We believe...
that there is a real hunger among women everywhere to finally give themselves permission to be the fully powerful and amazing beings that they are, and that Time for Our Power! is part of a larger transformation that is happening in this country and around the world. Women all over are waking up to their power!

We believe that there is no force more powerful than a woman who believes in herself, follows her passion and brings her unique gifts to the world. In doing so not only does she benefit, but so do all those around her - her family, friends, community, and ultimately the world.

We also believe that humankind's existence on this planet has never been in such jeopardy. The perils are clear: environmental degradation, global warming, war, nuclear proliferation, widespread human rights abuses. Women are uniquely positioned to spark a much needed revolution in human consciousness. The world is in critical need of feminine energy and perspective, and it has never been more important for us to claim and own our power to bring about change.

Its time!

How Three Women Came Together and Gave Birth to a Conference

In 2004, Patty Levesque and Lisa Watters, two friends from Asheville, attended the Women & Power: Our Time to Lead conference in New York City. They were so inspired by that conference that they brought back videos of every single speaker and panel to share with other women in their community. The response was tremendous (in fact, they ended up having to screen the videos in two six-week series of evening gatherings.)

Then, in the fall of 2006, Patty and Lisa attended the Enlightened Power: How Women Are Changing the Way We Live conference at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in upstate New York. Again, they were so uplifted and inspired by that experience that they wanted to share it with others back home.

Towards that end, Lisa wrote an article about both conferences for local magazine WNC Woman, which was published in January, 2007 . "My ultimate dream," noted Patty in the article, "is [to have] a conference similar to Omega's to bring women in our area together."

Little did they know that a woman named Maureen McDonnell would read that article, contact them and help make this dream a reality.

Maureen, who had moved to the area a couple of years earlier, has spent the last ten years as a professional conference coordinator, most notably for the Autism Research Institute's national Defeat Autism Now! conferences.

In her initial email to Patty and Lisa, Maureen wrote, "The reason I am writing to you is that I too have been dreaming about a conference for women in the Asheville area. There are so many of us here working on ourselves. We need each other, and we need great empowered women to come and inspire us to keep up our work so the world can experience the influx of positive healing feminine energy that it desperately needs."

The three women began meeting regularly (always around good food) as well as keeping up an ongoing email discussion. They soon discovered that they all shared a similar vision for (and excitement about) having a women's conference in Asheville.

The process of creating this conference has been magical (as these things often are). Great ideas, divine inspiration (okay, maybe those are both the same thing) and, of course, amazing and talented women, have come into these three women's lives on a regular and extraordinary basis. Some things feel destined to be, and that's how this conference has felt to them.

They feel honored and blessed to have served as midwives.

The rest, as they say, is her story ...