Conversations Have Lasting Effect
Summer 2016
By David Zaslawsky
Photography by Brian Carter
Alabama And More CEO Amber Wright was attending her first Conversations event while Associated Insurance Administrators Inc. Chief Operating Officer Barbara Evans was at her seventh event.
The two were among 150 women who gathered at Montgomery Country Club for Conversations: Roundtables for Professional Women – a Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce networking event.
Wright, who is also a new Chamber member, was hoping to “expand my business and bring my business to the forefront and to businesses who need it,” she said. Her business is a digital advertising agency whose specialty is mobile advertising displayed on monitors installed in Checker & Deluxe Taxis.
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Evans said that she attends Conversations to not only learn about the struggles and successes of others, but “what works for other people especially women who have leadership roles.”
She likes that the participants represent a wide range of businesses. “So often I go to conferences, educational retreats with people in the same business,” Evans said. The Conversations event “allows us to see what people in other businesses are doing and really has showed us that we are much more alike than different.”
The events begin with informal chats with old friends and new ones. In addition, there are a handful of displays from various businesses. The guest speaker at the April event was Martha’s Place owner Martha Hawkins, who told her remarkable inspirational story of having literally nothing and rising to a successful businesswoman.
After a brief question-and-answer the participants engage in group discussions at their tables of eight. Each table has a facilitator.
“This is a great opportunity for women in the Montgomery area to get together and build relationships – get to know each other and meet people I have not met before in other venues,” said Laura Chambliss, senior manager of business development & marketing for Auburn University at Montgomery’s SummaSource & Outreach. She said she “has taken away something” from each of the speaker’s messages.
She said that women brainstorm at their table, discussing both workplace issues and issues outside the workplace, and offering possible solutions. “Problems are not usually unique to one business, so it’s nice to bounce ideas off one another and hear how people at other businesses are doing things.”
Jamie Brown, vice president for relationship development for MAX Credit Union, was attending her first Conversations. “I wanted the opportunity to meet other women in the area,” she said. In addition to networking, Brown said she “may run across a MAX customer with a question.”
Cheryl Calhoun Reed, vice president and branch manager of the AmeriFirst Bank branch on Vaughn Road, is a veteran of Conversations events, having attended four or five. “I enjoy the conversations,” she said. “I enjoy the networking with the others.” She gets to meet different people than she does at the bank and exchanges emails with some of the women she met at Conversations. She said she likes to hear how others in different types of companies handle issues.
Betsy Bowen, who handles commercial business development for Servpro Industries, was attending her second Conversations event. She attends the event “to find more information about … what works for them.” Bowen has already implemented things she learned and it has helped her both professionally and personally.
