Women share tales of challenge, leadership at sold-out conference

When Pat Mulroy first became the general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, someone in a board meeting tried to redirect her to the spouses’ lounge.

No one expected a woman to take over such an esteemed position, but Mulroy took the challenge in stride and kept her job as general manager for more than 20 years.

Many such stories were heard on Wednesday, the first day of MGM Resorts Foundation’s annual Women’s Leadership Conference, when speakers encouraged attendees to let go of social conditioning and make female leaders an expectation instead of an exception.

The conference is themed “Women Inspiring Women” this year, its eighth in existence and the most crowded yet. Attendance soared past 850 and registration, slated to remain open through the conference, had to close.

The day started with a breakfast buffet spread out amid tables and chairs covered in pink and green at the MGM Grand Conference Center. Flowers sat atop the tables as excited attendees crowded around, chatting over coffee and pastries. Women mingled with friends and strangers, exchanging stories and business cards.

“Within the first 10 minutes I was here, I already accomplished one of my goals,” attendee Kim Hinton from Maryland said. During the short process of picking up her badge and eating breakfast, she met a woman she’s now considering a potential speaker for a women’s conference she’s having next year in Maryland.

The large group settled into the conference center’s main ballroom and heard opening remarks from Phyllis James, the chief diversity officer for MGM Resorts International. She encouraged the group to be confident, let go of social conditioning and to keep pressure applied to society’s major institutions to ensure equality.

“Women are going to assume their rightful place,” she said over cheers and applause, “in running this world.”

After James spoke, there was a song-and-dance performance, featuring a popular song from the Disney movie “Frozen.” The production showed vignettes of women who were repressed in their childhood ambitions and overcame them anyway. Among the group was an MGM Resorts International airplane pilot and two prominent employees of Excalibur.

Natalie Allen, correspondent and anchor for CNN International, moderated a panel that included three prominent business women — Mulroy, Wendy Davidson and Jean Birch.

Mulroy, who now works with Brookings Mountain West and the Desert Research Institute, hoped that the women attending can find just one gem over the course of the conference to take home with them.

“If they can find one person here to connect with who is further along in her career, that can be the biggest support,” Mulroy said. “Someone had the confidence when I didn’t have it,” she said of past mentors.

Davidson became president of Kellogg Co. in October. The previous president was not a woman, and Davidson said her staff has responded well to her leadership. She called woman “natural networkers” and said this conference is the perfect place for that.

Birch was the third panelist, and has made her rounds in management positions at Frito Lay, Taco Bell, Macaroni Grill and IHOP. She applauded the “eager, open interest” of the attendees, as well as their “courage to be their best selves.”

Sessions after the panel were broken into smaller groups, categorized into emerging leaders, emerging executives and executives. Speakers demonstrated how to bring attendees’ business customers satisfaction, how to balance being a kind but firm manager, and how to foster relationships with employees.

“My heart is pounding,” Allen said of her excitement about the conference. “I feel as though everyone is so honest here. I love women supporting women.”

Allen, a single mother, said she appreciated the assertiveness of the women attending the conference.

“The word feminism, I don’t know why people are afraid of that word. Women are getting accustomed to the role of leadership, and supporting each other in it,” she said.

The first day of the conference finished with keynote speaker Bertice Berry and more breakout sessions.

Today, journalist and documentarian Soledad O’Brien will speak to the group.

Contact reporter Annalise Little at alittle@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0391.