Over 13,000 women participated in #ConnectedWomen’s simultaneous meetups globally, which covered interesting topics such as annual goal-setting and intention-setting, hustle tips, financial wellness and so much more.

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Volunteer hosts from the participating cities took the lead and organized their own event. With a little help from the Connected Women Community Team, they made sure that speakers were invited and the venue confirmed and properly set up. During the event itself, these women share their seemingly boundless energy to other women attending the meetup, by introducing the resource persons, leading the discussions as well as other activities.

All About Empowerment

More than anything else, the meetups continue to be a venue for women to get together and talk about things that matter to them personally and to the community as a whole. And this goes for both participants and the volunteer hosts.

During and after the meetups, participants rave about how much they love meeting other women and learning from each other. Those who lovingly volunteered to host a meetup in their city find the experience challenging yet very rewarding.

One of Naga City’s hosts, Ivy Oporto, shares her thoughts on why meetups like these are very valuable. “What makes this community of women unique is OUR story. Having a robust support network is essential for entrepreneurial success. But meeting, connecting and organizing events) with fellow women entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs is a really challenging endeavor. I guess that’s what makes us ‘wonder women.’ We can juggle work, business, family, and everything else.”

Collaboration Is Key

Behind the success of Connected Women global meetups are its volunteer hosts, which is usually made up of two or three women in the host city. Without volunteers, these events will not happen.

For example, Puerto Princesa City, the capital of Palawan, joined in 2019 at the heels of the December 2018’s #SheMeansBusiness Event. When the call for the next round of meetups was posted, several attendees to that event signed up to organize the first meetup in the city.

Jenny C. Meredith was one of those that volunteered their time and effort. Because it was their first time to organize such an event, she admitted that there were difficulties, as there were triumphs. Theirs was one of the most attended meetups in terms of number – 53 women. Jenny also shares how they managed to put together all the logistics, from the event venue, the tarpaulin, and the giveaways. All of this was only possible through the support of other Connected Women members in the city, who contributed what they can in kind to make the event possible.

Each city is unique in its own way, from its participants to the way the volunteer hosts come up with creative ways to support the event. What is common among the cities is how collaboration within the community fuels events like these.

Interested In Volunteering? Let’s hear from the volunteer hosts.

Have we piqued your interest enough to ask – what does it take to host a meetup in your city? Can I do it? And how?

Let’s find out what motivated some of the volunteer hosts to take this on.

Like Nica Valdeavilla, who aside from being a Digital Marketer for Connected Women, is also a volunteer host for Lucena City. She says that she initially wanted to find out how receptive women in her city were to freelance work. She eventually found out that were a number of remote workers based in Lucena and so many more were interested. There were also some who not only did online work but also had their own online businesses.

As for me, even before I started my work with Connected Women’s WE-Train, WE-Match Program, I wanted to bring together the freelancing community in Baguio. With a co-working space as a partner, it made sense to me to start building this community in the city. Like Nica, I was pleasantly surprised that quite a number of freelancers and online workers lived in Baguio. Being a freelancer myself, it was refreshing to meet like-minded women, share our experiences and learn from each other. Each meetup opened my eyes and ears to new things as we listened to each other’s stories, struggles and triumphs.

One’s motivation, however, does not need to be that complex. It can also be something as simple as pushing your own personal boundaries. For Palawan host Jenny, she simply wanted to get more experience in hosting events and to become more confident in the process. And her first hosting experience gave her just this. She wants to encourage other women in Palawan to try their hand in volunteering as it will help them achieve a lot more, personally and professionally.

Whether one is hosting a small or a big group, meaningful connections are what matter the most. Nica shares this interesting success story from her group in Lucena: “In our first meetup, we had an attendee who was very eager to land an online job. And she showed that she’s an action taker— she messaged VAs who attended and asked for tips/help! On our second meetup, she told us that she already had her online profile approved. On our third meetup, she wasn’t able to attend because she’s now working with a client.” Being able to make a mark on other women and help them succeed is what makes her continue being a volunteer host.

No matter your motivation, organizing a meetup is also a good exercise in honing your organizing and coordinating skills. As most hosts would agree, they come out of every meetup more confident to take on more responsibilities and causes. Ivy Oporto sums it up nicely: “I have realized that the feeling of being a leader is an escalation of women at an individual and societal level. The idea of maintaining solidarity, sustaining this CW community and generating funds for a greater cause gives me a deep sense of empowerment.”

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Interested in attending or hosting a meetup? Sign up here to host or attend the next meetup in your area!

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