The Pink-Collar Network

By Kendra Marr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2008

The women call themselves divas and own matching baby-pink business card holders. They've literally hosted breakfast at Tiffany's. Once a month they bus up to New York City for a day of retail therapy. As the members of Success in the City like to say, if men can network over golf, women can do business while shopping. Or attending high tea. Or relaxing at a spa.

Success in the City, a local organization for female executives, is bringing a whimsical approach to Washington's networking scene. In a town of power suits and happy-hour schmoozing, these businesswomen are looking for a personal connection beyond the 30-second pitch. And as membership -- now at 145 -- grows, founder Cynthia de Lorenzi is working to expand this networking niche into a business by promoting books, seminars and an Internet TV network.

"We want to have the good ol' girls club," said Jennifer Sterling, president of Reston-based marketing firm Hinge. "The good ol' boys have had theirs for so long. It's our turn."

Sterling went on a Success in the City spa day at Lansdowne Resort with a dozen women and left rejuvenated with a new client and a $10,000 contract.

"We were there in our robes, wearing these lobster mittens, sipping wine," she said. "I walked out of there thinking, 'This is the kind of networking I can do.' "

Tracy Allen, a vice president at engineering firm ECS who made that deal with Sterling, said a relaxed, social atmosphere makes all the difference.

"I would say more business gets done when you're in a personal setting like that versus a table of 10 eating lunch in a formal setting," Allen said. "You can walk across the room, you can share stories, you can let your guard down."

Membership, which costs $350 a year, is expanding through word of mouth. Men are not excluded and three have joined. "Men are welcome but they have to understand, you have to embrace your pink," de Lorenzi said.

The group has even attracted the attention of a Hollywood producer who wants to pitch a reality television show featuring their escapades. (They declined.)

At a recent Carnival celebration at a Chima Brazilian Steakhouse in Tysons Corner, men and women threw on beaded necklaces, downed $1 drinks and took pictures with the colorfully costumed women.

"It's kind of silly, the name is a little silly, the events have humor," said Kristina Bouweiri, president of Reston Limousine. "It's a great place to go and de-stress."

The group is meant for well-established businesses only, said Laura Lee, a D.C. handbag designer who sits on the organization's executive committee.

"I don't really have time go help people get their business off the ground," Lee said. "It's not what I want to do. I don't want to be rude, but I don't have time for it."

Success in the City got its start in April 2004, just as women across the country toasted their cosmopolitans to HBO's final season of "Sex in the City."

De Lorenzi had moved to Northern Virginia two years earlier to become chief executive of her younger brother's company PatriotNet, an Internet service provider, after he had died. Relocating her family from Dallas, where she had lived for 20 years, was tough, and de Lorenzi was lonely without her Texas clique of female business executives.

So in honor of the popular show going off the air, de Lorenzi hosted a networking event where attendees were required to wear high heels and red lipstick.

"I figured if I could find five women CEOs and be friends with three of them, I would be set," de Lorenzi said.

The one-time event launched a series of lunches and gatherings. In 2006, de Lorenzi sold PatriotNet and last September, she made expanding Success in the City her full-time -- albeit unpaid -- job. She's created schemes for Internet television shows for women and a professional development program called Diva U. She's asking members to contribute to a book she's compiling on tips and anecdotes of how women succeed in business. De Lorenzi has set up a charity foundation, podcasts and an online job board.

And she is creating sponsorship deals with a number of companies that will fund future Success in the City events.

Reston Limousine provides free transportation to all Success in the City events in return for publicity. It's helped the company land one of its biggest clients, who happens to be a member, and jump-start its new revenue stream, New York shopping trips.

"We like to help each other out," Bouweiri said.

As de Lorenzi builds her organization, she has rallied local women to do the nitty-gritty work -- collecting membership dues, planning a fundraising gala, finding speakers -- so eventually she can launch Success in the City on a national level.

"I'm a real CEO," she said. "You need someone who's a visionary, someone who looks over the horizon, and people will follow you. Setting up charter rules? I'm not good at those things."

But she is a charmer.

Andrea Fitch, founder and chief executive of RedCarpet Creations, an Alexandria brand strategy firm, said she counts herself as one of the many loyal followers working to support and manage de Lorenzi's vision.

"I've drunk the Kool-Aid, and I love it," she said.