WOMEN'S voices need to be heard - this according to Mary Schnack, American communications expert who is on island gearing up for September's Bermuda Business Women's Conference.

The conference, to be held on September 20 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, will focus on celebrating the achievement of women, leadership exchange, progressive networking, and professional development.

Ms Schnack, co-producer of the event alongside Keetha Lowe of Integrated Global Management, is an award-winning reporter and writer and is widely recognised for her global advocacy for women's issues. She is also President of Mary Schnack Media Services, Inc., a full-service public relations consulting agency that represents corporations, small businesses and non-profit organisations.

"This conference is just to be a day of offering support for the women here who, like other places, may be overlooked," Ms Schnack explained. "And, to offer support, to offer women a day to recharge or to find new ideas. Sometimes when I come back from conferences I come home with some new ideas but I'm so recharged and re-energised."

The day-long event, the theme of which is "Navigating Business Success", will feature prominent local and global women in business, including Minister of Finance Paula Cox, and a celebrated U.S. motivational speaker who will be on hand to help participants reach their full potential professionally.

In the afternoon, the agenda includes a session entitled World Café on Leadership, which Ms Schnack believes will be one of the highlights of the conference.

"The World Café on Leadership that's an interactive programme that is just amazing. It really gives participants the ability to look at their current leadership skills maybe where they want to move to in terms of leadership because leadership just affects everything: in our business, within our community, within our families," she said.

Ms Schnack's particular message that she will focus on is for women to allow their voices to be heard and to think globally.

"My message is two-fold. My overall purpose is to encourage women to let their voices be heard. And, what comes with that is we are a small world so one of the things I will be specifically talking about is going global. I live in a tourist community in the United States - I don't live on an island - but I live in a similar environment to Bermuda and so when you have so much focus on your environment and people coming here, sometimes it is hard to look beyond that. And, it's such a small world now and it's so easy to do business across boundaries. I really want to encourage women to look at that opportunity," she said.

"Women do such amazing things and a lot of people don't know because women don't tell people or it's the feeling of 'I shouldn't be bragging'. But we have to let our voices be heard because it affects the next generation that comes up as well. It affects our business and it affects our community. It doesn't have to be that you won an award or that you got a new client to let your voice be heard, it can be as simple as some volunteer work that you've been doing that has a great impact. You are an expert. If you run a business, besides whatever your industry is, you might be an expert at employee retention. Get that information out. It helps you in the long run, it helps your community in the long run.

"The next level of that is advocacy as far as the government is concerned. Whether it is your local homeowners organisation where you live or your parish. Women need to advocate, you need to be aware."

The conference will also be presenting the inaugural ATHENA Award that honours individuals who demonstrate excellence, creativity and initiative in their business or profession, who provide valuable service by contributing time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community and who actively assist other women in realising their full leadership potential.

The ATHENA Awards originated out of the U.S. more than 25 years ago and was founded by Martha Mertz, who will also be at the conference.

"We want to recognise the female leaders in Bermuda," said Ms Schack. "There are strong leaders in the community that may not always be recognised. And ATHENA is such a remarkable award - it's been around for 26 years and it's international. In the U.S. it's considered one of the top awards given out. It's an award that even though it's international-based in nature, it's an award that stems from the grassroots nature of the community."

The event will also include speed coaching, which is a popular item amoungst previous conference participants.

"It's a big thing right now in business to have a business coach. Whether you work for somebody or you have your own business it's to help you focus and goals set. Well we don't all have that luxury of having the money or the time to have that hour of coaching. So speed coaching is a concept off that - it's five minutes and we'll have speed coaches on feng shui, marketing, networking in New York, legal and going global. And you have five minutes to sit down with that coach and ask a specific question. It's not that you have to make an appointment or pay a consulting fee you get some focused time to get some answers to your questions. It's a great concept for conferences," she said.

To register for the Navigating Business Success conference or to nominate someone for the ATHENA Award, please visit www.womensleadershipexchange.com/navigatingsuccess.