By Anthony Scott
Killeen Daily Herald

About 100 women from across Texas gathered to celebrate success at the Killeen Civic and Conference Center Saturday.

"We should never be content to read about famous women in history," said Keynote Speaker Vicki Marlette. "We should strive to be successful."

Marlette, past-president of the American Business Women's Association, was one of several speakers who treated attendees to a variety of topics aimed at business success.

The event was hosted by area chapters of ABWA from Killeen, Salado and Georgetown and lasted from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There were sessions for women to hone skills in using social media, personal finance, business ethics, career changes and networking.

"It's just a good time to network and learn some new things," said Event Organizer Bonnie Hunt, vice chair of the ABWA Central Texas Area Council.

The theme of the event was celebrate success, and Marlette said she tried to centralize her speech around that.

"If the event has a specific theme, I feel like I can add a message," she said. "It's better that I can add to a centralized theme."

Geanna Kincanon, was one of about 20 who came from the Bryan-College Station area chapters of ABWA to here Marlette speak. She said she could relate to when Marlette reminded people that success isn't a verb or adjective: it is a noun.

"For me, I find success is a noun," she said. "It's all about what you're doing to get to that place. It's all about the journey, who you help along the way, it's not the place you're going, it's the journey."

Kincanon is a human resources and compliance manager and came to the event for the third year with Debbie Holloday, a tax accountant who said she came for personal growth.

"This women's group is just a great organization," Holloday said. "It helps you to grow in an area of your life as you need it."

At the end of her lunchtime speech, Marlette drew the crowd to its feet after she compared success to failure.

"You know success and passion can go hand in hand, while failure can have poetic justice," she said. "Success can also be poetic."

With that, she shared a poem, the end of which read:

"Please don't do as I do, just do as I say, and success will be yours — it's a flippin' buffet! Remember, you can always use more than one plate, just follow this friends, and you'll do great."

While Marlette focused on the positives of success and how to get there, featured afternoon speaker Ann Daly's speech focused on her book concerning what she considered a list of the Top 10 unwritten rules that can sabotage a woman's career.

"We don't want to be defined by those unwritten rules," Daly said.

Noting that some younger women may at first choose to ignore these trends at first, which focus on the differences of men and women, Daly said women usually find out these 10 assumptions are true.

She said some of the unwritten rules are: men get the benefit of the doubt, looks matter, women don't get enough feedback, mothers are assumed ambivalent, men are bred for success and women are better worker bees than leaders.

"It's better to know what we're up against and know how to deal with it," she said.

Daly is an Author of numerous books and writes a blog for the Huffington Post.

Contact Anthony Scott at ascott@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7568. Follow him on Twitter at KDHcity.

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