Networking is key at any conference and the opportunity to network with other women is considered to be of high importance to many of us females in the corporate world. BIA/Kelsey was sure to give its female conference attendees that opportunity at our Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media Conference during our second Women Leading in Local Session on Tuesday afternoon.

The theme of this conference’s WLIL session was all about starting up. How do women start up their day in the corporate world? How did they start their companies? How did they motivate themselves to become the successful business women they are today? The two keynote speakers during this session were Jayla Siciliano, Founder of Bon Affair and Anna Zornosa, Founder and CEO of Ruby Ribbon.

Bon Affair is the wine spritzer company created by women for women. Jayla’s vision for her company came to her during her career as a product specialist for Diesel and Burton. Her position involved a fair amount of social drinking and she was growing tired of the not so great feeling the day after an event. That is when her idea for an alocoholic beverage for women that was a little healthier was born.

Jayla’s start up story began with her blindly quitting her job and running with her idea. She sought out good advisers who could make up for the experience she did not have, she got her MBA, and then production began. Her first several batches of her wine spritzer proved to be a challenge for her with problems from leakage to tomato bits floating in the bottles. This was a struggle for her but she started everyday knowing that patience and persistence would get her through this challenge. After finding a new bottler, Bon Affair has taken off in California and she plans to spread to the rest of the United States soon.

Anna Zornosa’s idea for starting up Ruby Ribbon came to her in a very personal way: trying on shapewear alone in a Nordstrom dressing room. After struggling with the article of clothing for a while and experiencing the dressing room frustration all of us women know and resent, she decided it was time for a change.

Ruby Ribbon is the shapewear company that combines shapewear with everyday clothing. Her collection consists of new shaping basics that can easily work with any women’s existing wardrobe. As stated by Anna on the Ruby Ribbon website: “Ruby Ribbon was inspired by my simple desire to create a company built around the idea of empowering women to look and feel their best, while going after their dreams”.

Our Women Leading in Local sessions have proved to be a success at our last two conferences and we plan to continue them at our conferences moving forward. If you are a female attendee of our conference in May in Atlanta be sure to stop by the WLIL session.