The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Unstoppable Women’ speakers announced
October WOW! Forum tickets now available
TORRINGTON — Northwest Connecticut’s Chamber of Commerce’s 15th annual WOW! Forum, a daylong professional women’s conference featuring high energy and motivational speakers and celebrating its 15th year, will be held Oct. 4 at The Warner Theatre’s Carole & Ray Neag Performing Arts Center in downtown Torrington. Tickets are one sale now at www.wowforum.org.
The theme for this year’s WOW! Forum is “Unstoppable Women.”
“The six speakers are going to inspire attendees to face each challenge they encounter with a positive attitude and determination as well as share skills they can use to grow in their professional and personal lives,” chamber members said in a statement.
One of this year’s keynote speakers is Alana Stewart. Alana is an actress, host, New York Times bestselling author, and spokesperson. She is also an animal activist and brand ambassador for PRIA Beauty. As an actress, she has appeared in dozens of films and TV shows. Her most recent film, Swiped, debuted in November 2018. She hosted the popular talk show The George and Alana Show with exhusband, George Hamilton and most recently starred in Stewart’s and Hamilton’s on E! network.
Stewart has appeared on most major network news and talk shows including CNN, MSNBC, The View, Bill O’Reilly, Barbara Walters, Larry King, Nightline, Wendy Williams, and The Doctors. She has made numerous appearances on The Today Show, eXtra, Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood.
In 2007, she began working with her friend, Farrah Fawcett on “Farrah’s Story,” a documentary of Farrah’s battle with cancer, which Stewart filmed and produced. In 2009, “Farrah’s Story” debuted on NBC to a recordbreaking audience and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Steward now serves as president and CEO of the Farrah Fawcett Foundation, which funds cancer research and promotes prevention and awareness. The Foundation is currently working with Stand Up Two Cancer and has funded an HPV research team at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The FFF is also working on an initiative with The American Cancer Society to increase HPV vaccine uptake in the US. Five percent of all the world’s cancers are HPV related.
Steward received the prestigious Genii Award from the American Women in Radio and Television for excellence in documentary filmmaking for Farrah’s Story, She was also honored by The John Wayne Cancer Institute with the ‘True Grit’ Humanitarian Award and was honored by The Beckstrand Cancer Foundation for her contribution to the cancer community.
Bevin Mugford, Head of Field Development for Peach, a fouryearold lifestyle brand with a mission to help women “elevate their everyday” and thrive personally and professionally, is also a speaker at this year’s Forum. For customers, Peach offers contemporary and comfortable apparel for gym, work and play; for its cadre of socialsales brand representatives across the U.S., an opportunity to start their own fashion business without the financial risk; for femalefounded accessory brands, a platform to collaborate and share success.
A former real estate entrepreneur, Mugford is a founding member of the Peach team and the Head of Field Development. In her role at Peach, she recruits, trains and leads a national sales team. A dynamic and engaging public speaker, she activates the Peach mission through presenting powerful personal and professional development workshops on flexing internal strengths. Described as a “zesty badass with a flair for the dramatic”, Bevin believes men and women can do anything when they play to their strengths.
Entrepreneur, author, model and influencer, Dian Griesel, will also be sharing her expertise with the audience on October 4th. Over 1,000 public & private company executives, boards and individuals have hired Griesel, a Ph.D., president of Dian Griesel Int'l., a WOSB, as their perception analyst and strategist. She writes a daily column as the Founder of Silver Disobedience®, her blogging platform which has been featured in articles by AARP and Forbes, as well as SxSW. Via Silver Disobedience Inc., Griesel consults with management, product, and marketing teams who seek to better understand and appropriately target older audiences. She is also a model represented by Wilhelmina NY, Icon Division & Aperture Talent. Her executive team comanages her DGIcomm, which has core expertise in advising FDA, FTC, SEC, DoD and other regulated companies.
A certified clinical hypnotherapist (Union 472), a member of the American Counseling Association and a lifetime member of the International Association of Counselors and Therapists, Griesel has developed a keen intuition and understanding of how written, verbal, visual and body language communication trigger opinions, actions and response. She is known for her thoughtful insights; ability to listen closely and impart candid, spoton advice; as well as her willingness to create connections to her broad, wellestablished network of friends and business relationships.
As a blogger, Griesel’s daily posts are read by hundreds of thousands of followers and reach over a million people weekly. She's a bestselling health and business author; a regular broadcast personality and columnist for a variety of publications; as well as a member of the Forbes Agency Council. Her books include ENGAGE: Smart Ideas to Get More Media Coverage, Build Your Influence and Grow Your Business; IPPY awardwinning FUNDaMentals: The Corporate Guide to Cultivating Mindshare; Uncapped: A Critically Important Workbook for Officers of Public Companies; as well as the TurboCharged® Peak Performance health book series of books, which she cowrote with her brother.
Leslie Gold, HBS 1985, was the CEO of Bishop Manufacturing, a window manufacturing company with 165 employees. After 10 years of a successful stewardship, she sold the company to a Fortune 100 company and turned her attention to talk radio. She became "The Radiochick" and built a compelling brand in the nations #1 market. Within 15 months she went from being a complete unknown to amassing an audience of over 1 million rabid listeners. Gold was the only woman headlining a morningdrive program in the market, and her show was later expanded to other markets and platforms.
In business, Gold used her persuasion techniques to defeat a union organizing effort, convince a bank to loan her 5M to purchase the company at 26 years old, and negotiate terms previously unheard of in her industry. In her tenure on air, her listeners erupted in an organic outpouring of outrage at her firing, and their relentlessness forced her employer to reverse their decision. Throughout, she persuaded her devoted listeners to continually engage with her program in grandiose, humorous and very public ways to achieve the highest ratings in New York City.
Grammy® Nominated New York based vocalist and pianist Nicole Zuraitis blends clever songwriting skills, an effervescent presence and unparalleled vocals in a consummate package that has thrilled audiences across Manhattan and across the world.
She is the vocalist for the world famous Birdland Big Band and the Dan Pugach Nonet, the winner of the New York Coffee Music Project Songwriting Competition, ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award recipient and was a finalist in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.
Her 2017 Album HIVE MIND won Best Jazz Album in the International Music and Entertainment Awards and she was awarded the Johnny Mercer and People’s Choice Award in the American Traditions Competition. Her world music folk band EVA toured internationally alongside folk legends Livingston Taylor, Melanie Safka and Tom Chapin. She has performed with The Omar Hakim Experience as a vocalist at the Iridium Jazz Club, Maz of Snarky Puppy, Don Braden, Rachel Z, Hagar Ben Ari, Dave Stryker, Antonio Sanchez, Cyrille Aimee and Bernard Purdie, Kung Fu and Elise Testone at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
Zuraitis is a member of the Litchfield Jazz Camp faculty. Her love for jazz education has brought her to songwriting and jazz workshops worldwide, including Berklee College of Music, Williams College, Litchfield Jazz Camp, Australian Embassy, Burnt Hills High School Artist in Residence, Israel Embassy, SAM Academy in Chennai India and Miami Arts Charter School. She holds residencies in New York City at both the 55 Bar and Birdland Jazz Club.
Tim Quinn, a crowd favorite, is coming back for a second time this year. After training in Milan alongside worldrenown makeup artist Pat McGrath, Tim Quinn joined the Giorgio Armani Beauty team with the launch of the brand in September 2001. His myriad of experience as an artist includes work in TV, print and film.
Quinn began his illustrious career in the beauty industry when he first began modeling at the age of 19. After numerous photo shoots and magazine layouts, he discovered that his true calling was behind the camera, designing his own individual style and not in front of it featuring someone else’s designs.
Quinn’s words of wisdom have graced the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, W, Elle, Glamour, More, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, among others. Tim has been featured as one of the “25 Beauty Stars” in W magazine and won a Genius Award in Elle Magazine as a Genius Makeup Artist. He was also awarded the title of “Beauty Tsar” at Hollywood Magazine’s Hollywood Style Awards. He has worked backstage in New York, Milan, Rome, Paris, Hong Kong and Beijing as well as at several award shows including the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. Hehas traveled internationally hosting special events, training and promoting the beauty line. Additionally, he has been featured numerous times on television programs such as the Today Show, Extra and E! News.
Quinn has worked with a number of celebrities including: Brooke Shields, Debra Messing, Diane Lane, Glenn Close, Gwen Stefani, Hilary Swank, Kate Bosworth, Kerry Washington, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Munn, Robin Wright, Tina Turner, Victoria Beckham, just to name a few.
Additionally, he is actively involved in Massachusetts General Hospital’s the one hundred, which is an awareness and fundraising initiative that celebrates hope in the cancer community, as well as sits on the Advisory Board of the Farrah Fawcett Foundation for Cancer Research.
This year’s emcee, Beth Dupont, is human resources director and EEO Officer for O&G Industries, Inc., one of the region’s leading providers of construction services and products. Based in Torrington and in business since 1923, O&G employs over 1,000 skilled employees.
Dupont joined O&G in 2018 after serving almost five years as chief of staff at Club Quarters Hotels/Masterworks Development Corporation based in Stamford and NYC. Her previous positions included serving as director, organizational services for the Connecticut Hospital Association.
She has served on the boards of directors for a number of organizations including LifeChoice Donor Services and Wallingford Hawks Youth Hockey. She now serves on the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board and the Department of Corrections Industry Advisory Board.
In addition to the extraordinary speakers, WOW! Forum attendees will enjoy a continental breakfast, lunch, a dessert & wine reception with an auction, a gift and free parking. Tickets are $125 per person. Buy five tickets and get one free.
The premier event sponsor is TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank. The WOW! Forum thanks TD Bank for their generous contribution and tremendous support of this professional women’s conference. The WOW! Forum is a program of the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, the premier business resource in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut.
Other major sponsors of the event include Conquest, Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board and the Warner Theatre.
Register online at www.WOWFORUM.org. Do not miss your chance to attend this wonderful event! For more information, call the Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce at 8604826586.