Monday, March 12, 2007





Hello everyone!

Last week was wonderful! There are just so many good things to say about it, I don’t know where to start.

First of all, I had the chance to meet some really great people. I look forward to building new relationships and continuing to learn from others and their experiences.

Second, I really learned a lot from all of the sessions that I attended. To sum up, overall the advice focused on a few key points:

-Don’t be afraid to take risks and don’t be afraid to fail. Although no one likes to fail, you will learn valuable lessons from your failures. Plus, you never know how great you can be until you put yourself out there.

-Surround yourself with great people. Having a great team is one of the main keys to success. A great team makes you and everyone else look good. Try to hire people to fill in for your weaknesses. Don’t forget that everyone should share in the successes and failures.

-Love what you do. Positive results come from positive attitudes. Get excited about what you do even in challenging times. Focus your energy in a positive way and you will not only feel better about yourself, but you will encourage your team as well.

There are many other things that I could write about, but these are the key lessons that really stuck with me. I hope that all of you enjoyed the conference as much as I did. For those of you were not able to attend, I hope that you will plan on going next year.

Again, I want to thank the Atlanta WICT Chapter for giving me this great opportunity. Here are some pictures that I took from the conference. Enjoy and I hope to see you all again soon!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Day 2... The End.

Well, today was day two, the final day of the conference. And what an awesome day it was! The leadership panel this morning and the closing session with Shelly Lazarus were both outstanding. It is so awesome to hear what the women at the top of our industry have gone through and learned along their journey. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute that I was there. The day and a half went by so fast! As the saying goes "time flies when you're having fun!"

I will post more in a day or two to sum up what I learned from the conference and hopefully, post some pictures as well.

Have a great night!

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Day One

So today is (was) the first day of the WICT Leadership Conference. Sorry I didn't post earlier but today has been full on, non stop all day. And what a day it has been! The sessions and speakers have been outstanding. I am learning so much and meeting so many great people. Including many people from my very own Scripps Networks that I have never had the pleasure of meeting before. I have been taking lots of pics which I will post early next week.

One of the highlights of today was the Town Hall Luncheon. I had the pleasure of having Bonnie Hammer as my table mentor. I absolutely LOVE Sci Fi, so I was super excited to be able to learn from her.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Stacy Buckley, Karen Varga-Sinka and Roberta Christopher from our very own WICT Atlanta Chapter. Everyone has just been wonderful and again, I am so thankful to have been chosen for this scholarship.

I'm off to the "evening event". I hope you all have a great time tonight and I will post more later.

P.S. I apologize for any spelling errors. I didn't have time to copy & paste from Word. :-)

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

One More Day...

Good morning everyone! Tomorrow is the big day!

I am sure that most of you are traveling today, as am I. I will be flying out of Knoxville in about three hours. I am so excited!

See you there!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

One Week...

Hello everyone! The WICT Leadership Conference is only one week away! I am getting more and more excited by the minute!

I was looking over the conference schedule yesterday trying to pick out which ones I thought would be my favorites. There are just so many good things about each seminar that it is impossible to decide.

The “View from the Top” seminar is probably high on everyone’s list. How could it not be when some of the most well known and successful women in our industry are on the panel?

The “Overcoming Obstacles: Tech It Out!” seminar is another one that I am very much looking forward to. As we all know, technology – whether it’s Broadband, VOD, iTunes or cell phones – is the future of our networks. I hope that I can learn how to better position myself to grow with my company as our jobs evolve into these new areas.

Finally, all of the “Strengthening the Core” seminars sound very interesting. I am looking forward to learning how to enhance and improve my leadership skills to make me a better leader for my employees and my company.

I am also looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible. Thank you for your e-mails and comments. See you in New York!

Friday, February 23, 2007

About Me...

I thought that I should post a little something about myself to give everyone some back ground information on who I am and where I come from. So here goes.

My name is Kendra Rudder and I am born and raised in Knoxville, TN. This is lucky for me because, as I am sure you all know, Knoxville is the home of Scripps Networks. Scripps Networks includes HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, GAC, HGTV HD and Food Network HD.

I started working for Scripps six years ago in the Traffic department. Since Traffic is the last stop before going to air, I was able to learn all about what it takes to make a cable television network work. During my time in Traffic, I had the opportunity to work on several of our networks, mainly HGTV. I was also able to work with a variety of departments including Ad Sales, Programming and Creative Services just to name a few.

It was my relationship with Creative Services that led me to my current position. I now work in the Creative Services Department for the HGTV Brand. My official title is Manager - On-Air Strategy and Planning HGTV. I have been in my current position for almost seven months now and have loved every minute of it.

In January, my Director, Paige Hardwick and I joined the WICT Atlanta Chapter. Paige was formerly a member of WICT when she worked for Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta. She and I both felt that through WICT we could learn valuable management skills that would be beneficial to us both at a personal level and a professional one.

When I learned of the WICT Leadership Conference I immediately wanted to go. However, initially I was not going to be able to attend. Then I got the e-mail about the scholarship that WICT was offering. So, I decided to give it a shot and I sent in my application. Although I didn't think there was any way I'd win in a million years, I thought - what the heck - it never hurts to try, right?

Well, taking the chance totally paid off this time. I found out just last week that I was in fact the winner of the 2007 WICT Leadership Conference Scholarship. Few times in my life have I been more excited about something than I was that day when I found out I won. I am still super excited. There are so many reasons why I cannot wait to attend this conference. I will post more on that later.

For now, I want to once again express my sincere appreciation to WICT for giving me this opportunity. I also want to throw a shout out to Paige and thank her for always challenging, inspiring and motivating me towards new heights.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Thanks to WICT!!!

Hello Everyone! My name is Kendra Rudder and I am the recipient of the 2007 WICT Leadership Conference Scholarship. I will be posting blogs about my experience before, during and after the conference that will take place in New York on March 7th & 8th.

I wanted to start my blog off by sending out a huge "Thank You" to WICT for choosing me as their scholarship recipient. I am thrilled to have received such an honor. I am very excited about the opportunity to learn from top women in our industry and also the chance to meet all of you and share in this experience.

Only 13 more days.... I can't wait!