The 5th Annual Women in Leadership Luncheon. Three screens. Two keynotes. Every word heard in the room.

The Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Beacon Bank, hosted the fifth annual Women in Leadership Luncheon at Hildene’s Lincoln Hall on May 13, 2026. Over 150 guests filled the room for keynotes by Emily Bush (Vermont Women’s Fund) and Rhoni Basden (Vermont Works for Women), who presented a scaled-down version of the Vermont Women, Work and Wages Report. Developed with the Vermont Commission on Women, the report looked at Vermont’s gender wage gap after the pandemic — including findings that women earned 86 cents for every dollar earned by male counterparts in 2023, with a $9,000 annual earning gap and a $13,300 lifetime retirement savings gap.

Our job was to keep that conversation easy to follow in every seat. Three 75-inch 4K monitors carried looping motion graphics and presentation content from welcome through transitions, with a holding slide ready whenever a laptop slept or a presenter stepped away — no desktop chrome, no half-loaded decks. Wireless presentation sync kept Bush and Basden aligned with what the room saw. A six-speaker distributed audio system and dual back-fill stage lighting supported the keynotes and the awards that followed.

Val Harrington presented the Young Women in Leadership Award to Mikayla Fisette. Kate Bryan presented the Woman of the Year Award to Maria Reade. Susan Plaisance presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Sean-Marie Oller. SVCC President Shannon McLenithan closed the afternoon. The Bennington Banner covered the event in full — photography by Ryan Pacheco.