All women invited to attend debut ‘HERstory’ conference
“HERstory in the Making” is the inaugural Union County Women in Business conference for all women in the region.
The conference is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at the Tuscan Sun Pavilion at Blue Sky Vineyard near Makanda in Union County.
Organizers said there will be something for every woman to learn and enjoy.
The day will include breakfast and lunch, a vendor fair and time to visit and network with others attending the conference.
The conference will have four breakout sessions featuring two to three speakers at each time. Each participant will choose which sessions she wishes to attend.
This fun and informative “Ladies’ Day Out” has a lineup of outstanding speakers and topics to empower women to be successful and confident in their work and daily lives. Doors are set to open for registration at 7:30 a.m.
Conference Vendors
Several local vendors will be set up between the tasting room and the event area.
Those who will be presenting their goods and services include:
Bizzy Mama, Shawnee Hills Lavender, Fresh Express Meals, Country Roads Flowers and Gifts, Main Street Market and Books, Girly Nature Goods, Kaleidoscope Beauty, Schoolhouse Cheesecakes, and Scentsy. There is still time to reserve a vendor spot.
The $35 ticket includes both a continental breakfast and catered lunch, a professional photograph, a $10 gift certificate to a Union County business participating that day and a voucher for a glass of wine.
Tickets and vendor information are available online at ucwib.com. Tickets are limited. The deadline to sign up is April 20.
Guest Speakers
In cooperation with Union County Women in Business, The Gazette-Democrat is featuring a few of the conference speakers each week leading up to the conference.
The speakers featured this week will be joined by keynote speaker Emily Reuschel – Unsettled to Unstoppable, Britni Bateman – Showing Up with Confidence on Social Media, Holly Hartline and Destiny Dillow – Helping Women be Healthy and Fit in a Busy World and Kendall Boysen – Encouragementology: Sometimes a New Perspective Starts with a Better Vantage Point, Allison Livesay McDougall – #IAmRemarkable, Ginger Meyer – Wellness Matters, and Kelli Wood – Playing to Win: Time Maximization.
Natalie Ellis: Easy Meal Planning for Busy Families
This presentation will teach you different ways to prepare food for easier and healthier eating.
We will cover the different types of meal prepping and attendees will be given different recipes for each kind of meal prep such as Crockpot or Instapot. Natalie will show how to make it simply doable with her easy tricks.
Natalie is the owner of Fresh Express Meals, which just launched in January. Fresh Express Meals takes the pressure off figuring out what to feed your family on those busy nights since they are assembled and ready for dinner whenever needed. Visit her booth, where she will have meals for purchase.
Meal prepping and planning has always been one of Natalie’s passions, and now she helps other families get a healthy family meal even when times are hectic.
Outside of running her new business, Natalie is a homeschooling mom of four little girls, loves the outdoors, enjoys cooking and enjoys camping weekends with her family.
Pamela Hearon: When One Door Closes, Find the Ax – How dealing with rejection can make or break you as an author and in life
Pamela Hearon grew up in Paducah, a small city that infuses its inhabitants with Southern values, Southern hospitality, and a very distinct Southern accent.
There she found the inspiration for her quirky characters, the perfect backdrop for the stories she wanted to tell, and the beginnings of her narrative voice.
Pamela was a 2013 RITA Finalist and Maggie Finalist for her first Harlequin Superromance, “Out of the Depths” (August 2012).
Six more Superromances followed, including “The Summer Place” (National Readers’ Choice Award Finalist) and “His Kind of Perfection” (2015 Maggie Finalist).
Her debut women’s fiction novel, “Gaining Visibility” (Kensington 2016), won the National Readers’ Choice Award and was a Book Club Pick by Country Woman Magazine.
Pamela (aka, Pam Hodges) taught school for many years and retired as the 8th-grade language arts teacher at Anna Junior High School in 2009.
Since then, she and her husband Dick have spent much of their time traveling the United States in their motorhome and also traveling abroad. They escape to Florida for the winter months where they stay active playing pickleball, golf and line dancing.
Mary K. Harris: Small Business Tax Talk
Businesses always have tax planning to be done, or they should be tax planning.
This session is for every business, no matter what stage, from ideas for new beginnings to the well-established.
We will go over starting a business, how to choose the right entity (how to be taxed), setting up bookkeeping and using the bookkeeping process that works for your business.
For over 20 years, Mary K Harris has been a tax professional with H&R Block. Since 2018 she has owned the Anna franchise.
Mary K specializes in individual and small business income tax as well as payroll and bookkeeping. Mary K is an enrolled agent, the highest credential awarded by the IRS. She is licensed to represent taxpayers before the IRS.
In 2022 her office was an Elite 25 Franchise and she was chosen as the featured franchisee of the year by H&R Block.
Melise Oakley: When the Roles Reverse: Coping with Aging Parents
Melise is a community education coordinator for Hospice of Southern Illinois.
She has a passion about educating the community about hospice and her personal background of Alzheimer’s disease.
Melise’s job is to educate the community through speaking engagements, meeting with families, networking and collaborating with healthcare professionals.
She is here to help build relationships and to educate community to help people feel comfortable with the end-of-life process.
Hospice of Southern Illinois helps prepare families to walk through the most challenging times. They strive to bring each patient and family comfort, peace, and support.
The last few years, Melise has had the honor of having Millie, a four-year-old Cavalier King Charles, as a certified therapy dog for Hospice of Southern Illinois, patients and families. Millie and Melise go into the community as an outreach for our area.
Melise loves working out and in her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family and friends.
Melise is the fifth person in her family to own and operate a business in Southern Illinois. She has been a small business owner of Melise’s for the last 17 years.