Last week, 96 women gathered in Charleston, South Carolina for NKBA’s 2nd annual Women to Women mentoring conference. This event, also known as W2W, had hundreds of applicants this year from across the country.
In founder Suzie Williford’s opening notes to attendees, she writes, “Little did I realize how much we needed to share our stories and learn from each other – that fact that we’ve nearly doubled the number of attendees this year shows how important this event has become.
W2W began in Louisville, KY last year as a chance for women across the country to get together for two days of networking, mentoring and sharing professional experiences. It was founded by Suzie Williford, the NKBA’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer.
About Suzie Williford
Williford (left) with panelists at KBIS 2022, announcing the first-ever Women to Women conference. Image courtesy of the NKBA.
Suzie Williford started out in the kitchen and bath industry at 24, working at her parents’ showroom business. As she said in a 2022 interview with Cindy Allen, “I’ve been doing this my whole life.” After starting out in her parents’ showroom, she worked at a multi-branch, overseeing 8 of the 13 of their showrooms there.
During that time, she began to participate in her local NKBA chapter. She went on to be a chapter officer, and later got involved nationally. She remembers, “In those days, they used to send out a piece of paper because, you know, there was no electronic stuff. And it said ‘would you like to volunteer on a national level? Check a box’ and so I checked the box, and next thing I know I’m national.”
Suzie Williford on screen for the Opening Celebration of 2021 KBIS Virtual. Image courtesy of the NKBA.
She began working in the NKBA full-time after her business closed in the 2008 recession. From there, she and NKBA CEO Bill Darcy worked closely on new initiatives. Around 2015, Williford came to Darcy with the idea for the Global Connect Program.
She explains in the interview, “I said to Bill, you know, ‘We keep saying we’re international, but what are we doing internationally?’ … Now we have over 100 delegates here from 13 different countries.”
For that work and for her decade of service to the NKBA, Williford was recognized as a 2019 NKBA Hall of Fame recipient. In her acceptance speech, she recognized the work of her entire team: “Together with our team at NKBA headquarters, we have accomplished so much in the last few years. They work so hard and have such devotion and enthusiasm to make sure each of our members gets to benefit from being a part of the NKBA. This is the best team ever, and I am thankful every day for the privilege to work with them.”
When asked her advice for young designers just starting out, she said, “Now this is a sports analogy and I’m sorry, my boss Bill is a big Yankees fan, so if you can talk to him in a sports analogy, he gets it… I said, ‘Look, I don’t know one baseball player that bats 500. Right now, the best baseball player out there is batting 337. So that means, that out of every 3 things he does, he gets one right… I think I’m doing pretty good because I think I bat 500. So don’t beat yourself up if something goes wrong because nobody bats 1000. Just learn from it, believe in yourself, and go forward.”
Williford announced plans to start the first-ever NKBA Women to Women conference at KBIS in 2022. The goal was to create a space to celebrate accomplishments, discuss leadership strategies, and highlight challenges that professional women face.
Now, W2W 2023 is concluded, with planning for W2W 2024 undoubtedly underway.
2023 Keynote Speaker Rebecca Wesson Darwin
2023’s W2W keynote was delivered by Rebecca Wesson Darwin. Image courtesy of Garden & Gun Magazine.
This year’s W2W keynote speaker was Rebecca Wesson Darwin, cofounder of Garden & Gun magazine. She began her career at GQ, working on national retail advertising and promotions programs. She later became the first female publisher of the New Yorker and went on to become a marketing director for Fortune.
The idea for Garden & Gun came about in 2007, when she and her cofounder aspired to create a magazine that would speak to the soul of the south. Their goal was to create a magazine appealing to both men and women, featuring sporting life, adventurous travel, and good food and drink.
The new magazine had the second hottest launch of 2007 among more than 700 other magazines that began that year. From there, Garden & Gun has only grown. Now, the brand has branched off to retail experiences, a restaurant, numerous NYT best-selling books, and over 75 events a year.
Darwin is a trailblazer for her industry and has been dedicated to working with women leaders in the past. She formerly served as the president and CEO of the National Association for Female Executives. NAFE offers education, training, skills development, and networking to women in the business world, and has over 60,000 total members.
More on Women to Women 2023
Quote from Suzie Williford at the NKBA’s Women to Women conference in 2022
Overall, the 2023 W2W conference was heralded by attendees as a success. Attendees this year came from all over the kitchen and bath industry. Their professions ranged from designers, to plumbers, to general contractors, business owners, and beyond. We’re honored to report that among the 96 women gathered last week was Joey Kim, HArts Design+Build’s own President and Renovation Lead!
If this year’s doubling of attendees was any indication, we’re sure that NKBA’s Women to Women conference will only get bigger from here. We’re excited to see what Suzie Williford and her team accomplish next.
