NYC

Feminine Values & Gender

Oct 25, 2013

Each day I feel there are new conversations and opinion pieces that tackle the idea of feminism and what it means to have an inclusive society. I have good friends that do great work in this arena advocating for the inclusion of women and their perspectives in a myriad of fields that currently do not include much diversity. I applaud and support those efforts but I do believe we need to shift the conversation in a different direction. Instead of seeking out representation based on gender we need to focus on representation based on values. The idea of promoting feminine values, among them empathy, collaboration, and sharing, in order to create better institutions is critical to move the world forward to a more inclusive and just future.

When I was a kid my mother had an old saying “Your color isn’t always your kind”. What this simply means is that just because someone looks like you doesn’t mean they are like you. These flimsy shells of different colored skin and boy or girl parts that we obsess about only tell part of the story. They are easy identifiers that we all use to assign group identify and superficial behavioral traits. We must go deeper and establish a link to our values. The beliefs that we hold dear and align ourselves with carry more weight than almost anything else we encounter. It is increasingly important to find, connect and share with those who embody the same values. In the case of feminine values, the challenge is if we triumph only gender we assume that biological similarity will equate to shared perspective. This is not always the case.

The recent work by author/consultant John Gerzema “The Athena Doctrine” researches these values from a global perspective. He interviews men and women who subscribe to feminine values to build coalition and drive change. The work of Leonard Schlain examines our philosophical and cultural history and relationship with femininity in his seminal work The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. Both authors frame their work from a values based construct rather than a gender based construct.

During our upcoming Influencer Conference NYC, we will be discussing feminine values in a conversation titled Embrace the X: How Feminine Values Will Save The World. We invite you to join us in this discussion by registering for Influencer Conference NYC this coming Nov 6^th – Nov 8^th.

Why Mindfulness

admin /

Oct 18, 2013

Over the years of producing Influencer Conference we have settled on a core group of values that inspire and guide us as a company. Our premise is simple. We believe that values, the things we care about and drive our passions are more important that our vocation, the things we do. These values shape the agenda, speakers and audience of each conference.

Explaining mindfulness and why we include it among our core values is pretty easy. During 2012’s conference I remember looking out at the crowd and seeing a sea of blue glowing screens. Laptops, tablets, smartphones all lit up signifying people were firmly plugged in, communicating with someone or something but not actually “in the room”. I was struck by this, because we take great pains to curate an event that would be interesting, thought provoking and beneficial. The audience confirmed their interest by purchasing a ticket, so clearly they agreed. Yet, here we were in a room together and apart. I thought to myself, are people paying attention? Are they listening to the discussion or merely waiting for the next soundbyte to be shared via social media? These questions remained with me post conference and it was shortly thereafter I made a decision to encourage our platform to move to one that emphasized mindfulness. I have practiced yoga and Vedic meditation for a few years and both practices have become increasingly important in how I harness my creative energy and manage stress. Now, that doesn’t mean in order to be mindful everyone has to do either of those two things (though we encourage it!). What we mean by mindfulness, is removing distractions in order to be fully engaged in the present circumstance. As a result, we are now asking that guests refrain from plugging in while talks are in sessions. The value lies within the room, being present, not outside in the technosphere.

The commitment to mindfulness is a challenge as sponsors and partners partially determine the value of their participation by social media metrics. We respect that. We just don’t agree it is the standard by which we should measure the success of our event. We’ll continue to ask that our guests pour their attention, creativity and uniqueness into the room rather than outside of it.

This year we tackle this topic more in depth with the panel discussion: Present Tense: How Being Mindful Drives Creativity.

You can register here for that talk or any of our other panels via our website here.

And if you want to check out a cool introduction video to Vedic Meditation and it’s benefits take a look at this clip shot by Vedic & Yoga Instructor Light: