I attended the Silicon Valley Business Journal 2011 Women of Influence event in Santa Clara last week. Each year, they choose 100 women of influence and celebrate them at an annual dinner and awards gala in Santa Clara, CA. (this year, it was held at the convention center).

Speaking to a number of them over the course of several hours, the range is diverse, from engineers, high-profile lawyers, venture capitalists, space scientists, to healthcare leaders, technology pros and nonprofit executives.

One honoree, when not in the valley, lives in a rural village in Belize; another leads trips to the back country of the Sierra Norte and Sierra Madre. One honoree formed a nonprofit organization for the Muslim community to help give them a voice after 9/11 backlash.

I met another woman who is helping Muslim seniors find resources when they don’t know where else to turn. Below is Moina Shaiq who founded the Muslim Support Network based in the East Bay. (She also runs a restaurant specializing in food from Pakistan).

Below is founder of Mylawsuit.com Michele Colucci accepting her award on the main stage.

Mary Furlong, who has been instrumental in helping the aging population and empowering the ‘age boom’ was also on the list. For the full list of women, check out the SV/SJ Biz Journal piece: Meet the 2011 Women of Influence | Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal.

Each woman had to deliver a ‘thanks’ and what/who inspired them in 10 words or less. (not even sure if that’s quite 140 characters…..certainly a challenge to do). One Thai woman had the audience in stitches when she said, “I’d like to give myself a pat on the back for selecting my parents wisely.”  

To hear some of the fabulous other thanks and kudos, check out the video below for a myriad of female voices doing remarkable things.

Arianna Huffington took the center stage and keynotes this year’s AdTech San Francisco this week and as always, nailed it again, despite a couple of questions about the controversy around the ongoing discussion of unpaid versus paid bloggers prior to and following the sale to AOL. (and in general as a standard for the industry).

Yet, with fearlessness, poise, humor and confidence, she moved from old media to new media and referenced Craig Newmark, Guy Kawasaki and Biz Stone as well as cited quotes from her mother and Shakespeare all within a ten minute window.

Her focus and leave behinds primarily revolved around humanity, the need to return to hyper local engagement (and Enchantment per Guy’s new book) as well as connecting with community. (she gives examples including their focus on Patch, the new hyper local sites — a friend of mine runs Santa Cruz).

Arianna also talked about the importance of sleep and how sleep deprivation doesn’t serve anyone or anything…..”we can’t be enchanting or engaging if we’re sleep deprived,” she says.

She says of new media, “we suffer from OCD – obsessive coverage of topics,” and related to humanity, she quotes Biz Stone who said of Twitter, “it is not not a triumpth of technology but a triumph of humanity.” Her full talk below in a two part series. Also up on YouTube.