• by Kelly Samardak , February 2, 2009

2nd Annual Women in B2B Honors, Prince George Ballroom, New York
January 21, 2009

I'll stop punching a dead pony regarding my feelings on women-honoring women-events, I swear. I can't help it, I question everything. I enter every event meant to inspire with the desire to be blown away. I want to walk out with a flame-engulfed brain and the only thing that can put out the fire is instant action or more cowbell. When I discovered that Erin Moriarity of "48 Hours Mystery" fame was hosting the American Business Media's 2nd Annual Women in Business-to-Business Honors I felt a positive Lite Brite glow edging me towards the venue. This had to be good.

Take it easy, I know I'm late with this write-up. I had a bit of a backlog and this sort of slipped off the old radar, as they say. Anyhey, I popped out of the 28th Street subway stop and trekked over to Prince George Ballroom which is just past the Museum of Sex, a perfect party venue if you ask me. The reception area was cozy and warm, like a calorie-rich pot pie whose crust is punctured to let some steam escape. In front of the floor to ceiling windows stood the golden boy, the bartender, and his table of potent potables (for 400, Alex). Perpendicular to him was a table in the "Kelly's dream munchables" archives: balls of cheese, cylindrical meats, perky strawberries in cozy chocolate coats, crunchy things and dipping stations. While sipping and dipping, I reunited with Naomi Reiter, previous editor of Minsb2b, currently in the position of millions: hunting the next job.

It has become rather upsetting attending these events, networking or otherwise. Where employed types used to be hunting for some talent or doing some "business development," now there's a much larger chunk of the recently unemployed making fervent rounds, looking for help, any help appreciated. It's a constant nightly reminder of the crap state of our economy, and it sucks.

The panel was set up in the actual ballroom, a wide open overly ornate space smacking of The Grand Prospect Hall flavor. Hosting and moderating was the wonderfully honest Erin Moriarity ,who tried to yank, pull, and cattle prod blatant honesty out of the panel of honorees (who you can see here) with her questions. Let's chunk it out, shall we?

Can you HONESTLY find balance and have huge career success and a family? This is where Victoria Chu Pao announced that she would be leaving her job at the top of her game. Sounding nervously apologetic, assuring the audience that this was a personal decision, that after years of wonderful support from her husband of he career, it was time for her to assume the support role as he had just received an incredible job offer. Her tone was one of someone telling a den of lions that the meat slabs were actually Tofurkey. "I hope the message here is that you have a lot of opportunities to find balance," she concluded. Marion Minor admitted that Victoria's decision was a hard one, one that she herself wouldn't have been able to make, admitting, "I'm too tied to that safety net of being self-sufficient."

Are women supportive of or harder on other women in the industry? Honestly? I have said aloud, and I have heard my girlfriends say aloud, that they prefer to work for men. Why is this? I could go on about when I was at IBM and the "executive" in my group ruled with pant-suited lunacy, but let's see what the panel thought. Oh, wait, no one gave a straight answer. There were spits and spats about how there is definitely more gal-on-gal coaching, with my favorite answer coming from Carla Hendra: "Sure someone is always undercutting somebody, I don't think it's necessarily systemic -- could be a man or a woman."

What failures helped you learn? This is one of my favorites. I like to fail, I like to learn from mistakes and I've been lucky enough in my career to have just enough rope to hang myself with. Add to that the attitude that when risks are taken, the negative result isn't lives lost, so, you know -- perspective.

Hendra praised direct marketing as a platter of opportunity to take risks -- it's all about testing and doing and seeing what works and what doesn't -- and, you know, quickly. In direct marketing you learn to accept failure and adapt and evolve, rather than quitting.

Victoria Chu Pao waves her pink slip of the past as a failure-yielding victory, and I echo that. Sometimes you have to be cut loose to see the open doors all around you. Getting laid off is like a bad sunburn, you didn't think it was really going to happen, it hurts, it's raw, and then suddenly you've got fresh pink skin under there and now experience had given you an arsenal of sunscreen to protect that puppy and move forward.

Due to Dr. Jingle Jangle and his pocket of loose change, I had to leave early rather than scream "Helter Skelter!!!" and tackle him. The sound was pretty weak, too, and the nest that Mr. Mucus made in my brain made it even more difficult to hear. As I retrieved my coat,I noted the sound was MUCH better in the hallway and almost stayed there for the end. 

Celebrating the shortest month?  Invite kelly@mediapost.com to capture your shenanigans.

Miss the who's who? You can see who attended in the Flickr photo set!