Back in 1986, the wife of then-California Governor George Deukmejian, Gloria, started a conference for working professional women and women business owners. In 2004, Maria Shriver, then-First Lady of California, took it over under her new role. She single-handedly altered the event, when the L.A. Times said that under Shriver, “[it] exploded into the largest meeting of women in the nation.”
It was a disappointment, amongst other things, when current First Lady Anne Brown announced in February of last year that she would not continue the tradition that has attracted globally recognized faces ranging from Oprah Winfrey to Michelle Obama to Tony Blair to the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. “I will focus my immediate energies on the challenges before our state and won’t try to recreate the conference that Maria put on in Long Beach,” Brown said in her statement.
However, EventComplete, an Orange County-based company, has taken on the conference without the governor’s office it was recently announced — and it will keep its home in Long Beach, running September 23 and 24. The title of the event is, “The Women’s Economy Starts Here.”
According to the website, featured speakers include fashion designer Donna Karan, famed attorney Gloria Allred, Olympic champion Janet Evans, actress Maria Bello, and actress Patricia Arquette, amongst others.
The event will be from 5-8 p.m. on Sept. 23 and from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 24. Admission is $49 for Sept. 23 and $249 for Sept. 24. Tickets will go on sale online beginning June 15. For more information, click here.