The first event of 2019 was in February at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, where we discussed “The Power of Conscious Business.” It was an evening of networking and opportunities to learn about Conscious Capitalism with the Conscious Capitalism Chapter of Central Maryland (C3MD). We used the power of story and continued to deepen the ecosystem of authentic stories that define our conscious businesses and that will connect our stakeholders to our purpose, our culture and our leadership.
We had another event in February, “Conscious Leadership Webinar and Networking” with the Scaling Leadership Book Launch webinar plus a networking/discussion. Or, view this exclusive presentation in the comfort of your home or office. This was an exclusive webinar featuring Founder & Chair Bob Anderson and CEO William Adams of The Leadership Circle and Full Circle Group, about their new book: Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most. This was a unique opportunity to hear directly from these conscious leadership pace setters!
C3MD held a “Scaling Leadership ‘Book Club’” in April. This was a follow up of the exclusive webinar with Scaling Leadership authors Bob Anderson and William Adams in February with a morning book club discussion.
The May 2019 event was “Planting the Seeds of Your Story.” An evening of networking and opportunities to learn about Conscious Capitalism Central Maryland Chapter (C3MD) and creating a powerful story. We all have a story to tell and our community thrives when we share those stories with one another.
In June of 2019, we held “Conscious Cocktails: A Networking Event” to celebrate 2019’s halfway mark in beautiful Old Ellicott City. Insight180 hosted outside in the garden courtyard. We networked, caught up, and shared upcoming plans for Ignite Howard County (#6!) in October.
We held August’s event at the Oneness Hall in Ellicott City. Trainer and facilitator Jennifer Hlavka led the session, “What’s Your Story? From Ideation to Story Development & Delivery.”
We discussed elements of high impact storytelling including story sequence, arc, and use of images to convey tone. Together we shared our stories and enhanced our confidence, not only for the Ignite event but also for our everyday lives. If nothing else, joining us gave attendees space and time to consider – what is the story you’re telling? And are you living the story you want to tell? You can prepare by engaging in the challenge our May participants were given: commit to jotting down one story, as short as two to three sentences, each day (concept credit – Matthew Dicks’ “Homework for Life”).
The September event was a weekend-long Zen Leader Retreat led by C3MD member, Dr. Ginny Whitelaw, the author of The Zen Leader and founder of the Institute for Zen Leadership. Dr. Ginny Whitelaw is a Zen master in the Chozen-ji line of Rinzai Zen, and a recognized expert in leadership development. Author of 4 books, she has 25 years of experience developing global leaders. Formerly the Deputy Manager for integrating NASA’s International Space Station, she holds a Ph.D. in biophysics, as well as a 5th-degree black belt in Aikido. We learned how to be a force for positive change and discovered a path to purpose and awakening. We discovered new ways to face challenges, learned practices for better decision making and stronger influencing, and different modes of leadership for different scenarios.
Ignite Howard County #5, October 2019, was another success at Jailbreak Brewing Company. Ignite Howard County is a high-energy evening where the community comes together to share their passions! Presenting on a subject of their choice, 12+ speakers have exactly 5 minutes (and 20 slides auto-advancing every 15 seconds) to teach us something, enlighten us or simply inspire. The goal is to create collisions of conversations & collaborations between people in our artistic, entrepreneurial, creative, technical and innovative communities. So much fun! Thank you to those who participated and to our sponsors for Ignite #5! You can watch the ignite Howard County videos here.
The last event of 2019 was “Ignite Afterglow” at Howard County Library. We networked, shared our thoughts about the event, and learned about Conscious Capitalism.