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Value Proposition

Today I attended Day One of a mid-sized, two-day technology conference sponsored by a business analyst group. I was sent by my company’s C-level folks to be their “eyes and ears” (read: note-taker). Not being told to be a “mouth,” I kept quiet in the back of the basement ballroom of the glitzy harborside hotel, listening to presentations and taking notes (a highlight: A Microsoft executive discussed acquiring start-ups like most people talk about buying shirts.)

The crowd was 90% men between the ages of 35 and 50… a real power crowd, fueled by buffets of refreshment food, an endless stream of beverages, and a lavish lunch. (Tomorrow I’ll hide tupperware in my purse.) It wasn’t until the cocktail hour that people asked me the question I’d been dreading all day: “What do you do?” I smiled mysteriously and claimed “They haven’t invented a title for what I do.”

Indeed, I felt mysterious all day. I stuck out. The bartender called me “Young lady” twice, and not in that “humoring a golden girl” sort of way. As one of the few women under forty, and the only blond, I got more than a few curious stares, and was evidently sized up as being not important enough to talk to except in the presence of cocktails. Wink wink. That’s my value proposition.

Posted in The 9 to 5.

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