About this Event
The Women’s Leadership Committee, an initiative by the WCMA, is pleased to present the 8th Annual Women’s Leadership Seminar. This two half-day long seminar provides an opportunity to come together to promote professional development, networking, and overall support for women in the profession. Everyone, regardless of gender or level in the organization, is welcome to attend!
Thursday, November 19 & Friday November 20, 2026
Blue Harbor Resort
725 Blue Harbor Drive
Sheboygan, WI 53081
Thursday, November 19, 2026
Noon – 1:00 p.m. Registration & POWER Luncheon
1:00 p.m. -1:30 p.m. Welcome & Introductions
1:30 p.m. -4:30p.m. (with a break in the middle)
Grounded & Unshaken: Social Media Resilience for Public Employees
Public employees face real consequences from a single post, comment, or moment of online engagement, professional, legal, and personal. This workshop gives participants both the tactical knowledge and emotional toolkit to navigate that reality with confidence. Part one, led by communications consultant Lindsay Scheidell covers social media decision-making for personal and professional accounts: when to engage, when to step back, when to report, and who owns the response strategy. Part two, led by Mindset Coach, Ashley Levering, CPC, addresses the emotional mechanics of online interactions — using essentialism and resilience frameworks to maintain focus and recover productivity after high-stakes or difficult moments. Participants leave with actionable scripts for common scenarios, a decision-making framework, and personal practices for sustaining their wellbeing in public-facing roles.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the boundaries of appropriate social media conduct for public employees across both personal and professional accounts, and understand who holds organizational responsibility for online conduct.
- Apply a practical decision-making framework for determining when to engage, when to disengage, and when to escalate or report online interactions.
- Use essentialism and resilience principles to prioritize energy, maintain focus, and recover productivity following emotionally taxing social media experiences.
Speakers:
Lindsay Scheidell, Owner, Lead Community Strategist, Hadley Public Relations
Ashley Levering, Owner, Life Coach and Consultant, ABL Life Coaching
Addresses ICMA Practice Areas: 1 Personal & Professional Integrity; 2 Community Engagement; 4 Staff Effectiveness; 5 Personal Resiliency & Development; 6 Strategic Leadership; and 14 Communication and Information Sharing
6:00 p.m. Social Event: Out & About Dinners
Join your colleagues for dinner. A list of restaurants will be available. There will be a Committee Member Host at each location, and you can sign-up for your preferred restaurant at the registration table.
Friday, November 20, 2026
7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Clarity on Data Centers in Wisconsins
As Wisconsin attracts significant data center investment, communities and leaders are weighing both the opportunities and challenges these projects bring. This session explores Wisconsin's emerging data center landscape, the economic benefits already flowing through the state's supply chain and workforce, and the factors driving public debate around new development.
Participants will gain insight into the concerns fueling local opposition, review recent Wisconsin case studies, and examine how public narratives and misinformation can influence community perceptions. The session concludes with practical approaches for balancing economic growth, community engagement, and responsible development.
Learning Objectives:
After attending this session, participants will be able to:
- Describe broadly the economic impact of data centers on Wisconsin's businesses, workforce, and supply chain.
- Identify key factors driving community concerns and opposition to data center projects.
- Evaluate the potential benefits and tradeoffs associated with large-scale data center development.
- Understand how information campaigns and public perception can shape project outcomes and stakeholder engagement.
Speaker:
Tricia R. Braun, Executive Director, Wisconsin Data Center Coalition & Founder, New Day Planning
Addresses ICMA Practice Areas: 2 Community Engagement; 9 Community & Resident Service; 11 Technological Literacy; and 14 Communication and Information Sharing
9:30 – 9:45 a.m. Break
9:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. The Skill of Discernment: Staying Flexible and Creative Under Pressure
Stress narrows our thinking, and most of us answer with the same reflex: push harder. This session offers a better skill, discernment. Physiologically, we do take the noise of work home with us at the end of the day. Chronic stress elevates cortisol, which remains in our bodies and affects our personal lives. Antiquated views of attaining "work/life balance" no longer fit our modern understanding of how our bodies function under stress. Drawing on research around stress and coping, leaders learn to read their own four body-based states, name what is happening, and choose a brief practice that fits it. Participants leave with a one-minute method and a daily question to use before their next hard conversation.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how stress affects cognitive flexibility.
- Identify the four body-based states in yourself.
- Learn how to apply the TEND™ method in 1 minute.
- Practice a daily discernment question to catch overwhelm and collapse earlier.
Presenter: Dr. Lara Salyer, DO, IFMCP
Addresses ICMA Practice Area: 5 Personal Resiliency & Development
10:45 – 11 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. – Noon Closing Keynote: Signal Over Noise: Five Questions to Lead with Clarity
Public sector women in leadership spend their weeks translating the priorities of multiple elected officials, staff, strategic plans, and constituents into work their teams can actually do. Most professionals believe they don't have enough time; research on 800 working professionals surfaces something different. The most productive don't have more hours in the day. They ask better questions. Five specific ones.
In this fully interactive 60-minute closing keynote, attendees walk through those five questions as a connected progression: what deserves my actual attention, when do I have the energy to give it, how do I protect that space from interruption, how do I stay with the work when I sit down, and what needs to be true so I can shut off my work brain and enjoy the life on the other side of it. Attendees leave with a completed worksheet, a shared vocabulary for focus, and a concrete change starting Monday morning.
Learning Objectives:
- Answer the five questions that separate the most productive leaders from the busiest, for their own week, using a take-home worksheet.
- Complete a cascading priority framework to decide which elected official, staff, or strategic priority deserves their attention today, and which one waits.
- Draft a shutdown ritual so the workday actually ends when the workday ends.
- Leave with a shared vocabulary for focus that they can bring back to their teams on Monday.
Speaker:
Jenna Piché, Workplace Focus Researcher, Keynote Speaker & Executive Advisor, The Center for Workplace Focus
Addresses ICMA Practice Areas: 4 Staff Effectiveness; 5 Personal Resiliency & Development; and 6 Strategic Leadership
Join your colleagues for dinner on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. A list of restaurants will be available. There will be a Committee Member Host at each location, and you can sign-up for your preferred restaurant at the registration table.
A block of rooms has been reserved at Blue Harbor. Each individual guest must make their own reservations via phone or online by October 30, 2026.
Phone: Call Reservations Department at +1 (866)701-2583. Identify yourself as member of the Group, with Reservation Name Wisconsin City/County Management Association.
Online: http://www.blueharborresort.com Click to the “Reservations” page, and then enter the dates, number of guests and the group code: WCMA
Event venue & nearby stays
Blue Harbor Resort, 725 Blue Harbor Drive, Sheboygan, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.