On Thursday, September 17, 2020, OWA held a virtual event sponsored by Luxottica, celebrating 2020 Pleiades Award honoree Millicent Knight, OD (Essilor of America), Pyxis Award honoree Jean Sabre (Uptown Vision), and Visionary Award honoree Sheena Taff (OpticianAboutTown). Our featured keynote speaker was Paula Calise, 2020 Founder and Principal at Linked Executive Search. Ms. Calise is on the Forbes "Top 10 Best Recruiters in the U.S." list and is a professional branding expert. Her experience and enthusiasm for The Art of Hello can help all of us create the perfect professional introduction!
As professionals, we all deserve to be known for our achievements and to be understood for our value proposition. Often called personal branding, the core is introducing yourself to people in a way that the listener understands the essence of your professional life. Once perfected, it will serve as your networking introduction and provide a compelling statement for your social platforms.
Paula Calise is the principal of Linked Executive Search. After hearing hundreds and hundreds of generic personal introductions, she developed a program to help people improve and create a memorable answer to the question "what do you do?". She created the "Art of Hello"TM presentation and methodology. During her presentation, she provides the background, tips and rules along with a three-step methodology that results in a professional brand introduction of your own to use, that day.
This highly successful event was recorded and is now available for viewing. Learn how you can create your own unique professional brand introduction and set yourself apart!
Launched in 2005 originally as the OWA Professional Optical Women's Workshops (POWW), this popular event has become an OWA "signature series" overseen by the OWA Events Committee. Its goal is to provide forums for OWA members to gather and network while gaining access to information geared toward moving them along their career path. The first Connection Series event — Seeing (Blind) Spots? Men and Women Working Together — was held in September 2014.
Connection Series events will be listed on the OWA Events page, and registration links / additional details for upcoming events can be found here.
Learn more about our most recent events here:
Topics for past events include:
For more information on these informative and energizing workshops or to request program topics, please contact our Events Committee Co-Chairs, Courtney Myers at and Beverly Bianes at .
