WLC inspires, challenges sold-out crowd at QC Conference 

“Be more of yourself.”  That was the resounding message to more than 600 women – and a few men – gathered Tuesday, Nov. 14, at the WLC Conference Quad Cities at the Quad Cities Waterfront Convention Center in downtown Bettendorf.  The daylong conference entitled “Take Charge. Lead Change” was hosted by WLC – short for […]

“Be more of yourself.”  That was the resounding message to more than 600 women – and a few men – gathered Tuesday, Nov. 14, at the WLC Conference Quad Cities at the Quad Cities Waterfront Convention Center in downtown Bettendorf. 

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The daylong conference entitled “Take Charge. Lead Change” was hosted by WLC – short for Women Lead Change, was a homecoming of sorts for Tiffany O’Donnell, who is the women leadership organization’s CEO, the mayor of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a proud Bettendorf High School graduate. “This is the first-ever sold out Quad Cities conference,” an excited Ms. O’Donnell told the hometown crowd. The 2023 event, which drew a QC record 640 attendees, marked WLC’s sixth annual conference in the Quad Cities. 

After welcoming the repeat conference attendees, she told those attending their first WLC conference “It’s a lot.”  “Sit down, pay attention and be inspired by our back-to-back speakers,” she offered as advice to the attendees as well as in a QCBJ interview minutes before taking the stage.  “The goal, always, of a WLC Conference,” she added, “is to educate, challenge and inspire. We want to develop leaders, challenge how you look at your culture and workplace and we want to inspire. Oftentimes, as women, we need to see it to believe it.”  Ms. Hemmer’s parting advice: “Be more of yourself.” The day was packed with area and nationally acclaimed motivational speakers including Kate Hightshoe-Lambert, QCR Holdings’ assistant vice president and Inclusion, Culture and Talent officer; Brandi Spurling, founder of Sage Culture Co.; Carlos Whittaker, owner of Carlos Whittaker LLC; and Dr. Deshauna Barber, a motivational speaker at WME/IMG Speakers and an Army veteran who was the first soldier to win Miss USA, closed the conference with her “Elevate & Take Charge” speech.  But the full day of speakers, vendors and networking opportunities kicked off with Kristi Hemmer – also an Iowa native, from Dubuque. A former teacher, counselor and principal for more than 20 years, she founded her own social enterprise – Academy for Women’s Empowerment (aWe) – in 2013 and serves as its president.  The author of the book, “Quit Being So Good,” she challenged the crowd to consider why do women and girls shrink in a classroom, a boardroom, and a conversation? A quest for the answer led Ms. Hemmer to quit her six-figure life in Tokyo in 2010 and spend four years traveling the world. Living out of a medium-sized duffle bag and on $20 a day, she learned about young women who were solving social questions with businesses and about social entrepreneurship in many corners of the world.  “When women lead, the world is a better place,” she said. Now more than seven years later, the Academy has helped thousands of lives change.  From a young age, Ms. Hemmer said that she and every female of every age will repeatedly hear “You’re too much. Quit being you. Wait your turn. Be quiet. Be nice. Quit Being So Good.” To the Quad Cities audience – including a fellow classmate and his daughter from Dubuque – she encouraged the participants to “Be What She Can See.”  Her talk, entitled “3 Steps to Unapologetic,” left the crowd of women – of all ages and at various places in their careers – with the three essential steps. 

• Step 1, Take Up Space. “Girls at age 6 start giving up on their dreams,” she said. “Women won’t apply for a job until they are 100% ready (possessing 100% of the qualifications).” That’s not true for men, who will apply if they have 15%. “We can change these numbers by taking up space … physical space, emotional space, space in conversations and financial space.”  
• Step 2,  Be First. She recounted how at the new millennium she went to New Zealand not to party like it’s 1999 but to build a Habitat for Humanity home internationally and be where the sun first would come up in 2000. Tasked with light duties – like painting, she worked her way onto the team of men who were nailing the roof. Her actions prompted three young girls (whose family was receiving and assisting in the build) to join her on the roof. “It’s easier to be what you can see,” she said. “But sometimes you need to be what she can see.” 
• Step 3, Look For The Helpers. She encouraged the crowd to embrace their MOXIEzone and the helpers to get there. “It only takes one person to make you feel like you belong and you will stay,” she said. 

“WLC today, to me, feels like Barbie-land, where there is equity and a safe place to be,” she said. The Quad Cities conference, one of three that WLC holds across Iowa each year (the others are in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids), is the organization’s only one-day event. But Ms. O’Donnell, a former Miss Scott County pageant queen (1987), Miss Iowa (1988), Miss America contestant as well as a former Quad Cities television reporter, said as awareness of WLC grows in her Quad Cities hometown the demand also may grow to offer two days of women’s leadership.   The conference, she said, is an “opportunity for us to expand our network as well. We’re hoping everybody at this event becomes more aware of what we do all year.” In addition, WLC hosts a wide range of quarterly workshops – open to the public – and in the Quad Cities, has a membership group QC Women Connect, which engages women in senior leadership and provides professional development opportunities.   The Quad Cities conference, first hosted by WLC in 2018, was made possible by the generosity of 21 sponsors including companies, organizations, nonprofits and higher educational institutions across the Quad Cities and eastern Iowa. The Presenting Sponsor was Bank of America. Other top sponsors included: Pinnacle Sponsors – MidAmerican Energy Co. and HNI; Epic Sponsor Delta Dental; Platinum Sponsor: Enterprise Mobility; and Gold Sponsors Arconic and Quad City Bank & Trust.  Additional sponsors include: Eaton, American Bank & Trust, Kent Corporation, Royal Neighbors of America, RBC Wealth Management, RSM, Van Meter, University of Iowa Health Care, WQPT, QCBJ, Collins Community Credit Union, Liberty Packaging, Mel Foster Co. and McCarthy-Bush Corporation.