Melissa Majors, global education director for Meeting Professionals International, brought women together for an empowering and educational session on developing strong leadership skills in the meeting industry on Tuesday (Oct. 16) at IMEX America.

Majors began her session with the encouraging phrase, “We are the secret sauce.” She explained that studies show companies with more women executives make more money. “Companies were six percent more profitable, 20 percent more innovative and two times more admired.”

She asked attendees, “What is the most significant issue facing women who work in the meeting and event industry?” While they brought up having children and travel as issues, Majors adjusted her microphone, adding, “Being heard.” She displayed a graph that showed women also faced issues with things such as the wage gap, underrepresentation and their contributions not being taken seriously.

Communication was the first skill Majors spoke of to help women be taken seriously. She spoke about not using too many words when conveying their point, explaining that the first thing to do is determine the “point” they’re trying to make. Get all ideas down on paper and only use the ideas that directly relate back to the “point.” Then make sure all ideas flow and begin building a presentation. Finally, verbalize the entire project.

Being strategic and focused on the outcome is the second part Majors highlighted. Speaking about listening to different sources, identifying common themes and focusing on what matters to the business as important concepts. Majors greatly emphasized that for your idea to be brought up and taken seriously you must craft your vision with measurable outcomes and develop action plans. She talked about speaking in terms that your business views as important, thereby making your idea important as well.

Majors went on to speak about the importance of dressing for the confidence you need, explaining that in her own 20 years of experience, dressing for confidence led her to feel and show confidence in herself.

Finding a mentor was the last step she focused on. She expressed that, man or woman, a mentor was always needed to truly break through the “glass ceiling.” It’s not enough to look for people at your personal level to guide you, but look to people above you to help you climb the ladder.

She closed the session with a quote from WellPoint CEO Angela Braly: “The most important factor in determining whether you will succeed isn’t your gender, it’s you.”