourself. That’s it. That’s the whole ask.
One attendee at her last event in California told Kim she came because she “needed a setting where I could find women just like me going through some change.” I read that and thought: yes, that is exactly the year I’m having.
Tickets are $55 and registration is approval-based, so don’t wait.
NEW YORK // Monday, September 22, 10:00 am ET
From Setbacks to Setups
My friend Amy Shoenthal — bestselling author, Forbes columnist, genuinely brilliant marketing strategist — is hosting a small facilitated salon with AARP built around her Setback Cycle framework.
Not a panel. Rather, a curated group of people talking honestly about pivots, disruption, and what actually comes next, kept intentionally small so everyone in the room gets to speak.
If you are in the middle of something right now — a reinvention, a detour you didn’t choose, a shift you can’t quite name yet — this is the room. You do not have to arrive with it figured out. (You are all well aware that I never have it figured out.) That’s sort of the point.
It’s free. It’s small. Register now
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA // September 23-25
Ragan’s Leadership Retreat & Summit for Women
I’m honored to be speaking at this one, and I’ll be honest about why I said yes: they capped it at 60 senior women in communications, marketing and HR, and they traded the slide decks for actual peer-to-peer conversation.
Three days. All-inclusive. Deep discussion, practical sessions, and the kind of connections that stick because you had time to build them.
If you’re a comms, PR, marketing or HR leader, come. (And I have a killer discount code: See below!)
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Now, three things you can do about all of this:
- The first woman who replies to this email from Washington gets my ticket to Seattle AND the first from NY/NJ a seat next to me in New York. First reply. That’s the whole contest.
- Thinking about Arizona? Reply and I’ll send you an amazing discount code. I would genuinely love to see you there.
- Can’t make any of them? Reply anyway and tell me what city I should be in next.
And one more thing: be on the lookout Thursday. It has been a busy back-to-school season and I have been thinking a lot. Time to share.
Rooting for all of us,
Amy
p.s. If you're in Columbus, join me on October 1, 530-830 pm et for a hometown event with my friend (and Midwest legend) Keri Croft. This gathering is a DJ, Donatos, a live content studio, quick honest conversations with some of Columbus's most badass founders, and a room full of women you probably should already know. (I'm honored to be a speaker here, too!). The room is the magic. Strangers walked in and were trading introductions within ten minutes.
Space is intentionally limited. Come curious. Grab your ticket here.
