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Community Corner

Speak to Me Gears Up for Second Season

With a successful first season under their belts, Mill Valley's Jenny Terry and Tracy Barsotti are ready for season two, this time expanding their speaker series into San Francisco.

A year ago, Mill Valley moms Jenny Terry and Tracy Barsotti were excitedly preparing to debut their dream project: a season-long speaker series of “intelligent, inspiring events for women” called Speak to Me.

Their years of community involvement and volunteer work for organizations like the Bay Area Discovery Museum had given Terry and Barsotti a unique perspective into what kind of events women – especially busy moms like themselves – would be inspired to attend. To that end, they applied their years of marketing and event planning experience and came up with Speak to Me, a concept they believed would resonate with their target audience. Each event was designed around a specific theme of wide interest to women, and had time built-in for mingling, nibbling and wine-tasting before and after the speakers.

The goal of Terry and Barsotti was to provide education and inspiration along with an opportunity to socialize and have fun. That vision clearly struck a chord with their target audience. Not only are they back for a second season, they have also expanded the program into San Francisco, with each event taking place both in Mill Valley (at the ) as well as SF’s Fort Mason Center.

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The season kicks off this tonight, Sept. 27, with a San Francisco encore of Dr. Laurie Green’s very popular talk from last May, “Who's Looking After Your Body? The Facts, the Fictions & the Tools to Tell The Difference.” It continues with five events spread out over the next eight months.

Among the women featured in this year’s program are Marin residents Deborah Santana and Christine Bronstein, as well as former Mill Valley resident Jan Yanehiro. They join an eclectic line-up of speakers who will tackle topics ranging from love and happiness to technology and aging.

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As with their , Terry and Barsotti started the process of booking speakers by looking at the larger themes they wished to address.

“We started with a list of about a dozen potential topic areas based in part on our own research into trends and news, but also largely on the feedback we got from our attendees about what is most meaningful for them,” the pair said in an email.

From there, they narrowed it down into five topics and sought to achieve “a balance of business vs. academia, seasoned experts vs. up-and-comers."

The result is a season of intriguingly titled events. They are:

  • Girlfriends' Guide To Learning from Life's Little Surprises (October 2011) Deborah Collins Stephens, best selling author, co-founder of The Center For Innovative Leadership;Jackie Speier* Congresswoman, US House of Representatives   (*invited); Jan Yanehiro, award-winning broadcast journalist; Michealene Cristini Risley;award-winning writer, director, human rights activist.
  • A Long Bright Future (May 2012) Laura Carstensen, Ph.D., Stanford Center on Longevity, Professor of Psychology and Public Policy, and author of "A Long Bright Future: An Action Plan for a Lifetime of Happiness, Health and Financial Security"

Terry and Barsotti said their decision to expand to San Francisco made sense.

“About 15 percent of our attendees in our first season came from the city and we heard from many others that they wished they could make it, but it was hard for them to [be in] Marin by 6:30 p.m. on a weeknight.” They expect to stay with their current two locations for the time being before considering any further expansion.

One thing that hasn’t changed is their impressive roster of sponsors, partners and in-kind donors, with backing from Mercedes-Benz of San Francisco and Mill Valley favorites like  and . They'll also continue to work with charitable partners, as they did last year with Educate Our State, Marin Charitable Association and Verizon’s Hopeline program

Looking back on some of the highlights of their first year, Terry and Barsotti shared the words of activist Annie Leonard, one of last season’s speakers, who said, “It was an honor and great fun to come meet your powerhouse group of women working to make the world better. One of the most important things we need to do to get this country back on track is join with friends and neighbors to talk about the important issues of our day – turn the volume up on a much needed public conversation about what’s wrong and how we can make things better. Thanks for leading the way on this! I left the evening with new information, new inspiration and new friends!”

The 411: Speak to Me tickets may be purchased individually or as a series of three or five events. Click here for more information.

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