From women’s marches to the #MeToo movement, women’s empowerment has been a “hot topic” of conversation in recent years. For the sixth year in a row, this conversation will be brought back to Vernon through the annual Women of Worth Conference.
Hosted by Vernon’s Sparkling Hills Resort on Saturday, April 6, the event features world-class speakers, entertainment, mastermind coaching, success panel, lunch, door prizes, dancing, and shopping. Christine Awram, founder of WOW, said she’s made it her mission to empower women and this, as usual, it will be the focus of the event.
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“I started WOW because 15 years ago nobody was doing anything remotely like what we’re doing now: integrating personal and professional development into a one-day event. I saw a need and I jumped in and created it.”
Awram said she centered the entire foundation around the idea of self-worth.
“What I was noticing with every single woman, no matter how successful they are, always had an internal [dialogue] that, to some degree or another, was saying “I’m not enough.” I, of course, had gone through this myself growing up and I thought it was my dirty little secret but I quickly found out that this affects pretty much every single woman to some degree or another.”
WOW, she said, aims to create a safe environment for women to connect with one another; collaborate, celebrate and leave feeling empowered. She likened it to airplane safety; the idea of putting on your air mask before helping others.
“One of my key messages to women in every walk of life is outrageous self-care. Our ongoing message to women is to please take care of yourself first because if you’re not taking care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else.”
The conference, which originated in Vancouver, was brought the Sparkling Hills six years ago after Awram visited the location.
“I fell in love with it and so we just keep going back there every year and have an extraordinary experience there.”
While the event runs from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., typically more than half of the 170 attendees take advantage of the discounted rate for the resort and they make a weekend out of it.
“One of the things that I keep hearing from our group is about how strong our community is and how going to a WOW event is a really safe place for women to be, where they feel they can fully show up, make really meaningful connections with other women.”
She refers to it as a “tribe.”
“There’s a quote that we’ve used many times, that “every empowered, successful woman has a tribe of other empowered, successful women who have her back” and that’s what it feels like. We’re all about collaboration, not competition.”
For this particular event, WOW will also be supporting HER International, a charity focused on returning young girls, who have been human or sex trafficked in Nepal, back to their families and build schools.
“We have completely changed this area of Nepal — not that we’ve changed their culture but just by bringing education to this area, we have made such a profound impact over the years so that’s our philanthropic venture for this conference that people can also feel good about supporting.”
To sign up for the event, visit www.awomanofworth.com.
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