The roar of 8,000 women

I'D BEEN there before. I'd heard it all before, too, in one form or another. But I loved the Pennsylvania Conference for Women anyway, because it reminded me and 8,000 other attendees of what we already know but often forget:

Life is short. Time is fleeting. Love is everything. And women not only have the right to own their gifts and passions but the responsibility to use both to impact the world, no matter the size of the world they inhabit.

And when we do it together, we can accomplish so much more than when we go it alone.

Plus, it's fun.

Thursday's annual conference, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, had its big-name draws, as usual. D.C. insiders didn't dominate, as they did last fall when Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright commanded the convention center's banquet hall.

But actress Diane Keaton, "Good Morning America" sweetheart Robin Roberts, iconic newswoman Jane Pauley and former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson brought glitz and cred to this year's workshops, speeches, coaching sessions and exhibits.

(Hats off to the exhibitors who gave away useful freebies, by the way. I am loving my vanilla lip balm from FemmePharma. My smile has never looked dewier.)

The 11th annual event lasted only one day, which wasn't enough time for attendees to hit every breakout session, where 120 experts opined on everything from resilience and networking to boardroom politics and bull's-eye branding.

So there was kind of a frantic pace to the proceedings, which actually felt more like fabulous sizzle to some attendees I spoke with. They were grooving more on the feeling of the gathering than on the info it provided.

"I've been coming to the conference since its inception and find it uplifting and inspiring," said Teresa Randleman, Pittsburgh's regional director for the bureau of equal opportunity (within the Department of Public Welfare). After the 2007 conference, she found the motivation to power through the remainder of her class work for a doctorate in leadership studies. "I always leave feeling so encouraged."

It's no small feat, coaxing your innards toward change. It takes a huge mobilization of energy to get your heart going and your hope going - and, as a sage once told me, heart and hope are the biggest requirements for change.

It was clear that the conference speakers were there to give us both, although some succeeded better than others in breaching the cavernous divide between us and them in the banquet hall, which is big as an airport hanger.

Keaton was an unexpected puzzle, her lazy keynote address consisting of her reading from her new book, Let's Just Say it Wasn't Pretty. Her excerpts were so random (she included a reading of a zillion-word letter she penned to Jack Nicholson), I found myself focusing, instead, on the hat she wore, which looked like a Vespa tire. She did better during her on-stage interview afterward, where local news anchor Monica Malpass deftly steered the shooting star back to Earth when the going got spacey.

In contrast, the warmth and directness of charismatic Roberts - interviewed on stage by her "Good Morning America" colleague Tory Johnson - was so authentic, the hall felt like a cozy salon as she discussed her medical scares, faith in God, love for family and devotion to her partner, Amber. By the end of the interview, the audience was so enchanted, I think we'd have followed her, ratlike, into a river.

May she use her potent power only for good.

My favorite speaker, though, was Linda Cliatt-Wayman. She's the principal of Strawberry Mansion High School who brought down the house last year, when she outshone even Clinton and Albright. She did the same this year. She detailed how public support of her school has transformed it from a place of despair to one of hope for children who deserve what all of us in the room had enjoyed: Access to a decent education and the doors it opens.

Children do not choose to be poor or where to live, she told us. It is immoral to hold them accountable for the circumstances of their birth. Successful women know that education was the key to their prosperity. The same key will change the path of the poor and, as a result, the direction of the country.

She finished, in tears, and brought us to our feet. Galvanized by her life-and-death commitment to her students, we left with the feeling that we can all be about something much bigger than ourselves.

Maya Angelou once said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

So many of the presenters at this year's conference made us feel hopeful. Proud to be women. Grateful to be in one gigantic room together.

And willing to ponder the question, "Now, how can I make the world a better place?"

Phone: 215-854-2217

On Twitter: @RonniePhilly

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