YEAR FOUR
Women's Leadership Summit
July 22–24, 2026 · Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach · Dana Point, CA
120 senior women in marketing leadership. Three days of conversations that change how you lead, how you connect, and how you see yourself.
Our story
It started with a question.
Four years ago, we hosted our first Women’s Summit with a simple idea: what happens when you give accomplished women real space — not a stage, not a panel, just space — to be honest with each other?
What happened surprised us. Women who came as strangers left as something closer to family. Conversations that started over dinner turned into career pivots, business partnerships, and friendships that people say changed the trajectory of their lives.
Every year this community gets deeper. The walls come down faster. The conversations get more personal, more real, more life-altering. Year four is coming.
What to expect
Three days. No pretense.
substance
Marketing, parenting, caregiving, relationships, and advancing careers while holding everything else together.
conversation
Small groups, honest dialogue. Every session is a discussion — you won’t hear from experts, you’ll be surrounded by them.
Friendship
Lasting bonds that go beyond the summit. The women who attend want and nurture this network year after year.
renewal
Yoga, wine tastings, ocean air. The topics are serious but the setting reminds you to breathe.
the conversations
Previous topics covered
Workshops are designed and led by fellow participants — people who’ve been in your seat. Last year’s conversations included:
Mastering Your New Role: The Make-or-Break 90 Days
The critical first 90 days in a senior role — how to identify early wins, navigate C-suite politics, and establish the momentum that sets you up for long-term success.
How We Make It Better for Everyone Coming Next
Practical ways to support other women, collaborate to create real change, and build the kind of mutual support that benefits everyone — today and tomorrow.
Moving Beyond Self-Promotion to Thought Leadership
How to build meaningful influence by staying true to what you actually care about — why authenticity beats polish every time.
From Frantic to Focused: Choosing an Intentional Life
Practical strategies for saying no without guilt, aligning your time with your values, and restructuring your days around what you want to be present for.
Navigating the Generational Divide
Communication strategies, team structures, and management approaches that turn generational differences into real advantages.
Building Marketing Teams for the AI Era
Beyond the scary headlines — what marketing organizations actually need to look like in an AI-driven world.
Staying Cool When You're Literally Not
Managing menopause in the corner office — the experience that affects all women yet is rarely discussed. The frank support system we all deserve.
Designing Your Financial Architecture
How to shift from autopilot to architecture in your financial life — the hidden complexity of women’s mid-career wealth.
The setting
Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach
Dana Point, California. Perched above the Pacific on the Southern California coast. The kind of setting that makes people exhale before the first session even starts.
We chose this property because the best conversations don’t happen in conference rooms — they happen at sunset, on a walk along the bluffs, over a glass of wine with the ocean in the background.
The experience
Agenda
Registration
Marketer Only Meeting
Welcome Networking Activity
Welcome Reception & Dinner
Late-Night Spot (Optional)
Morning Sweatworking
Breakfast
General Session
Lunch
Workshops Round 1
This is My Voice Now
The things that made us shrink didn't always happen at work. For a lot of women, the story starts earlier, quieter, and darker than a bad performance review. This conversation is for the whole woman, not just her title. We'll talk honestly about what we've carried, what we've overcome, and how we're using this moment to finally stop editing ourselves. You'll leave with perspective, solidarity, and a clearer sense of what reclaiming your voice looks like from here.
AI: Show Me How You Did That. Cut the AI Hype, Show the Work
Everyone's heard the AI concept pitch. What's actually harder to find is a room full of people willing to say "here's the specific tool my marketing team is using, here's what it does, and here's what it actually delivered." This session is squarely focused on AI-powered marketing platforms: think repurposing existing video assets into social content, stretching production budgets, and scaling what lean teams can actually execute. Come ready to share the tools you've found, the ones that disappointed, and what you wish someone had told you sooner.
Staying True to Yourself Without Torching Your Career
The line between adapting to your environment and losing yourself in it is rarely obvious until you've already crossed it. This session gets into the mechanics of that line: how to read an organization's tolerance for authenticity, how to push back without burning bridges, and how to make the call when the cost of staying true is higher than you expected. Peer conversation surfaces the real strategies, the ones that actually work when the pressure is on and the stakes are real.
Navigating Macroeconomic Instability
Planning horizons that used to stretch quarters out are now measured in weeks, and the ripple effects of tariffs, supply chain disruption, and CPM volatility are hitting brand and agency budgets from every direction at once. This session gets into how marketers are actually managing through it: the internal conversations happening with CFOs and procurement, how media investment decisions are being made when the ground keeps shifting, and what it looks like to protect long-term brand health when short-term pressures are relentless. Expect a candid exchange of what's working, what's not, and how to keep moving when stability isn't coming back anytime soon.
From Doer to Leader (and Back Again)
The advice is consistent and well-intentioned: get out of the weeds, delegate, clear the runway. But as companies bring more capabilities in-house and push teams to do more with less, women who've been told to "lead, not do" are suddenly being asked to do both anyway. This session gets into what the micro-movements of that transition actually look like in practice, and how other organizations have navigated it without the scars. Peer conversation surfaces the real mechanics: how you build trust in your team fast enough to let go, how you protect your leadership identity when the work keeps pulling you back in, and where others have drawn the line.
Leading Through the Sandwich Generation
Aging parents on one side, kids on the other, a full leadership role in the middle, and the expectation that you show up fully for all of it. For a growing number of women in this room, this isn't a future concern, it's the current reality. This session is a candid peer exchange on how to manage the logistics, the emotional weight, and the professional impact without burning out or checking out. The conversation focuses on what's actually working: how women are setting boundaries, communicating needs at work, and building support systems that hold up under real pressure.
She Works Hard for the Money
More women in senior marketing roles are the primary earner in their household than the culture around them tends to acknowledge, and the identity questions that come with it rarely get airtime. This session creates space for the real conversation: how you carry the financial weight without letting it redefine your relationships, your sense of self, or the kind of partner and parent you want to be. Less about logistics, more about the internal negotiation of holding power at work and balance at home, and how other women are navigating it without losing either.
Transition Break
Workshops Round 2
Networking Activity
Dinner
Late-Night Spot (Optional)
At attendee's discretion.
Morning Sweatworking
Breakfast
Shipping Desk
Workshops Round 3
Training the Next Generation (Without Losing Your Mind)
The osmosis learning that used to happen just by being in a room, overhearing a client call, sitting in on a strategy session, absorbing how senior people think, evaporated with remote work, and nobody has fully replaced it. This generation isn't the problem; the systems that were supposed to train them are. Add AI to the mix and the gap gets sharper: "just use it" isn't a training strategy, prompt engineering is a real and teachable skill, and most organizations are leaving people to figure it out alone while the tools change underneath them. This session is a practical exchange on what leaders are actually doing to close both gaps, how to build the foundational training that got lost, and how to get ahead of AI skill development before it becomes an organizational liability.
You Can't Outsource Your Village
This session explores community as a deliberate leadership practice, not the incidental byproduct of proximity or tenure. We'll get into how senior women are intentionally building and sustaining community across career moves, city changes, and the kind of political and cultural noise that makes isolation feel like the safer option.
It's a Lot. For Everyone. Including You
The world has been loud, and it's landing on you before it ever reaches your team. For senior women leaders, there's a specific pressure: you're processing your own response to what's happening culturally and politically while being the person your team looks to for steadiness. We'll trade real approaches for staying grounded when the noise is relentless, supporting younger colleagues who are more visibly affected, and building cultures where people feel less alone without it becoming a group processing session.
Stop Leaving It on the Table
The gap isn't information, it's empower. Senior women who know exactly what they're worth are still walking into negotiations underselling themselves, talking themselves out of the ask, or not making it at all. This session is about changing that: getting clear on your actual worth, building the information and community that makes self-advocacy possible, and learning to ask for what you deserve without apologizing for it. We'll trade real experiences and the kind of honest peer intelligence that turns "I didn't know I could ask for that" into "I would never settle for less."
Redefining What the Top Looks Like
For a lot of women in this room, the path to the top is visible but the life at the top is not one they want, and that tension is quietly reshaping how they think about ambition. This session is about whether a different deal is actually possible: how women are reengineering senior roles to work on their own terms, what you have to give up to get there, and how to stop using someone else's definition of success as the benchmark.
Networking Break
Workshops Round 4
Lunch & Town Hall
The Women
Last Year's Discussion Leaders
Alicia Lisowski
Old World Industries
Allison Clarke
VIZIO Ads
Amanda Kramer
Albertsons Media Collective
Ami Sirlin
Response Media
Andrea Javor
Starcom
Ariel Barlow
Target
Ashley Hart
Stanley 1913
Beth Hoff
National CineMedia
Beth Mach
The Room
Bianca Da Silva
Suntory Global Spirits
Carly Turim Irizarry
Ritual
Carolyn Henry
Intel
Carrie Daly
Volta
Cathy Collette
PadSquad
Cerisse Velasco
Zynga
Charlotte Hansen
MobileFuse
Christina Nevoso
Bayer
Deva Bronson
dentsu Media
Diya Basu
American Dairy Association
Emily Schmitt
Aristocrat Gaming
Heather Stuckey
Mars
Jamie Byrdak
billups
Jenni Finch
Luxottica
Jennifer Huber
AmeriSave Mortgage
Jenny Porter
PMG
Johanna Bauman
PubMatic
Julie Berger
JBM Consulting Group
Kate Rush Sheehy
GSD&M
Kelsey Ragsdale
Gucci
Lauren Busch
BlackRock
Lauri Baker
KERV.ai
Lisa Collings
Mindshare
Liz Reeves
Crate and Barrel
Lori Adler
Blis
Marion Hargett
MiQ
Marla Newman
Raptive
Maureen Falvey
Strong Training & Coaching
Meghan Reynolds
OURA
Michelle Chester
General Mills
Nicole Healy
The Room
Summit Sponsors
The companies making this year possible
For underwriter inquiries, please reach out to partnerships@theroom.vip
Get involved
Two ways into the room.
Whether you’re a marketing leader or a company that wants to reach them — there’s a seat for you.
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I'm a marketer
Participation is complimentary for qualified senior executives — women in brand or agency leadership at the Director level and above. Every participant is personally vetted and invited.
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I'm want to reach this audience
Sponsorship is the only path into this room. The intimacy of the setting creates conversations that never happen at a conference — three days embedded in a community of decision-makers.