Executive Women's Day at The Players helps professionals connect

Event brings women in business together for 6th year

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – As golfers prepare for The Players Championship, hundreds of women gathered at TPC Sawgrass for a daylong forum. The Executive Women's Day gave local entrepreneurs a chance to network and exchange ideas.

Hundreds of professionals gathered for a forum and networking event with the 18th hole in the background.

"I really wanted to get together with a lot of women from other organizations and understand some of their best practices and how they get women in companies to really grow and communicate better," Lori Green, senior technical manager at Bank of America said.

The event started with a panel including women that hold leadership roles in organizations like NASCAR, the LPGA and Microsoft.

"I heard a lot about not being afraid to take a seat at the table. A lot of times we [women] doubt ourselves," Shameeka Quallo, corporate council at International Speedway Corporation said. "Today seeing all of the executives here at the PGA event is just inspiring, very encouraging. We deserve to be here and the same way in business, we deserve to have a seat at the table."

During the "Power Panel" they also discussed misconceptions of gender roles in the workplace and shared how they became successful in their careers.

"I was really interested in networking and hearing from women who have worked in sports marketing for years and years and just hearing their stories and tips," Lauren Baker, senior account manager with the Jacksonville Jaguars said.

This is the sixth year The Players hosted Executive Women's Day and they plan to continue the tradition of building professional relationships.