August 1st, 2009 
Miss A’s Bizzy Bee, Sanam Toossi with Hilary Fordwich, Lindsay Simmons, Andrea Tecce
Pearls, Blackberries, and delightful conversation was all the rage at the Women’s Leadership & Mentoring Alliance (WLMA) “Relationships and Rainmaking” event. This well attended event was held at the Offices of Dickstein Shapiro LLP downtown. As soon as I entered the event, members of the WLMA immediately welcomed me warmly. WLMA’s mission is to cultivate networking, mentoring and career development opportunities for women. Also the organization helps younger women professionals to develop leadership and networking skills as they develop alliances with more established professionals.
The attendees varied in background from attorneys to recent college graduates. Several members of the organization introduced themselves to me, and each member was quite pleasant and had impressive and varied career credentials. One person I met was Lindsay Simmons, who co-founded the DC Chapter of the Women’s Leadership & Mentoring Alliance (WLMA). She is a well-accomplished woman and is very active in her community. Lindsey is model Washingtonian: intelligent, sophisticated, and fashionable. I also had a chance to chat with Andrea Tecce who organized the evening’s logistics. She made sure all details were taken care of and was one of the people responsible for making the event such a success.
I had such a fun time networking and meeting many dynamic women. Time definitely flew by as I met with members and attendees. As the networking wound down, we gathered in the conference room to hear the guest speaker, Hilary Fordwich. She is a nationally renowned expert in business development, strategic relationship building, and client relationship management for professionals in service organizations and knowledge-based industries. Also she is President and Founder of Strelmark LL. She is actively involved with many organizations, speaks at various companies, and a long list of other varied activities. A note to our readers, if you have a chance to hear Hilary speak you must attend. Not only is she a bright and successful businesswoman, she is a very articulate speaker. Her life experiences are very impressive and interesting. During her speech she was able to make very poignant statements with a twist of witty repertoire.
Even though I have experience networking, I was able to pick up some very important information and tips from her speech. The entire room was mesmerized and entertained by her pragmatic and sensible advice. After her phenomenal speech, attendees gathered to speak with Hilary. Also, attendees started to use some of her networking techniques. Attendees left the event feeling more inspired and confident than before. With relevant topics ideas and fascinating members, I am looking forward to WLMA’s next function. WLMA seems to be an organization that will attract the female movers and shakers of the DC area.
