The Dinner Party Project<\/a>\u00a0to help people connect over a meal and open the door to new opportunities.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s about that connection, about different people doing amazing things in the city and hearing their stories and hearing what they\u2019re doing. And a big part of it is just walking away, feeling encouraged,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Since 2014, Roquemore has hosted more than 1,000 dinner parties, helping thousands of women connect and build professional networks.<\/p>\n
About 10 years ago, Beth Hobart attended one of those dinners. Hobart has been selling residential real estate for 21 years and was looking to expand her network and create new connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me so happy to know that I\u2019m able to help another woman who is, you know, just trying to make their way. I mean, I had a lot of help and a lot of mentors when I was starting my business. So, for me to be able to give back and help, I mean, that is the most rewarding thing to me,\u201d Hobart said.<\/p>\n
Each March, the organization hosts \u201cWomen Lead Orlando,\u201d a dinner event that brings together hundreds of women from across Central Florida for an evening focused on meaningful connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge. And I think to have something like the Dinner Party project where women specifically can get together and talk and meet and mingle, it kind of takes a lot of the pressure off in some ways. But also, it just it makes for a really unique and special experience,\u201d said Avery Fields, an executive assistant at Mainframe Real Estate.<\/p>\n
Fields and Hobart met at Women Lead Orlando two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I met her, it was very easy to have a conversation with her. Like, have you ever met somebody and just hit it off like you\u2019ve known this person forever. So I knew when she was looking for an opportunity, a place to work. When did you told me she was looking? I was like, \u2018Oh, my gosh, send your resume.\u2019 I don\u2019t even need to look at the resume because I already felt comfortable with her,\u201d Hobart said.<\/p>\n
Today, Fields has been working as Hobart\u2019s executive assistant for nearly two years, helping sell properties, including a historic townhome in Lake Eola Heights.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love meeting people that are just natural connectors. And I think that\u2019s what Dana is. And I also think that I, I do that as well. And I know Beth does that. So, to have someone think of me when they hear, you know, oh, this person\u2019s looking for a job, that just I felt incredibly honored,\u201d Fields said.<\/p>\n
Roquemore said that sense of belonging is central to the mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s really what we\u2019re all about is, is you can sit with us, you know, we want people to feel included. People to feel welcomed around the dinner party project table,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The 8th\u00a0Annual Women Lead Orlando dinner will take place on Thursday, March 26, at the Great Southern Box. Proceeds from the event will benefit Harbor House of Central Florida, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of domestic violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0As Women\u2019s History Month shines a spotlight on the achievements and impact of women across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,1011,770,1190,766,115,1335,139,141,140,835,53989],"class_list":{"0":"post-177506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-human-interest","10":"tag-community-news","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-massiel-leyva","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-vod","19":"tag-womens-history"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}