The Sterling Hotel on 13th and H Street was filled with enthusiasm, entrepreneurial energy and estrogen, Tuesday, March 10.

A group from the Sacramento Press was fortunate enough to attend the monthly Accelerated Networking Dinner for eWomenNetwork. It was the first networking dinner any of us had attended.

Upon checking in, participants received their name tags and were encouraged to mingle among the other business professionals.

Two ballet dancers from the Sacramento Ballet performed while the attendees were getting set up and mingling.

Ron Cunningham, artistic director of the ballet, gave a speech about the upcoming events the ballet has planned (30 more for the rest of the season) and discussed the organization of the Save Our Ballet group, which hopes to raise $150,000. He also mentioned that the ballet had a new home on 14th and H Streets, where the Center for Performing Arts will house four of Sacramento's major classical arts in one building.

The event officially started at 6 p.m. when Suzi Sherman, executive managing director of the Sacramento eWomenNetwork, read the group's mission statement and introduced the women who had set up booths for the evening.

For a timed 60 seconds, each person sitting at the table gave an infomercial about who she was, what she did and what she was looking for in the next 30 to 60 days. Some women were looking for a new laptop, free publicity for an event they were organizing – it was not confined to just obtaining new clients.

Women from all different walks of life were in the mix, and there was one male member out of the more than 40 women in attendance. There was a DJ, green consultant, one-of-a-kind garment designer, professional display sign vendor, life coach, jewelry designer, and writing services specialist, to name a few.

The goal of the dinner was to make connections, not to pass out as many business cards as possible. Not everyone exchanged cards, only those who felt they could benefit from knowing the new contact.

Before dinner was served, attendees were split up into groups of eight to 10 by a pink deck of cards placed on the table for one more round of speed networking.

As dinner finished, Michelle Gamble-Risley, who has over more than 20 years of experience in communications and is a professional writer, public relations and marketing expert, according to her website, began her speech on being successful even in this economy.

Gamble-Risley was not the original scheduled speaker, but her interactive presentation on creating a vision proved to be very useful for the women and man involved.

The Accelerated Networking Dinner concluded with a raffle, which included a pedicure and wine adventure, two tickets to the Sacramento Ballet's Modern Masters, Abbreviated, an Afternoon Tea gift pack and cookbook and many other prizes.

Many of the women in attendance admitted that they have been to many networking events over the course of their careers, but that the eWomenNetwork dinners were the most enjoyable and the most successful.

To learn more about the Sacramento eWomenNetwork, visit ewomennetwork.com.