Become a Connection Host at the VTW Summit

Help us mark this milestone beautifully.

For eight years, Vermont Womenpreneurs has been convening, connecting, collaborating, celebrating, and caring for this community of women and gender-expansive entrepreneurs. The VTW Summit has been the heartbeat of that work, and after ten productions, we're bringing it back one final time before we pause this beloved tradition.

This year's Summit, Celebrating the Seasons of Business, reimagines what a community gathering can feel like. Instead of an audience watching a stage, every person in the room becomes part of the experience. And at the heart of it all? Our Connection Hosts.

What Is a Connection Host?

Forget "networking." We never liked that word much either.

A Connection Host is a warm, grounded presence at one of four seasonal stations, each representing a real and recognizable stage of the entrepreneurial journey. You'll welcome small groups of attendees (up to 10 at a time) into a 20-minute facilitated conversation centered on what it truly feels like to be in that season of business.

Think of it less like moderating a panel and more like hosting your own intimate dinner table, with good food, good drinks, and the kind of honest conversation that actually changes how someone feels about where they are right now.

The Four Seasons of Business

Each station is anchored in a season, not just as metaphor, but as lived experience. Here's what each one represents:

🌱 Spring — The Gestation Season
Seeds are planted. Ideas are percolating. There's enormous mental energy being expended: dreaming, researching, making connections. So much is still forming beneath the surface. This is the season of so much possibility, and also of sitting with uncertainty. Things aren't ready yet, and that's not a problem. That's the process.

☀️ Summer — The Building Season
The idea has taken root, and now comes the labor. Showing up consistently, deepening relationships, strengthening offers, and doing the sometimes unglamorous work of turning a concept into a reality. This is the season of focused effort, creative constraint, and channeling high energy wisely without burning out.

🍎 Fall — The Harvest Season
The work is paying off. A launch, a new client, a program going live. Or more quietly, the seeds you've planted finally resulting in inquiries, proposals, and real revenue. This season asks for one final surge of energy to bring things to fruition, while simultaneously tending to what comes next.

❄️ Winter — The Rest and Reflect Season
The harvest is done. Now comes integration: reflecting on what it took, what you learned, what you'd do again, and what you'd release. This is the season the entrepreneurial world rarely honors but that is quietly essential. Space. Stillness. Letting the next thing take shape before forcing it forward.

What You'll Do

  • Welcome and orient each new group of attendees as they rotate to your station

  • Facilitate brief introductions so everyone in the group knows who's in the room

  • Guide the conversation using seasonal prompts provided during your pre-Summit training, drawing on your own lived experience in that business stage

  • Hold space for honesty, vulnerability, and genuine connection without letting any one voice dominate the room

  • Repeat for up to four conversation rounds during the 6:00 to 8:00pm programming block, with 5-minute transitions between groups

You'll be stationed at your table for the evening's conversation programming, roughly two hours. This is a role that calls for stamina, sincerity, and a generous spirit.