Page 24 - BusinessWest August 18, 2025

Connection and Inspiration
Annual Women in Business Summit Marks 20th Year in September
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
“Over the past 20
years, I have been
really fortunate to
have a really great
group of people.
Some speakers are
returning from
last year because
their workshops
were incredibly
popular.”
KISHA ZULLO
It was called the Women in Business Pass-
ing the Baton: Today, Tomorrow & Beyond
Summit.
That’s ... quite a mouthful.
Back in 2005, Kisha Zullo recalled, she was
launching an event planning company called
Events of Joy and wanted to plan a conference for
women who had achieved a certain level of suc-
cess and could learn from each other.
“But the summit name was very long,” she
admitted. “So, later, I scrunched it into the
Women in Business Summit, because who’s
going to say all that every day?”
But there was a reason for that initially too-
long name.
“I wanted the image of passing the baton, like
we’re in this race together, and we’re just passing
on knowledge so the next generation can close
the pay gap — at the time, I think it was 77 cents
to a dollar; now it’s about 83 cents. So, things
like the pay gap and managing your time, how to communicate with
confidence, topics like that have not gone away.”
Which is why Zullo’s annual Women in Business Summit —
which started in Connecticut but moved to Springfield three years
ago — is still going strong in what will be its 20th iteration next
month. The event will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept.
24-25 at Marriott Springfield Downtown. Registration is open at
wibsummit.com.
“We started with 60 people, and we’re anticipating about 300
coming into Springfield this year,” she told BusinessWest. “They’re
coming from Western Mass., Connecticut, New York, New Jersey ...
last year I saw Vermont, Florida, Colorado.”
The mission of the conference, as always, is to develop a strong
community of women leaders and entrepreneurs by sharing
Attendees gather at the 2024 Women in Business Summit,
also held in Springfield.
Photo by Shana Sureck Photography
resources, knowledge, and inspiration.
“This year, we’ve chosen to focus on leadership development
because we’ve talked to our [past] attendees, and that’s what they
want to hone — their leadership skills,” Zullo explained.
“We’re doing a wellness track, and wellness can be mind, body,
soul, and spirit, but it can also be your relationship with money,”
she added. “If you’re
always saying, ‘money
moves through my
hand quickly’ or ‘I can
Summit
Continued on page 26 >>
LaBonte >>Continued from page 23
thropy, and LaBonte also serves on a number of local
boards. That, like her business goals, was partly due
to her father’s influence.
“I think my dad was maybe a little ahead of his
time, starting in the ’80s, being in a mortgage com-
pany and raising his hand for corporate social respon-
sibility. We’ve always had that ingrained in our core
values. And I picked that up from him when I started.
“He said, ‘you’ve got to get out there,’” she added.
“So part of it was business networking, and another
part of it was, what do you want to support? In the
financial world, we’re in a spot where we can finan-
cially support causes, as well as volunteering and
lending our expertise.”
As for that volunteering, LaBonte — now the
mother of two kids, ages 4 and 3 — has had to learn
how to balance work, family, and her passion for the
community.
“I got engaged with some of the local young pro-
fessional organizations originally, and it kind of grew
from there. I was probably 20 at the time that I served
on my first committee, and once you raise your hand
as a young professional, you get pulled by a lot of dif-
ferent organizations. So most recently, it’s been figur-
ing out where it makes sense and learning how to not
say yes to everybody, even though it’s really hard to do
that.”
24 AUGUST 18, 2025
“I was just speaking with somebody
earlier this week, and they said, ‘wow,
this just isn’t my mom’s housing market.’
I’m like, I need to make a T-shirt that
says that. Because it’s hard, right?”
That said, she finds as much time for all of it as
she can, and laughed when asked what her typical
day is like.
“Typical is not really in my vocabulary anymore. It
used to be,” she said, noting that she was “very type
A” at one time, but having young kids changed that.
“About 10% of our homeowners actually are entre-
preneurs. And a lot of my time is speaking with other
entrepreneurs, business owners right here in the Pio-
neer Valley. And we do a lot of work with nonprofit
organizations, giving back to over 30 organizations
a year. So my day kind of bounces between actually
working on mortgages to just meeting and networking
with folks, and then also doing a lot of the community
support that we get to do.”
Changes and Challenges
LaBonte said the mortgage field has changed in
some ways, especially through new technology, which
now incorporates everything from electronic portals
to share information to clients using FaceTime to
view houses.
“There’s just so much more video and photography
and text messaging and all these different aspects. I
think that’s the biggest change. And what we always
try to do is use technology and social media and all
those other support tools to enhance relationships
rather than to replace the relationship.”
Of course, the biggest challenge for clients these
days is the fact that home values have soared, inven-
tory is tight in most areas, and mortgage rates are
higher than they have been in the recent past.
“I was just speaking with somebody earlier this
week, and they said, ‘wow, this just isn’t my mom’s
housing market.’ I’m like, I need to make a T-shirt that
says that. Because it’s hard, right? I mean, where do
you typically go for your advice? Probably your par-
ents or close friends or someone else who bought a
house five or 10 years ago. And really, in the last five
years, there’s
been a big
switch.
<< WOMEN IN BUSINESS >>
LaBonte
Continued on page 26 >>
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