What You Missed at VanWIT’s May Breakfast Speaker Series

Socastee The coffee was flowing bright and early May 25th at SFU’s beautiful Granville Street location, where pastries and warm welcomes greeted our attendees.  Our participants were met with a smart atmosphere in which to network prior to taking in our engaging speaker, Jennifer Gervès-Keen.  Jennifer is an award-winning coach with a specialization in learning & development, performance management, and strategy; and her alluring topic “Being Your Own Leader as a Woman in Tech” drew a sold out crowd of 40+.

VanWIT Board member Sandra Horvath’s introduction kicked things off and soon Jennifer was off and running with her buzz-generating discussion.  Jennifer’s presentation covered a number of areas of interest including:

• Challenges faced more strongly by women in technology
• How to be happy with yourself and your career development
• Reaching your goals

Jennifer had every ear in the room piqued when the conversation took the controversial path of, “STOP looking for your passion!”  Jennifer described the perpetual passion search as leading to dissatisfaction and provided awareness as to what our attendees could do differently to make the most of where they are at now.  Our speaker also provided insight regarding the stress that is caused by continually trying to achieve work/life balance, the importance of women being deliberate in their language and projecting confidence and also left our audience with plenty to chew on with bold statements such as “the things you say No to are just as important as the things you say Yes to” and “life is a series of projects”.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response, VanWIT is pleased to continue the Breakfast Speaker Series as we continue to expand.  If you were unable to attend, we look forward to welcoming you at our next event.  As always, stay tuned with the latest happenings via our Events listings.