Being a professional in the oil and gas industry is a rollercoaster ride. Energy professionals must tolerate highs and lows, stomach the freefalls and dark tunnels, and hang on as the ride ascends back from trough to peak. In the words of Tamika Tyson, one of our Keynote speakers at this year’s Kayo Women’s Energy Summit:

“Ride the rollercoaster to the very end. Don’t try to jump off. No good will come from jumping off the roller coaster mid-ride.”

It’s easier to stay on the ride, and a heck of a lot more fun, when you have a community around you to support you through the ups and downs. However, for most women in oil and gas, community is hard to find. Women are so rare in energy (less than 10% of professionals) that individual women often find themselves the only woman not just on the rollercoaster, but in the whole dang park.

That’s why when 200 women in oil and gas gather at our annual Kayo Women’s Energy Summit, it’s really something special.

At the 2019 Kayo Women’s Energy Summit, our 5th Annual event, women came not only in search of a community, but also for career development and business opportunities. They came to discuss the lessons from the past year, to debate future trends, and, most importantly, to build relationships that can propel their career forward.

Networking at the Kayo Energy Summit came in many forms.

At our opening workshop on Storytelling, attendees paired up to developed and practice telling their personal stories of leadership.

Organic connections develop for some during quiet moments at breaks and for others during festivities such as the cocktail reception and meals.

During the two days the Kayo stage welcomed speakers from across the country and the world to explore carefully-curated topics. One of our attendees noted “I prefer conferences with educational content – that is the focus of the Kayo experience. I always want to learn.” Memorable content included both of our Keynote Speakers, Kathryn Miller and Susan Cunningham, our Fireside Chat with Bailey Pham and Tamika Tyson as well as our plenary panel on the topic of shale – What the Shale is Going to Happen.

All the breakout panels received shout outs and even requests to put them on the main stage in the future.

And we can’t neglect the insights provided by our Alumni Tell All panel as to why they keep coming to Kayo and how it’s been a big part of their networking and relationship building. Read more about them in our “How to Network When You Hate Networking” post.

As with every summit, we continue to strive for improvement (we are success-driven women after all) and some standout suggestions included:

• Feature a panel about negotiations (this came up a few times, noted)
• An all male panel (what should they speak about?)
• Expand attendance (we couldn’t agree more–tell your industry friends)
• Add an evening cocktail event (now taking sponsors)
• Partner new and returning attendees as mentors and mentees (we love that idea)

During the event we also asked attendees what they would tell their 22-year old self. We included this question because, not only is it useful to share with those you mentor, but we know that there is a 22-year-old still inside of us and our own advice might be just what we need. Jot these on a post-it note and use them as your own affirmations in the coming weeks.

• Always sit at the table. And if there are no seats left, pull up a chair
• Don’t stress about the cyclical nature of this industry
• Sleep when you can, don’t take life so seriously, eat the cake
• Network, network, network!
• Have more faith in how resilient you are
• Ask for what you want
• Learn to golf

And if all that feedback and insights weren’t enough, some of our attendees used their right brain to showcase their artistic skills and we couldn’t not have been more giddy to look through these. Here are some of our favorites (though they were all irresistible).

If you weren’t able to make the summit, check out our photos and start planning for 2020 by getting on our list so you can be the first to know about topics, call for speakers, and registration.

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What else would you like to know or share about the 2019 Kayo Women’s Energy Summit? Leave your comments below.