Innovation Women Newsletter #549

February 6, 2026

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SIXTEEN WOMEN

Hi ala,

Yesterday I attended an event in Boston with a client. During one of the panels, the moderator put down her notes, looked around, and said, "I just need to point out that there are 16 women in the room today."

I did a quick count too. Five rows with 25 people per row, plus a bunch of back of the room "leaners". All told? About 140 people in the room. And 16 were women.

I did another count too. There were 25 speaker slots at the event and 5 of them were filled by women. That's right. Twenty percent of the speakers were women versus the 11 percent of attendees. We did better onstage than we did in the audience. This day at least.

What does this prove? Nothing. Nothing except that people notice when we're missing. We might not always call it out, but we notice.

Bobbie and the entire Innovation Women team

EVENT MANAGER OR EXPERT?

SPEAKER FRIEND FRIDAYS

All are welcome!

Join us today (and every Friday) at 8:45 am ET for Speaker Friend Fridays on Zoom. You can also join us for West Coast Friendly Speaker Friends on the first Friday (TODAY!) and third Friday of each month at noon ET/9:00 am PT. Click the links below to RSVP and add the recurring links to your calendar. (Everyone is welcome at these events. Bring a friend, even if they aren't a member.) Event organizers? You're welcome too!

GET MORE SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES

We’re here to help you find EVEN MORE speaking opportunities.

Join Innovation Women founder and Speaker Friend Fridays host Bobbie Carlton, an industry veteran who has spent decades getting executives and experts onto high-visibility stages.

We've been getting so much great feedback on our "Get More Speaking Opportunities" webinars that Bobbie keeps adding EVEN MORE strategies to find and secure speaking opportunities to her presentations. You’ll get insider secrets and insights you can use immediately.

You know how speaking can drive business growth and dramatically boost your professional visibility, but do you know:

• What event managers, podcast hosts, and media are really looking for in speakers?
• How Innovation Women connects women and other underrepresented voices with speaking opportunities of all kinds?
• Ways you can uncover opportunities most others miss?

Plus, you’ll get a live tour of the Innovation Women speaking opportunity database, a look at our educational resources, and an introduction to our supportive online community.

Whether you’re just getting started or ready to expand your impact, this session will show you how to access EVEN MORE opportunities, amplify your voice, and step confidently onto even more stages.

Where other organizations stop short of delivering the real goods, Innovation Women always gives you the inside scoop.

Please join us: Wednesday February 11 at 2:00 pm ET

UPCOMING INNOVATION WOMEN WEBINAR

How to Turn Your Talks Into Conversations & Clients

Featuring Marta Spirk

February 18, 12:00 - 1:00 pm ET 

Whether you are brand new to speaking or need to refine your message, in this presentation, you will learn 3 powerful shifts to leverage speaking as a marketing and sales tool—without waiting for a big stage!  

Audiences will learn to:

• Increase confidence in their message
• Become a compelling communicator
• Craft a signature talk that converts into sales

LIONESS MAGAZINE FEATURES

Lioness for the Female Entrepreneur is our digital magazine for women who are starting (or thinking about starting) companies. Get the latest news, tools and resources to launch and scale startups. This week you can read great articles like:

• Your Brain Can Be Trained, Much Like Your Muscles – A Neurologist Explains How to Boost Your Brain Health
• Is Your Lifeboat Sinking? Three Survival Tools Every Entrepreneur Needs

February Lioness Networking: Bouncing Back From Rejection

📅 Date: Tuesday, February 24th

🕒 Time: 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET

Rejection is part and parcel of building a business. Join this month’s Lioness Networking for an honest conversation about rejection: how to process it, learn from it and move forward.

SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES

Every week our speakers get brand new opportunities and there are even more on our website. There are hundreds of open opportunities on the site right now and we added more than 80 new ones this week! Below are some of the NEW opportunities:

1. Mines and Money 2026 December 1-3, 2026 London, UK Deadline 9/1/2026 - Mining & Metals
2. Law, Learning, and La Dolce Vita March 27 - April 7, 2027 Sliema Malta Deadline 12/27/2026 - Legal Services
3. Digital Transformation & Customer Experience Summit 2027 April 1, 2027 Amsterdam, Netherlands Deadline 1/1/2027 - Information Technology and Services
4. Quibit Conference Prague 2026 May 18-20, 2026 Prague, Czech Republic Deadline 2/18/2026 - Computer and Network Security
5. 13th World Congress on Special Needs Education November 23-25, 2026 Oxford, UK Deadline 3/31/2026 - Higher Education



Get hundreds of opportunities like these, a profile on our site, education and more for only $159/year!

EVENTS & OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

FEATURED EVENTS

HSPI 2026 Conference - February 11

Innovation Women speaker Anne Frewin will be presenting “Changing How Leaders Lead: Unlocking Results Through People”.

From Feb. 11-13 in Atlanta, healthcare engineers and improvement professionals will gather to solve the industry’s toughest challenges — from reducing costs to improving patient outcomes to streamli