Prattville Chamber’s first ever PowHER conference brings confidence to local women

Malia Riggs

Elmore Autauga News

The first ever PowHER conference hosted by the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce was a huge success Friday morning, with a full room of professional women.

The conference featured three speakers including local influential businesspeople such as Brittney Malone from The Southern Refinery, Kasey Hope from P’ZAZZ Art Studio, and the one and only man in the room Stacey Little from Southern Bite.

The speakers were selected based on their inspiring journey and their careful and calculated business decisions as women professionals in the area that have achieved success, Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce marketing and communications director, Brooke Glover confirmed.

“We are thrilled to present three dynamic speakers at this event, each with ample time to share their insights. By hosting a conference, we can extend each speaker’s session, enabling them to dive deeper into their topics and provide hands-on activities for the audience to enjoy and benefit from,” Glover said.

Malone, Hope and Little all had similar themes within telling their stories of success. Within all three of their respective stories, each one had to overcome adversity, make the tough decisions as well as jump and takes risks to bring them to where they are today.

However, there was one common thread that all three speakers spoke on, and that was how God had led them through all their seasons, all of their hard ships and all of their changes that has led them to now.

“I had my whole life planned, since I was a little kid. But God laughed at me, a lot. But God’s plan will prosper, even when my plan does not. I had to learn the hard way that I had to plan with a pencil because God got his plan in pen,” Malone said.

Each speaker shared their stories to success, highlighting the struggles of becoming a mom, the struggle of finances and the struggles of balancing life with a family. The struggles are the overwhelming day-to-day tasks that seem to plague everyone. Even the most successful.

“I share all of these stories because I think so often that sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our problems that we forget to really look at how God’s gone before us. Because we sometimes get so focused on how big our problems are that we don’t focus on how big our God is.” Hope said.

Little was the last one to take the stage Friday morning and was not deterred by being the only gentleman in the room. Each speaker not only shared their humble beginnings to vast success, but also gave some tips and tricks to take away.

Little shared some cooking and recipe help, as it can be daunting to have to come home and plan meals and have a weight of expectations.

“With the right recipe and a little confidence, you can cook anything you want. But at the end of the day if it fails, it’s alright. I’ve had a ton of failures. Pappa Johns delivers pizza all the time, you do what you have to do,” Little said. 

In closing comments, President of the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce Patty VanderWal thanked everyone for attending the first ever women’s conference.

VanderWal also thanked the Chamber’s sponsors, and stated because this conference was such a success, to be on the lookout for other women in networking events by the Chamber throughout the year.