In the month of May the UP² Women's Conference came to EMEA. The event was hosted by Dr. Merrion Edwards, director, Market and Technology Development, OFC Corning Optical Communications, and attended by the event sponsors Christy Pambianchi, senior vice president, Human Resources, Kim Hartwell, senior vice president, chief commercial officer, Corning Optical Communications, and Lydia Kenton Walsh vice president, commercial operations, Corning Life Sciences, as well as many senior leaders from all Corning businesses.

The UP² initiative supports the development of the next generation of women at Corning.

One hundred and ten guests from 15 locations across the EMEA businesses and entities, as well as several senior leaders from the United States, attended the gathering for an afternoon of inspiring TED style talks and an engaging panel discussion with the event sponsors.

The talks were based on the life experiences of eight talented Corning women selected from a variety of divisions, who, over many months, developed their leadership presentation skills to shape their stories into powerful messages that captured the audience and sparked lively and thoughtful discussion in the evening networking session.

In the panel discussion, the event sponsors Christy Pambianchi, Kim Hartwell, and Lydia Kenton Walsh urged the audience "to find an advocate, articulate your career goals clearly and not to be afraid to take on new challenges."

"This truly was a unique and wonderful event for us in EMEA where our businesses are very geographically dispersed," said Merrion. "Our cross-divisional speakers,  organizing committee, and audience came together for an afternoon of inspirational talks and discussion that will have empowered our female talent to push their growth boundaries and our leaders to support them in doing do. This will have significant positive impacts on the EMEA businesses going forward."