In celebration of National Mentoring Month, the Houston WISE Chapter hosted their 4th annual Speed Mentoring Roundtables (SMR), a WISE National Signature Event on January 28, 2020. Over 80 women attended the event which took place in the Tea Room at the Junior League of Houston. Chandra Young Pierce and Megan Lesser co-managed this year’s SMR.
This event provides direct access to industry veterans and a chance for women to discuss their pressing career questions. The event highlights the importance of mentoring and is also the official kickoff to the 2020 WISE Within Mentoring Program.
Nine (9) female industry veterans were featured as the 2020 mentors. These women were invited by the WISE Within Committee to participate in the program. Our featured mentors included the following:
- Abby Brantley, Controller at the Houston Astros
- Arianne Dowdell, Manager of Special Events at the Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation
- Dionna Widder, Chief Revenue Officer at the Houston Dynamo/Houston Dash
- Jackie Maldonado, Director of Marketing at the Houston Texans
- Marilyn DeSimone, Area Director of Sales at Landry’s
- Muffy King, Director of Marketing, Media & Brand at the Houston Marathon
- Natalie Alvarado, Entertainment Director at the Houston Rockets
- Sarah Frazier, Senior Vice President and Market Manager for Entercom Houston
- Tamara Harris, CEO/Founder of TH Sport Psychology Consulting
During this year’s event, Harry Brand volunteered as lead photographer and took over 500 wonderful photos. Thanks to the generosity of the Houston Texans who donated their services, we also offered our guests complimentary professional headshots taken by Cassie Stricker.
Janis Burke donated HEB gift cards to the WISE Events Committee to be used for floral arrangements. Using Janis’ donation, Alexis Blanchard kindly created the SMR centerpieces which included white and blue hydrangeas along with beautiful red roses (WISE colors)!
Rachel Bubier created the “thank you” gifts that we gave each featured mentor, Harry Brand, and Cassie Stricker. The gifts were comprised of branded ARTIC coffee tumblers, mini coffee bags, mini salted caramel mix and Stroopwafels.
Jordan Keller designed the event programs and The Document Group kindly donated their printing services for both the programs and the vinyl stickers used to brand the ARTIC tumblers.
In 2020, each WISE Houston Signature event will include a charitable component benefitting Dress for Success Houston. The mission of Dress for Success Houston is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and development tools to help women thrive in work and life. Several guests donated professional attire, shoes and padfolios to help empower disadvantaged women in our community.
Overall the event ran fairly smooth. Janis Burke emceed the event. In response to a growing concern that not all guests get an opportunity to interact with each mentor, we introduced an 8-minute mini panel comprised of 2-3 mentors before each of the four (4) SMR rounds. Each panel discussion was moderated by Janis. Guests seemed to enjoy hearing from each mentor during these panels! We also received a lot of compliments on the food menu which Chandra so perfectly selected. All in all, it was a wonderful event!
Written By: Megan Lesser