The Women’s Foodservice Forum, the premier leadership development organization in the foodservice sector, gathered industry influencers this week at the JW Marriot Chicago Hotel for its Annual Executive Summit. Keynote speakers included corporate powerhouses such as former journalist and White House correspondent, Ann Compton, Spencer Stuart’s North American Board Practice Leader and Board of Director Member, Julie Daum, Bentley University’s Founding Director of the Women and Business Center, Betsy Myers, Deloitte Consulting’s Bill Pelster and Jen Stempel, and Social Revolutions’ Michael Tchong.
The three-day summit, now in its 13th consecutive year, attracted more than 200 executives from all across the country. The event gave attendees the chance to network amongst each other as well as attend a variety of educational sessions, surrounding topics such as: “Women on Boards: The Untapped Competitive Advantage,”, “Leading in the New World of Work,” “The Woman’s Acceptance Factor,” “A New Kind of Leadership,” and “Current Events and the 2016 Presidential Election.”
The key highlights from the summit included:
- Attendees gaining insights on how the board of director selection process works and how to get prepared, and considered, for such roles
- Eye-opening examples of how technology, millennials and women are changing the paradigm of the work world and how companies must change their way of thinking and operating in order to win in this new paradigm
- Ann Compton sharing her experiences as the first woman assigned to cover the White House and her insights regarding the most effective presidents being those with a long-term vision that resisted trying to micromanage everything themselves.
The summit kicked off with a groundbreaking session by Julie Daum who shared invaluable insights with attendees around the topic of “Women on Boards: The Untapped Competitive Advantage.” Ms. Daum and her organization have been great supporters of the Women’s Foodservice Forum, including placing the current CEO.
“I was excited to serve as one of the keynote speakers at this year’s summit,” said Julie Daum, North American Board Practice Leader at Spencer Stuart. “The Women’s Foodservice Forum has been doing great work to help elevate female executives from the ground level to the boardroom, and our company is excited to support their efforts.”
“We have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from attendees this year, really making this summit the most successful one in our history,” said Hattie Hill, President and CEO at the Women’s Foodservice Forum. “We were fortunate enough to secure some top caliber speakers, such as Julie Daum, and that has made quite an impact on the attendees.”
To learn more about the recent summit, visit: summit15.wff.org
posted by Andrea Gonzalez 7/30/15
