Thirtieth year for Kirkwood’s two-day conference; keynote speakers, nearly 100 workshops
Take inspiring, funny and famous people. Add scores of useful, informative workshops and engaging sponsor displays. Mix in hundreds of Iowa women. Simmer for two days on a college campus until fresh ideas, laughter and new friendships appear. Re-mix and repeat for three decades.
That has been the recipe for success at Kirkwood Community College with the long-running Beyond Rubies Women’s Conference. This year marks the 30th anniversary for this two-day journey of keynote speakers, workshops and information sessions and more. The 2010 conference is set for Thursday and Friday, March 18-19, with events planned in Ballantyne Auditorium, Iowa Hall and nearby classrooms.
Each day’s session will include two keynote speakers plus nearly 96 workshops and information sessions on a vast array of topics. Skill-building seminars on workplace knowledge, public presentation and self-marketing will share the days with information on cooking, exercise and learning more about eastern Iowa business, history and entertainment.
• Thursday’s keynote session opener will feature business coach and community leader Pam Hillary. Her “Personal Power: Be an Influencer” presentation will encourage listeners to realize and grow their own spheres of influence in life, work and family. Hillary will highlight the key qualities of influential people and how to grow those characteristics in your life. Pam Hillary brings a lifetime of education, experience and insights to the Beyond Rubies audience, including three decades of work with Deere & Company in Dubuque.
• Thursday afternoon’s keynote speaker is a familiar face and voice that may bring surprising additional insights. KCRG-TV9 anchorperson Beth Malicki will encourage attendees on “Managing Your Small Business-YOU!” in a Ballantyne Auditorium discussion. She is the co-anchor of KCRG’s nightly newscasts and the creator/host of her award-winning weekly public affairs program, “To the Point.” Malicki was an educator and journalist in Columbia, MO for six years before moving to eastern Iowa. She will bring her practical ideas for making strategic choices in modern women’s lives.
• Friday morning’s keynote address introduces Amy Dee-Kristensen and her “Bold Woman Bliss” presentation. Her life experiences have taken her to many countries, including a nine-year stint in Norway, where she founded and managed a successful mail order business. She then returned to the U.S, and started life over as a single parent, discovered her skills at renovating a hundred-year-old house, and returned to college as a nursing student in middle age. She will share this journey in a fast-paced, humor-filled program that will also mix music and a message of living a blissful life each day.
• The final Beyond Rubies keynote speaker features the unique “Magicomedian” style of Lee Cole. Reviewers have observed that Cole “turns a roomful of strangers into friends” as he mixes sleight-of-hand, observational humor and more into a fun-filled time. Cole has entertained at premier casinos, top cruise lines, leading corporations and comedy clubs from Australia to his home state of Iowa.
Among the dozens of workshops and seminars, Beyond Rubies 2010 will present “Conquer the Corridor,” an introduction to the cultural, economic and entertainment values in eastern Iowa; “Developing Your Indispensable Personal Brand,” “Image Education for your Everyday Life;”
“Can We Talk? Improving Couples Communication,” “Writing your own Bucket List,” “Secrets to Managing Gen Xers, Millennial–and What the Heck is an Echo Boomer?” and a presentation on the wind energy industry in Iowa.
Other breakout sessions will teach wine and food pairings, public speaking, personal assertiveness, plus two sessions on the history of Cedar Rapids and Marion.
Early registration for the 2010 Beyond Rubies Women’s Conference is $99 for both days, including lunch each day. Early Bird rates will be available through Feb. 12, with a two-day rate of $119 for both days until the event. Single day rates are $79 for either Thursday or Friday in early registrations, or $95 each day after Feb. 12. Lunch is provided each day as part of the registration.
Attendees can register online at www.kirkwood.edu/rubies; by phone at (319) 398-1022, or toll-free, 800-332-8833. A brochure listing all the events and speakers for Beyond Rubies is also available by request by calling the number above.