by Dot Cannon

“She’s so inspiring,” commented one Wonder Women Tech attendee, on Sunday afternoon.

The speaker was referring to WWT founder Lisa Mae Brunson, who had just finished her mid-afternoon talk at the Long Beach Convention Center.  But she could  easily have applied that statement to a number of the other speakers during this second annual conference.  (Wonder Women Tech started in 2015, in Playa Vista.)

Day 2 of Wonder Women Tech 2016 began with a session with actress/dancer/musician Megg Rose.

Rose, who is totally deaf, taught the first segment of the “Deaf Workshop”.  She told her audience that she became interested in music and dance as a child.  After learning to sign songs from watching YouTube, she started participating in school theatrical productions.  “I was the only deaf person there.  Everyone else was hearing,” she recalled.

Today, Rose is a SAG member, with a professional resume that includes both film and theatre roles.  She signs songs and is the founder of Deaf Women of Faith–as well as a mom.

“I have two deaf children and a wonderful husband.  He is deaf as well,” she said, before showing a collaborative project the couple had produced together.

With her husband–filmmaker Michael Davis–Rose created an anti-bullying video to the Taylor Swift song, Mean.  Her daughter portrayed her in the video, which the couple shot in two days.

“Many deaf children have a song in their heart,” she said.  “Music really is about healing, and it’s very therapeutic and very expressive.”

Rose also had some advice for her hearing audience members, on learning sign language: don’t try too hard.  “Don’t dance when you sign.  Calm down, relax, it’s OK.”

In the future, her audience members may get a chance to hear some of Rose’s original compositions, as well as seeing her perform songs.  “I write my own music.  I just haven’t put it out there yet,” she continued.

“I encourage you all, whatever your heart wants.   Just go ahead and do it.”

Another highlight of Sunday’s programming was this panel on “Tech Disruptors – the Most Innovative Companies Run By Women”.

Perhaps the very best moments came when moderator Cameron Kashani, “Godmother of Silicon Beach”, suggested discussing fear and failure.  “That’s usually a  topic that isn’t spoken about enough.”

“We started as forty lesbians getting drinks,” replied Lesbians Who Tech Vice-President Dom Brassey.  “When we started, we expected it to fail….The first event actually did work, and now we’re at 16,000, globally.”

“When you die and a doctor opens up your brain, does he find fear?” Cam asked.  “Does he find failures…judgement?  None of them are real.  So if you shift your perception to awesome, let’s try again.”

Later in the afternoon, designer, illustrator and author Rachel Ignotofsky gave a presentation on “Illustration as a Tool For Educating”.  Her first book, Women In Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, comes out on July 26th.

“One of the biggest reasons I wanted to do this book was Marie Curie,” Ignotofsky explained.  “When I started (researching), I was overwhelmed.  There are many women who have contributed just as much, if not more.  How come they’re not household names?”

Ignotofsky said her goal was to remove barriers to future women innovators, by raising awareness of women’s scientific contributions.  The luminaries she referenced included pioneering Victorian fossilist Mary Anning and geneticist Barbara McClintock.

“Barbara McClintock was called into (her boss’s office) and told that if she ever got married, she would be fired,” Ignotofsky said.  “She discovered jumping genes.  Scientists before thought genes were super rigid.  It wasn’t till thirty years after her initial experiment that she received the Nobel Prize.  Where would we be (now) if men had paid attention?”

“Women make up 50 per cent of the workforce,” she continued.  “Only 24 per cent of women are working in STEM…What do you do when half the population is seen as ‘weak’?”

Currently, she said, she’s working on a book about women in sports.  After that, her next book will be “all about the ecosystem”.  Illustration is her pathway to making dense information accessible, beautiful–and shareable.

“Illustration is more than just pretty,” Ignotofsky said.  “It is a tool.  It is a force.”

But of all the lessons on leadership and empowerment from Wonder Women Tech’s second conference, perhaps the best came from founder Lisa Mae Brunson.

Taking the stage just after 3:00 on Sunday afternoon, she taught by example.

As any innovator knows, the first time in a new venue can be bumpy.

As any professional woman realizes–talent, passion, excellent content and hard work don’t always equal well-deserved recognition.  Or financial success.

Unfortunately, the above was true for this year’s Wonder Women Tech conference.   Attendance was obviously much lower than anticipated.

In addition, with the Long Beach Convention Center as the Conference’s new “home”, balky technology and wi-fi caused a number of problems.

But the true mark of a leader is the ability to face adversity with honesty, grace and resilience.  All of these were evident in Brunson’s speech.

“What this has shown me is something really phenomenal, on two levels,” she began.  “It was a beautiful experience, talking to so many people over the past two years.  This week I’m sending out a massive e-mail, and I’m going to be doing even more to make sure that, next year, people show up.”

Brunson referenced the bumpy road she and her staff had traveled, in bringing Wonder Women Tech to Long Beach.  “Two days before the conference, I wanted to back out,” she commented.  “(People think), because you have a vision and a dream, you’re going to be able to accomplish it like that,” as she snapped her fingers.  “That is not true.”

Her staff, Brunson said, experienced a number of personal tragedies and challenges while working together to make Wonder Women Tech 2016 a reality.  “We lost three MCs and two stage managers in car accidents this weekend,” she told the audience.

Lack of response was another problem.  “I can’t tell you how many people I reached out to through e-mail, through phone calls, and they went unanswered,” Brunson said.  “If you take anything away from this, it’s show up, give support.”

Brunson’s tone was matter-of-fact and positive.

“It’s not about the production.  It’s about the changes that are going to be made in an environment like this.  It’s about the woman who came to me crying and hugged me, because she got her second (funder for her project this weekend).”

With three hours left to go in the 2016 convention, Brunson was already looking ahead 2017.   Wonder Women Tech has a three-year contract with the City of Long Beach.

“The fact that we know in our hearts why we’re here is enough,” she said.  “We have three years to get it right.  This is for the world, so let’s make it happen, together.”

We’ll see you in 2017, Wonder Women Tech–and something tells us that things will look very different.