Q&A on 10th Engaging Women’s Conference with Redgina Hill
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More than 330 women are expected to gather Thursday at Four Winds Casinos’ Ribbon Town Conference and Event Center in South Bend for the 10th annual Engaging Women Conference, hosted by Saint Mary’s College.
The sold-out event brings together professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders for a full day of networking, development sessions and keynote talks aimed at empowering women across industries.
Inside INdiana Business spoke with Redgina Hill, vice president for inclusion and equity at Saint Mary’s College, on how the conference has evolved, the intentionality behind its growth and what makes it one of the region’s most inspiring gatherings for women professionals and entrepreneurs.
How did the Engaging Women’s Conference come about?
My mentor, Joan McClendon, when she worked at Saint Mary’s College, she had a vision for this conference and started it 11 years ago. I think she was just trying to bring women together, that is who Joan is. Oftentimes, she’ll have these dinner parties or these events or these trips that she’ll plan. And every time she does a really good job of bringing the right people together to make those connections. So I believe she wanted to do that on a larger scale by hosting a conference. She’s all about pouring into and empowering women. Also, there was no women’s conference within the South Bend-Elkhart region. Working at Saint Mary’s College, a Catholic women’s institution, allowed her the opportunity to bring women together on a college campus run by women, founded by women and empowering the future women leaders.
I think that she wanted others to have a piece of Saint Mary’s as well. Now that I work at Saint Mary’s and I’m helping to lead the institution, I get it. When I first started working here, I needed a mind switch from being in a male-dominated field, then coming to an institution that is led by women and all about empowering women.
Why do you think attendance keeps growing every year?
I think it’s because we’re intentional about creating such a great experience for women. We couldn’t do it for one year because of COVID. So this is year 11, but the 10th actual conference and I’ve been coming from day one. When I came as an attendee, I loved being surrounded by powerful women. I was a young professional at the time surrounded by powerful women from within the local community. They were willing to pour into me as a young professional and encourage me. They gave me their phone number, email and said, “Contact me. Let’s go to lunch, or let’s go for coffee.” These are CEOs and presidents of banks and huge organizations around here. That didn’t matter. These women leave their titles at the door and we all come in as women being vulnerable, being open, wanting to champion one another.
And I think that is why people want to come because a lot of us are in male-dominated fields. So to be able to get around women who see each other, who know their experiences, who speak their language and can help them in their careers, I think that’s what draws women each year. But we are intentional about growing in small increments so that we can maintain that essence every year.
How are you celebrating 10 years of the Engaging Women’s Conference?
We wanted to go bigger this year. We went big last year; 2024 was the first year that we held it off campus because we can only accommodate a little bit over 200 women on campus comfortably. We moved to the Ribbon Town Conference and Event Center at Four Winds Casinos so that we could accommodate up to 250 women. There was so much buzz last year, so many people wanted to come. This year, we had 300 slots and I’m oversold. I have about 335 women signed up to come on Thursday.
Hill talks about expanding the conference and moving the venue off-campus.
What can attendees expect at this year’s conference?
We have curated such a great experience and conference for people. We’ve been intentional about when they step foot in the door, what we want them to see, what we want them to hear, what we want them to experience. So we have created a welcoming environment of excitement. We’re having a live DJ this year, a female DJ from Indianapolis. We have photo booths set up for women to take photos throughout the conference. We have a professional photographer who is going to do headshots for women who signed up for headshots. We also have a ton of giveaways, people have been so generous this year.
Our lineup is great and diverse. We have five tracks for women, executive leaders track, mid-level and young professionals track, entrepreneurship track, well-being track and a creative track. Our keynote will be Patti Phillips, CEO and president of Women Leaders in Sports. She’s very well known for empowering women in leadership roles across industries. We have celebrity makeup artist Liz Coleman doing a hands-on session teaching women how to go from boardroom to a happy hour or nighttime glam. We have makeup for the women so they can practice right then and there.
For somebody who already has a ticket to this event, how can they be intentional about getting the most out of this event?
It will be by previewing our program ahead of time and identifying what sessions you want to go to. If there’s a speaker that you feel that you want to connect with, make sure that you connect with that speaker while you are there. Check in is from 8 to 8:45 a.m. That’s an opportunity for women to come and get breakfast and also make connections. Lunch is another good time to connect and then we’re doing a happy hour at the end. Those are intentional times that we want women to connect with each other.
So bring business cards, get your QR codes ready and your LinkedIn pages ready to connect. I want to speak to introverts. It can be hard and intimidating to walk into these spaces, so think about what you’re going to say before you say it. Come with a few intro lines of how you want to introduce yourself and connect. Practice it so that it comes easily and you won’t have so much anxiety around it. We tend to stick to the people that we know in those spaces, but try to get to know different people. Maybe set a goal of how many contacts you want to walk away with by the end of the conference. Sometimes we get these contacts and we don’t follow up, we don’t send the email, we don’t reach out. Follow up and get something scheduled on the calendar.
Over the past decade, how has the conference influenced the professional and personal growth of its attendees?
I think it’s all about networking. Being in the room with the caliber of women that are there and being intentional about making those connections. Especially if you’re introverted, I encourage you to push past the nerves and get to know the women in the room, because they will help expand your network. As long as you have a good reputation and are a genuinely good person, you can make good connections. As you make these connections, these people begin to speak for you. There’s a book called, Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career, that I recommend.
A mentor is someone that will pour into you but a sponsor is someone who will put their name on the line for you for certain connections and opportunities. A lot of that happens within this conference as people get to know each other and make those connections.
Another major way is with our sessions on professional development. This year, we are bringing back a popular session from last year for entrepreneurs. Aiye Akhigbe, owner of Sticky Spoons Jam out of Niles, Michigan, will lead the session again this year. She has won so many pitch competitions over the past couple of years and she’s showing women how to design winning pitches. At the end of her session, attendees will get a chance to practice pitching. This year, she’s also giving away a one-hour coaching session.
Are there plans to extend the conference’s impact beyond the one-day event?
This is something that we want to bring back. In the past, the office held professional development opportunities throughout the year on a smaller scale. That helped us sustain the connection between the conference and women who have not had an opportunity to attend the conference. We do a women’s leadership panel on campus with different organizations within the community in March to help maintain that relationship and keep that excitement going.
The proceeds of the conference help us provide scholarships to women in the community to go through our SPARK program. It is an eight-week business accelerator program to help women launch their business. We’ve helped over 300 women over the past 14 years.