Chicks Who Click Kansas City: Network your way to social media empowerment!

"Chicks who Click- Minds that are creative, connected and looking to collaborate – with dynamic women- to be the best in their fields utilizing social media. At this conference we hope to achieve new heights by listening, teaching, experimenting, and networking. We will educate on the importance of upcoming generations of women to pursue careers in technology, we will share how to make your relationships count, we will empower you to use your social toolbox and how to refine your personal brand."

So describes the mission of Chicks Who Click, an organization founded by Denise Smith, an event planner with Metzger Associates. CWC has held sessions in cities all over North America, and blows into town this weekend with an exciting lineup of local social media gurus and an interactive livecast keynote from BlogHer's own Erin Kotecki Vest.

Fellow Blogger/Tweeter Celeste Lindell will be featured as a panelist at the conference on Saturday. I first met Celeste at Kansas City's first official "Tweetup" held at Barkley, the firm where she works as a social media strategist, last May. When asked why she is attending, Celeste revealed, "I'm speaking on a panel at the KC CWC event, but even if I weren't, I'd go anyway. I love opportunities to meet other women who live in social media as much as I do. I'm largely going to network, but I hope to have the chance to learn some useful things from other social media experts."

One of those experts is Zena Weist, Senior Manager of the Interactive Brand Team at EMBARQ. A moderator and speaker at the event, she has this to say about a previous CWC conference she attended:

"The Boulder's CWC weekend in January was an amazing networking opportunity. I was surrounded by inspirational women from diverse backgrounds, ranging in all ages and having various aspirations--but all passionate about online! Do not feel like you need to be a power blogger, a Twitter diva or a Digg junkie to attend...as long as you want to learn more about the social web, you are going to love this conference.
As a time-starved woman, I walked away from CWC09 with several nuggets of valuable information such as socmed tools for optimizing my social web experience."

Speakers/panelists include Christina Maki and Jenn Bailey of the Social Lites, Mark Logan of Barkley, Lisa Qualls of LightThread, and a host of others.

As a relative newcomer to social media, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in this amazing gathering of intelligent and inspired people, many of whom I have met at various local SMCKC events and tweetups. I look forward to renewing existing relationships and creating new ones, all while learning something very important to both my personal and professional life. What could be better?

Still haven't signed up? Register here.