This year’s speakers included Ellen Pompeo, Jennifer Garner, Sharon Stone and top tech executives.
https://youtu.be/dtqYe6bhWiE
For a third year, Marie Claire magazine has pulled off an impressive and inspirational ‘Power Trip’. Powered by Dell and Intel, the exclusive, invitation-only event took off from Newark airport on Monday morning, shuttling 100 influential women across the country to meet 100 of their west coast counterparts in San Francisco.
This was no regular flight, as everyone on the airplane – including pilots and luggage handlers – were female. On board, the power trippers were surprised with a powerful gift: A brand new Dell Latitude 5290 2-in-1 with travel keyboard and active pen. Specifically designed to answer the needs of modern business, the 5920 offers on-the-go flexibility and secure, all-day productivity. The women excitedly used their new tech to network and share stories of their first success.
After reaching the bay area, the leading ladies were bussed to a private ranch in Marin County. There, among pristine pastures and grazing cows, attendees listened to a Q&A with actress and entrepreneur Jennifer Garner. Garner talked about her organic cold-pressed baby food start-up, Once Upon a Farm: “If I was going to be part of a business, it had to speak to me,” she said.
In the evening, actress and activist Sharon Stone joined Marie Claire Editor-in-Chief Anne Fulenwider for a fireside chat. The two discussed a gamut of topics, from aging in the entertainment industry to the state of the #metoo movement. Stone advised the attendees to listen to their instincts. “Women are knowers, and we have to look at people and not second guess what we know,” she said. “There are a million different ways women can create in the world that haven’t been invented yet.”
On Tuesday morning, Dell hosted a panel titled ‘Power Your Big Ideas’. Coinciding with #NationalBossDay, the event’s featured speakers included Karen Plotkin, Senior Vice President at Dell, Rose Schooler, Corporate VP and General Manager at Intel, Jen Rubio, Co-Founder of Life style and luggage brand Away, and Francoise Brougher, COO of Pinterest.
Plotkin discussed the opportunities for change in today’s businesses models. “Everything is ripe for disruption,” Plotkin said. “It takes tenacity…knowing it is the right thing to do and not breaking away from that.”
Rubio offered an alternative, telling the crowd that disruption for disruption’s sake isn’t always a pathway to success. She urged the entrepreneurial attendees to build a business that matched their values. “Grow your business to be successful,” she told the room. “It will be the platform for all the other things you want to do.”
Brougher, who has also spent time working at Google and Square, talked about ways she pushes creativity at Pinterest while providing a safe space for her staff to generate new ideas. “I think a good way to really enforce this creativity is to provide a structure,” she noted. “Creativity is unleashed when you provide a canvas.”
To close out the whirlwind, 36-hour event, Marie Claire set up a fireside chat with actor/director Ellen Pompeo. The Grey’s Anatomy star has been leading the charge for equal pay in Hollywood, and recently became the highest paid actress in television. She urged the need for transparency in business and solidarity among co-workers: “As women, we need to share with each other everything we know.”
