Feed forward: 2nd Annual Energetic Women’s Conference
Stephanie Menning, Midwest ENERGY Association

“Energetic Women has already had an impact”, stated Anthony McCain, Vice President Field Operations for Nicor Gas and MEA Chair of Board as he welcomed 90+ to the 2nd Annual Energetic Women’s Conference in Scottsdale. Nicor, like South Jersey Industries and others have started their own internal employee resource groups for women in their companies and are using Energetic Women as a resource for their leaders, present and future.

Anita Romero, Vice President, Southern Nevada Division, Southwest Gas welcomed the group to her territory by sharing impressive company statistics. She outlined Southwest’s growth and demonstrated solutions for doing more with the same amount of personnel through technology. She also shared some key points in her leadership style.

Special recognition was also given to Patty Walker, Sr. Vice President Ohio/Kentucky Operations, Duke Energy as the first-ever recipient of the Maverick Award. A more in-depth story on Patty can be found in this newsletter and on the website. Congratulations and thanks Patty for supporting women in this industry!

For the 2nd year in a row, we received an over 50% response rate on the conference evaluations, demonstrating the passion and commitment in the industry for Energetic Women. The responses were overwhelmingly positive with 100% of all respondents indicating the Conference was well worth their time and investment. Between the panel discussions, time for one-on-one conversations, learning from others; networking and connecting came back as the biggest benefit of attending.

Who Was There?
About 50 industry organizations were represented with just over 90 attendees. It was almost a 50/50 split between Baby Boomers and Generation Xer’s. By organizational level, the majority were managers with a strong showing by individual contributors and almost equal amounts of executives and supervisors. A nice mix of levels, experience, and ages overall.
There was an almost equal split between engineering, operations and customer/utility support with the majority being some combination of the above and another group who marked themselves as “others”.

How Did We Rate? – As you rated them, here’s a snapshot of the sessions and their evaluation responses.

• ALL sessions had a majority rating of Excellent or Above Average.
• Highest rated above all was the “Trade Up” Keynote session with the Energy Leadership Panel following.
• 51 of 92 people registered completed evaluations – a 55% percent response rate!

What the Survey Said
What did you find most beneficial about this conference and why?

• Prior to this conference I was very uneasy with the thought of "networking" especially with a group of women. The networking reception really helped me to realize that it is not about me it is about learning about someone else and what I might be able to do to help them. I think that between the Sage Presence presentations and Rayona's Trade up exercises I have identified some areas that I need to work on personally that will greatly help my career.
• Learning about Women's Leadership groups that have been started at other utilities. Attending motivational breakout sessions that were designed to develop women as leaders.
• The topics were so timely for where I am in my professional development. The topics of networking, negotiations and "What is a good leader" were absolutely perfect for what I needed to hear. It is obvious that this conference was designed to help the up and comers which is much appreciated.
  • Why? I am on the verge to move up to a significant leadership role in the next 6 months. The entire conference basically validated many of the leadership techniques that I already use and also steered me in the direction of many other useful techniques. No one really teaches you "how to be a leader" so it is sometimes difficult to determine if you are doing it "right". My confidence in my leadership skills has increased 10 fold from the conference. I just simply feel confident that I'm headed in the right direction.

What More Do You Want?
This is your group and with no shortage of feedback, we have a lot to ponder and will continue to seek your guidance in directing Energetic Women offerings to meet your needs. Here are just a few suggestions: issues facing younger generations, staying positive in negative surroundings, managing conflict, building self-confidence, finding the “balance” between work and life, interviewing skills, professional dress for a casual work environment, and focused roundtables on engineering and operational issues (industry specific).

These are just a few. Whether it’s a conference session, a webinar or a virtual roundtable, we look forward to meeting and exceeding your needs for continued connections and learning throughout the year!

To see video-casts of attendees, review some of the presentations or download a synopsis of the compiled evaluations, visit us at www.energeticwomen.org.

Maverick Award Winner!

Energetic Women is pleased to announce Patty Walker, Sr. Vice President Ohio/Kentucky Operations, Duke Energy as the first-ever recipient of the Maverick Award! Energetic Women started the Maverick Award to give special recognition to leaders who have set the standard in promoting, connection, and strengthening female leaders in energy operations and engineering. This year Energetic Women honor Patty Walker, senior vice president, Ohio/Kentucky gas operations for Duke Energy.

“She is a Maverick in all she does and we appreciate her efforts on the behalf of women,” says Stephanie Menning of Midwest ENERGY Association (MEA). Walker is currently the Executive Sponsor of the Business Women’s Network (“BWN”), having chaired the group at Duke Energy in 2008. She helped develop the BWN Cincinnati organization and assisted a handful of Duke Energy women to create an Energetic Women subcommittee under BWN.

Walker regularly identifies women within Duke for involvement in community programs, external boards, and other public opportunities. Her recommendations have enabled many women to increase their participation in various organizations and, as a result increase their profile and accelerate their development. She is a strong leader who demands respect and professionalism while cultivating relationships that allow others to maximize their individual potential.

Walker was presented the Maverick Award on June 18, 2009 at the 2nd Annual Energetic Women Conference in Scottsdale, AZ. For more information about the Maverick Award or Energetic Women visit www.EnergeticWomen.org.

"I am honored to have received this award. But more than that, I am excited about being a resource for so many talented women in the energy industry," Walker said. "We have some incredibly gifted women at Duke Energy, and I'm grateful to be a part of the development of this group of potential leaders."
Congratulations Patty!