Working with clients to help the community

**By Lindsay Helgeson, Communications Specialist,  Kocina Marketing Companies**    Several times a year, I am able to work with clients who have a strong motivation to support and better our local communities. These past several months I have been lucky to work closely with several clients in this way…one of them is WomenVenture (www.womenventure.org): WomenVenture is a thriving, local resource for those who would like to grow in their career or build a new business. The organization rooted itself in Minnesota 31 years ago, offers services for both women and men, and their resources seem boundless. Each autumn they have a large conference-fundraiser at the Minneapolis Convention Center with career workshops and speakers, which has grown to become the largest business conference for women in the Midwest. This year they treated attendees to the advice and life stories of three of Minnesota’s most influential women leaders: Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Gloria Perez, of the Jeremiah Program.  I truly, TRULY loved my job as I helped to create media awareness about this event and the helpful classes that WomenVenture offers to those in the community who are looking to grow their career potential – especially in this economy. It was exciting to work with the talented committee who leads this conference, with the course leaders who watch their clients grow, and to prepare successful clients who are watching their dreams come true for their upcoming interviews. How fun to explain these stories to reporters and editors!  How exciting to hear the reporters’ voices warm up as they could envision what this story might mean for their viewers, listeners, readers. 🙂 What a treat for me to watch these stories come alive on the nightly news, on the morning shows, over the airwaves, and splashed across the pages of our daily papers. The biggest bonus: knowing that WomenVenture was able to get the word out to those who desperately needed to hear it this year.