In 2017, Coleen Kramer Beal and Doug Velnoskey from the Velnoskey Wealth Advisors began thinking of a way to host a women’s event on financial literacy. As Financial Advisors, they saw a growing need to provide education and resources for women on all areas of financial wellness.
How that event might look and feel was the question!
Coleen had attended and continued to attend many women’s events in other states and other counties soaking up information and gathering ideas.
In October 2019, Coleen saw an opportunity to support the YWCA Hanover Emerge Women’s Conference. Doug agreed this would be a great event to support, so they sponsored a table and invited some professional women from downtown Westminster, MD to participate.
From Left to Right: Devin Velnoskey, Coleen Kramer Beal, Bryan Carney, Doug Velnoskey, Pat Gilligan, Beth Yaeger, and Gary Wright.
The Emerge Conference started with an inspiring Keynote address from Gisele Fetterman, 2nd Lady of Pennsylvania. It was followed by a selection of various breakout sessions hosted by dynamic speakers on a variety of topics.
Guests enjoyed learning opportunities that were relevant to them, good food and networking. As they wrapped up the day with a wine reception, a thought began to “emerge” that this format could be really awesome for the women of Carroll County.
Excited to keep the momentum, Coleen reached out to several of the ladies who had attended the Emerge conference to see if they’d like to brainstorm an event for Carroll County. Kati Townsley (Carroll County Public Library, formerly Carroll Technology & Innovation Council), Karen Pelton (Carroll Community College), and Kathy Mayan (Carroll Community College) were interested in continuing the conversation.
We considered other community members who might be interested and sent out an invitation to meet at Birdie’s Café in January.
Doug and Coleen met with Kati, Kathy, Denise Rickell (Carroll County Economic Development), Jessica Laird (McDaniel College), Lynn Wheeler (community member extraordinaire!), and Pam Velnoskey to share our visions and ideas for a one-day women’s conference in Carroll County.
We pretty quickly decided it would be a wonderful opportunity to bring women together for literacy on not just finance, but also health, wellness, leadership, networking and more. Between us, we had strong connections for possible speakers and thoughts for other community partners who might be interested in joining us on this crazy, wonderful plan.
One of those partners, Josh Kohn of Kohn Creative, jumped right in to help us strategize on things such as a website, promotional flyer, and invitations.
Carroll Community College and McDaniel College were open to being partners, which offered us two amazing venues.
We had great aspirations of an incredible event, but what would we do if our income from tickets exceeded our expenses? Our dream team did not belong to any specific organization, and we were not serving any specific organization. We were community members coming together to serve and enrich the women in our community.
With that, should we be successful and have a few pennies left over, we agreed to split the proceeds between Carroll Community College and McDaniel College to fund a scholarship for women.
We were ready to run and make wonderful things happen for the first ever Carroll County Women’s Conference in October 2020!
It seems all great things come with a few challenges. Ours came right away in the form of a global pandemic. Hoping the world would get back on track soon, we continued our planning for October and had an incredible line up of professional women excited for this endeavor.
By September, we realized COVID-19 was not going away and we needed to pivot. We agreed to set sail again with a target of April 9, 2021. All our speakers graciously agreed to ride out the storm with us.
Have you ever planned something and felt like it was never going to actually happen? April came and went, and we were all still masked up and improving our ZOOM skills. Could we consider October 2021? Should we throw in the towel and use the pieces to make more masks?
Thank goodness for a supportive team who believed so strongly in our mission that we were able to keep moving. Surely March 11, 2022, was going to be epic!
We are now 2 years out and the disappointment is heavy. However, there was finally hope that we might be coming out from the worst of our 2-year isolation. We set a date of October 10, 2022, and tentatively turned on the lights (a/k/a the website).
We also needed to finalize a community sponsor. We considered working with a few established community organizations before we decided the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce made the most sense. We approached President Mike McMullin and he warmly welcomed us under their umbrella. Their mission includes networking, community and relationships and we felt our conference was a great fit. This partnership enabled us to continue our goal of funding scholarships and we added a new goal: funding a scholarship for a woman to participate in the Chamber’s Leadership Carroll Program.
The day finally came and we welcomed our first 200 women to the McDaniel College Campus for the first Carroll County Women’s Conference! 10 incredible speakers, who all stuck with us from the beginning, shared their wisdom and gifts with our guests. It was an incredible day. Please check out the 2022 tab to see all the good stuff!
Remember those pennies we were hoping for? As the dust settled on the accounting, we were amazed with what we were able to do. $10,000 was given to both colleges and another $2,000 to Leadership Carroll. We didn’t just help one woman out with a semester of books, we were actually going to be able to help multiple women with tuition. (Intro the tears of joy.)
At the time of this writing, we are teeing up for the 4th annual Carroll County Women’s Conference! We’ve added some fabulous new women to our team since 2022 and have continued to build new relationships with sponsors and guests. It is incredibly humbling to see how our community has come together in support of this meaningful event. Please check out the tabs for each year to learn more about our adventures together.
To date, we have hosted approximately 800 women for impactful learning and networking!
Together, we have donated $32,000 to Carroll Community College and $32,000 to McDaniel College. We now have endowed scholarships in the name of the Carroll County Women’s Conference at both colleges!
Together, we have funded 3 women to participate in the Leadership Carroll program.
In 2024, we were recognized with Proclamations from the Board of Carroll County Commissioners and the City of Westminster.
Thank you for being part of this amazing journey! We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Yours truly,
Coleen Kramer Beal
Founding Member
Front Row from Left: Pam Velnoskey, Kati Townsley, Coleen Kramer Beal, Christina Goodman
Back Row from Left: Josh Kohn, Emily Bollinger Miller, Kendra Hart, Kathy Mayan, Angelica Carter, Karen Pelton, Jessica Sardella, Lynn Olexy, Jen Johnson, Doug Velnoskey, Shelley Gold, Colleen Lucas
The Carroll County Women’s Conference is more than just an event—it’s a powerful community of women supporting, inspiring, and uplifting each other. Whether you’re looking to learn, network, or give back, there’s a place for you here!
Don’t miss out on an inspiring day of learning, networking, and empowerment! Tickets go on sale July 4th. Stay tuned for details on our next conference!
Sponsorship opportunities are open! If you’re interested in supporting this impactful event, keep an eye out for updates.
Whether you’re looking to attend, volunteer, or sponsor, there’s a place for you to make an impact! Together, we empower, uplift, and create lasting change.
Presenting Sponsor:
Carroll County Women’s Conference is scheduled for Friday, October 17, 2025 in Westminster, Maryland.
Carroll Community College
1601 Washington Road Westminster, MD 21157