Shannon Tipton is the PR Director at Munck Wilson Mandala and a key planner of S.H.E. Summit Dallas for the second year in a row.  She leads public relations, marketing, and business development strategies with a focus on strengthening the firm brand in new markets, connecting with current and new clients, enhancing the firm’s social media platforms, and implementing results driven business development strategies.

As the marketing manager at Munck Wilson Mandala and a principal planner of S.H.E. Summit Dallas, Stephanie Lewis believes strongly in driving connections and harnessing the power of purpose, culture and performance. She leads marketing, communication and business development efforts, bringing 15+ years of marketing, public relations, client services and culture development experience.

Within the context of all the work that you and MWM have done to bring S.H.E. Summit to Dallas, and to bring it back for a second year, what does the term “Networking As™ Empowerment” evoke for you?

SL: The term Networking As™ Empowerment brings me back to what S.H.E. Summit is. It is a leadership program, based on panels and conversations… an empowerment experience, because of the way it makes you feel during the event and when you leave. The keepwith® networking breakfast this year will provide a new level of experience for people to get the most out of S.H.E. Summit. Every time you connect with others, professionally and personally, it evokes a sense of togetherness, which is empowering in and of itself.

ST: When I think of it, I think of how we do better together…we do better as a team than we do as individuals…that is how I look at Networking As™ Empowerment. When you are connected and focused on better opportunities for women, it empowers us all to make more intense and effective change.

Why is it important for people to network meaningfully at conferences?

ST: If you are getting sent to a conference, it is important to learn best practices, to connect with experts in the field, to see what other brands are doing, or what your competitors are doing. Knowing best practices and making connections with people in the market always makes you the best professional, as opposed to just going and staying in your hotel room and watching Netflix.

SL: Go to the keepwith® networking program the morning of S.H.E. Summit and find out why it is important to network meaningfully at conferences.

Categorizing those…is meaningful too. They might not intersect, but they could all benefit eventually whether from your Mom’s Club, your alumni group, your work colleagues…I handle a lot of relationships for the firm…clients to vendors. A lot of those relationships have been helpful in planning S.H.E Summit. Those pockets of my network cross lines from personal to professional. Knowing how to maintain and further relationships is important. It is easy to connect on Linkedln, but if you never reach out, those relationships become dust on a shelf.

What else would you like readers to know about you, networking, empowerment, S.H.E., or anything else?

ST: What I have learned from being involved with S.H.E. Summit is that there is a lot of learning still to be done by women in terms of creating opportunities for leadership.

When you attend S.H.E. Summit and you listen to the speakers, panels, topics, the one underlying message is that women need to support other women. It is not always native to us. Not always our nature to do that. It starts from how we raise our kids…if you raise a boy and a girl with different expectations, then you are creating the issues that we are facing right now. Change will not be from one S.H.E. Summit or two S.H.E. Summits, but because everyone is in the room and having open dialogue and wanting truly to make change happen.

SL: I know what I want to say…I recently read an article about a Dallas County judge with half-shaved hair…She has the exact same haircut as me…she exuded authenticity. Being authentic and being your most natural and comfortable self is important. The article was talking about how it is easy to be impacted by the unconscious bias that happens every day, whether talking about people not looking the same in the room, or judging a book by its cover. Having those role models in power positions being their authentic selves is critical and so is not downplaying their responsibility to make educated professional decisions by judging their hair choices. For young girls growing up to think they have to have hair that looks a certain way, they do not. There are powerful pixies in the world too. #beauthentic.

Michael A. McCabe is a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee, co-chairs Munck Wilson Mandala’s employment and labor law group, and leads the firm’s employment litigation cases. A skilled trial lawyer, Michael is known for his meticulous preparation and attention to detail.

Jenny L. Martinez is a senior partner in the firm’s complex litigation/dispute resolution practice. Jenny is a trial attorney who previously worked at Godwin Bowman & Martinez PC as a named-shareholder, executive committee member, senior vice president, and co-chair of the commercial litigation section.

Within the context of S.H.E. Summit, what does the term “Networking As™ Empowerment” evoke for you?

MM: If you have a network of clients, people who look to you for business and assistance, that equates to independence…you are not beholden to anyone. You can work as an equal among your partners. Having your own client base and making your own decisions — you have clients you accept and those that you do not. This equates to networking as empowerment… as a form of independence.

JM: For me, empowerment can mean so many things. I hope that people, particularly those who feel like they need empowerment, will walk away from S.H.E Dallas with more of a sense of independence in that they can achieve what they can achieve and not have to rely on other people for it. Empowerment is independence. I would hope that men and women would walk away from the conference with a better feeling of independence and being able to conquer some of their fears or do things they would not otherwise do to improve their professional and personal lives.

What else would you like readers to know about you, networking, empowerment, S.H.E., or anything else?

MM: A lot of the business and client relationships that I have resulted directly from networking. In a formal sense, where you are introduced to someone by someone, you nurture a relationship and you grow it. Networking skills are vitally important. I encourage it among my associates. As a partner, I support it and see that younger lawyers need to develop networking skills. Networking is important to the growth of law firms and lawyers.

The ABA is doing studies, trying to learn about gender equality in law firms. The ABA hired a consulting firm to do a study. As a direct result of me networking on the ski lifts, I was invited to participate in “Men in the Mix,” because the ABA wanted to get feedback from men, for purposes of trying to improve gender equality in legal departments.

JM: I would love to send a message to people who have never been to S.H.E. Summit that this is not your normal networking event. When I went last year, I was blown away by the energy and how different it was from other conferences. I have been to lots of conferences…and they can be bland and boring…The whole program is fascinating and there is an energy about it. I would encourage people who are on the fence or think it is just another networking event or another women’s empowerment event, that it is just different. They will feel different and they will feel excited when they walk away.

Send the message to get there. It is hard to explain until you are there. It is a unique and fun event. It can be life-changing. A lot of people walk away from it with a different attitude…and I sure did. I changed my job because of it. I changed law firms and joined Munck Wilson Mandala because of S.H.E. Summit. My whole life has changed and I can say the same about other people I know who attended the conference last year.

Amanda Greenspon

Trademark Partner at Munck Wilson Mandala

Amanda Greenspon

Trademark Partner at Munck Wilson Mandala

Within the context of all the work that you and MWM have done to bring S.H.E. Summit to Dallas, and to bring it back for a second year, when you hear the term “Networking As™ Empowerment”, what does that evoke for you?

AG: So I have never organized a conference of any sort before this…I also would like to point out that I have zero background in conference and event planning. I am so excited about the content. For me, what was amazing last year was that I reached out to so many people for help in making the inaugural S.H.E. Summit Dallas a success. Through every platform to which I have access and every form of relationship. At last year’s S.H.E. Summit, my husband looked over at me and asked “is this our own personal event?” based on who attended— my colleagues, his colleagues, college friends, former colleagues, the photographer who took pics of my children in the hospital. I relied so much on the people who trust and know me, who came and enjoyed last year’s S.H.E Summit and are coming back this year. That was amazing for me personally…for me to be able to ask the people in my network for help and have so many people say yes made me feel empowered personally.

What is an example of an outcome from S.H.E. Summit Dallas that illustrates the importance of “Networking as Empowerment”?

AG: So way way back, ages ago, when I was living in Texas, I started playing tennis because I was looking for an activity where I was not a lawyer and was not a mom…I asked the pro at the JCC in Dallas, “who can I play with? I am a lawyer with weird hours and I curse a lot.” That was in 2013. I ended up joining this team of female attorneys who play USTA tennis on nights and on weekends. I really loved these women and stayed in touch with most of them. 

What is new at S.H.E. this year? What are your goals for this year’s summit? What do you want attendees to get out of the experience?

AG: This year, we are offering attendees the chance to participate in a VIP breakfast, led by keepwith®, focused on networking best practices and networking mistakes to avoid. 

We wanted to offer something that was a lot more about learning a skill. Whereas a lot of conferences have “networking events” — such events are often useless, because people go back to how they think they know how to network…Get a bunch of business cards and connect with everyone on LinkedIn. What I am excited about is a VIP breakfast…where people learn how to network. I am very excited because keepwith® is going to be on-site for the whole day, providing attendees with support for their networking efforts. The other thing I find difficult about conferences is that speakers often leave right after they speak, which is a disservice to attendees. Conferences awaken people and the natural benefit of that is to get to talk about that. If experts run out the door after their speeches, that reduces the value of the community that is being built. Having keepwith® do the VIP breakfast at the beginning at the conference and stay on-site all day will be instrumental in activating community amongst conference attendees.

What else would you like readers to know about you, networking, empowerment, S.H.E., or anything else?

AG: I think that if you are unhappy with anything… your role in society, your job, anything at all…you have more power than you realize you have. It is about how you leverage your power. Your network is your power in a lot of ways. My network enabled me to organize S.H.E. Summit last year and this year. My network is also how I get my clients. 

Claudine Hollack

Partner at Deloitte

Within the context of thinking about a conference designed to empower women and men to improve gender equity, when you hear the term “Networking As™ Empowerment,” what does that evoke for you?

CH: What it evokes for me is stepping outside of your comfort zone to forward the objective of advancing women and minorities and to advancing professional and personal diversity. What I have encouraged the women and minorities in my own practice to do is step outside their comfort zones in terms of speaking to people to whom they don’t naturally gravitate…and on the flip side, I view part of the empowerment as my own personal responsibility and the leaders in my practice to step outside their comfort zones and expand their experiences and conversations with people to whom they don’t usually speak. I encourage my teams to have conversations and experiences that they wouldn’t ordinarily sign up for.

If I walk into a room with 200 people, I am naturally an introvert, so my personal tendency is to approach someone I know or is like me (a female, who looks professional).

The empowerment aspect of it comes from being brave enough to look beyond that in a ballroom and speak to someone that does not look like me or looks like they do something else and have a conversation with that individual.

My comfort level in terms of talking to people I don’t know has exponentially increased. I started with talking to the person on the yoga mat or bike next to me at the studio. While one might not naturally think about that was networking, it has been empowering to me for the times I am in the big ballroom at a formal networking event. Networking this way has helped me to be braver in those types of situations.

What else would you like readers to know about you, networking, empowerment, S.H.E. Summit Dallas, or anything else?

CH: One thing I think is interesting is that I have historically had a natural aversion to networking. The concept of networking as I previously defined it was not positive. Now, it is one of my favorite things to do. I find that to be amusing. I think there is a large part of the population that defines networking in the way that I previously thought about it.

Why is it important for people to network meaningfully at conferences?

CH: It is easy to hand out business cards. You could hand out 100 business cards; but to me that is not meaningful.

I view networking as expanding and sustaining a group of long-term relationships I want in my personal and professional life. You don’t get that by handing out 100 business cards. You get that by having a meaningful one-on-one or small group conversation for a long period of time. More than 5 minutes; it can often be half an hour or more…and I think that is important, because at a conference, if you can come away having made even one meaningful connection with another individual, I would declare that success from a networking perspective…and the connection aspect of it and learning about someone else and what their background is…and what is meaningful to them and important to them, I find that to be an accomplishment in and of itself. Anything that happens after that is a bonus.

I don’t have a completely altruistic view of networking. I don’t network just to meet people. My hope is that some of these will translate into meaningful relationships over the long term. It may not be with that person directly, it may be with a connection point one or two people down the line.

About

Networking As™

Networking As™ is a recurring series of articles, blog posts and videos highlighting how networking is integral to a particular topic (for example, Networking As™ Wellness). Networking As™ publications may be accompanied by real-life networking events. Future issues will include Networking As™ Mentorship, Networking As™ Business Development, Networking As™ Parenting. Networking As™ Meatballs and Networking As™ Global Assignment, among others.

Why

Empowerment

At keepwith®, we know that relationship building enables people to help one another and to help themselves to move forward in their professional and personal lives. Add in a backdrop of each individual’s life challenges and opportunities, and it is clear that strategic networking and empowerment are integrally related. The word “empower” is in keepwith®’s vision statement (“empowering people to network well leads to strong relationships that makes things happen”), which is why it is no accident that we publicly soft launched our company and our brand at last year’s S.H.E. Summit Dallas and why we are honored and humbled to return this year to S.H.E. Dallas in an expanded way. Munck Wilson Mandala, Claudine Hollack and Deloitte all “walk the talk” when it comes to empowering women and men and people who do not identify as either. S.H.E. Summit Dallas will bring people to the table to talk about how we continue to focus on strategic relationship building as a means of empowering others.

Megan Burke Roudebush

Megan Burke Roudebush

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