Hello fellow ICF-OC coaches!

I attended the first ever Womanaire Extraordinaire Conference on October 23rd and 24th, 2006 at the Long Beach Convention Center. The conference was for business women, run by business women who were open to coaching around aspects of different areas of their businesses.

I volunteered to set up our Chapter booth with the ICF-OC banner and marketing materials which emphasized our monthly meetings and Find-a-Coach website. I was asked by our Marketing Director at the time, Elaine Provencher, if I would speak in front of the group regarding the ICF-OC chapter; what it meant to me and the different activities offered. Giving the speech twice helped calm my ‘public speaking’ nerves. Once to the coaches before the doors opened to the participants and again after lunch to the whole conference as part of the sponsors for the event.

The 2 days were set up something like this: After all the introductions of the sponsors and coaches, there were at least 2 speakers every morning and 2 speakers in the afternoon. After the speakers completed their speeches, each table, with their assigned coaches, spent 30-45 minutes discussing perspectives related to the topic. ICF-OC members in attendance were Scott Peck, Sandy Scheppmann, Glen Stevenson and Linda Hodge. Our President, Patricia Hirsch coached participants. Nahid Cassaza, President-elect was the first speaker on the second day of the conference. The sponsors were encouraged to hook up with one of the coaching groups for lunch. I spoke with quite a few interesting people and did a lot of listening and a little bit of coaching. I want to thank our chapter for the opportunity to attend this conference and get in some great networking and hear excellent and inspirational speakers.

I asked the coaches who were at the ICF-OC table what value they received from attending the conference. Sandy Scheppmann said “My take away of the Womanaire conference was that there was a dedicated team of professionals wanting to bring together business women in a collaborative effort to help and inform. The use of “coaching” these women in business to break barriers and build barriers and build confidence was another example of how the industry of coaching is succeeding.”

I invite you to join me next year at the conference and get in some great networking along with continuing to learn about the coaching profession.

Scott Peck