Q: Who are some of the most innovative women in business today?

Yvonne DiVita: First, Ask Patty! is one smart, creative, and totally innovative lady. She's focused on real life experiences for women in the automotive industry. I was privileged to meet her at the Blogher.org conference last July, and she's energetic, fun to be with, but also serious about supporting women and women's issues. Her blog and her website offer a bright, refreshing voice on ways women can excel at life - from new career ideas, to managing a business, to just stepping out of their comfort zone. Patty is so 21st century!

Second, I look at women like Susan Getgood of Getgood Marketing, as the epitome of innovation. Susan is a no-nonsense kinda gal, but she has personality galore! I love shopping with Susan - and just listening to her opinions on life, liberty and the pursuit of chocolate! She works with companies on innovation by learning their innermost secrets - well, by listening and by using creativity to turn things upside down, if need be. Susan isn't out to 'make friends'...she's out to get results. Today, you can't get results without innovating. The key is to know your strengths and weaknesses - and to have someone like Susan there to guide you off that old beaten path leading nowhere, on to a bumpy road that will shake things up. Susan has shown me, time and again, that it's the bumpy road that gets the results. You gotta be willing to innovate to achieve - and innovation takes work. It's not more of the same old, same old. Just ask Susan - she takes no hostages.

Third, my good friend Andrea Learned is tops when it comes to innovation. Why? Because she has the eye and the ear of the younger woman. I'm a baby boomer, and I think we boomers rock and roll - but, I also have two daughters, and they can run rings around me on any given day. I'm not talking Gen X or Gen Y or Echo Boomers. Puh-lease! Can we dispense with the labels? I'm talking real live, gum chewing, pizza eating girls (young women) who have opinions, desires, wants, needs - you name it - that are not being met by marketing today. These young women grew up with technology, they were taught by their Moms (like me!) not to accept anything less than exactly what they asked for. They were told they could be anything they wanted to be, when they grew up (including a doctor, a lawyer, or a truck driver). They adopted their own unique style and approach at a young age, and...now that they're adults, they demand innovation. They're shaking up the status quo by ignoring trends, and by refusing to be tied to labels that say they're one thing or another. When I need to understand this generation better (and when don't I? how can I innovate, connect, grow - without knowing them?), I hop over Andrea's blog and read up on the women who are changing the face of business today - by inspiring the world to innovate on their behalf.

Fourth, and last, my daughters, Chloe DiVita and Maggie DiVita. Chloe is a wife and mom, and in her spare time, also a business woman who is intent upon achievement. She's totally innovative. She started her own blog this year - knowing that this was an opportunity to do something unique in her field (she's the owner of DiVita and Associates, a bookkeeping firm in Colorado) but also because she felt she had something to contribute to clients and small business owners. Chloe makes me proud - beyond expression. As one of the strongest members of the group Andrea writes about, Chloe creates innovation everywhere she goes - merely by using her experiences as a measure of what companies need to do to achieve greater results. Her talent isn't just in connecting the numbers, it's in understanding the problem - and how to solve it with more than math.

Maggie is an overachiever. Most young women with boomer moms are! Maggie is still in school...so she's technically not a businesswoman, but...let's not discount Maggie, and others like her. They're the consumers we all want to reach with our marketing message. Maggie lives in a world of black and white - right and wrong - good and bad, according to her rules. She looks at innovation with a critical eye: is it worth it? Is it real? What's it for? I'm amazed by Maggie's insight into the world of business - when she and I talk. She's studying epidemiology - whew! that's even hard to spell, let alone say!- so business isn't something she's much interested in, per se. She's part of the group of young women who need to be courted by marketers. Innovation only works with her if it's clever, eye-catching, convenient, and worth her time. If you want to know whether or not you're innovative marketing campaigns, or your new, innovative business plan, or your focus on innovation in R&D, is working - get Maggie to look at it. She won't pull any punches. Not even for her old Mom. Makes me shudder, sometimes, but... today, honesty is the best policy. Maggie is honest to the hilt.

Q: What types of questions would you like to ask this year's speakers?

Yvonne DiVita: There are several questions I would ask. What are you doing, today, to work with the real economic powerhouses companies of America - the small and mid-sized businesses - to help them succeed? I mean, are you mentoring small and mid-sized business owners in your industry? Are you reaching out to the core of American businesses and connecting with them to share innovative ideas? MOST of these companies are women-owned - according to the Center for Women's Business Research - and I know for a fact that they are eager for advice and help - and financial support. Whose going to step up to the plate and tackle that job?

Next, What are you doing to encourage young women to become leaders in your company? This year's election has turned the economic and political climate of this country in a new direction - all eyes will be on Nancy Pelosi, I'm sure, and all the talk of Hillary running for president in 2008 is exciting but...within the business environment young women today are disenchanted with the idea of a corner office. And, their significant others (mostly husbands or boyfriends) are standing tall next to them, demanding a change in how business is conducted. Are you embracing that change - or are you stuck in that old Dick and Jane century - where everything was done just so?

Thirdly, Where are your blogs? Come on, now. ALL of you should be blogging. There is no excuse. If you are unsure, unclear, or think blogging isn't for you - we need to talk. Because if you aren't blogging, if your company isn't in the blogosphere (actively or passively), you're in danger of becoming insignificant - at least to women. If we can't reach you - (the real you, not the corporate you) - if you aren't connecting one-on-one with us - we're outta here. Bye-bye!

My last question is about giving back. This question is especially aimed at the women speakers. We just came out of a big election that promises big change. The media is eager to talk about Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton and other newly elected women in office - but, who remembers how that came to be? Who, among you, can stand up and say, "I have Susan B. Anthony to thank for this privilege - of voting in a democratic election." All of you should. If so, how many of you are supporting the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester, NY? This is an historical building - a thriving part of American history - and of women's rights. The Susan B. Anthony House stands for more than the right to vote - Miss Anthony was a suffragist, a strong believer in women owning property and being independent - she paved the way for all the success we women have today. Yes, I'm championing for the Susan B. Anthony House. I'm championing for national attention and recognition for a woman who put her life and liberty at peril - so we could be equal in the eyes of the law. I'm asking you to build connections to Susan B. Anthony with your employees. Let's all work to make the Susan B. Anthony House a strong a presence in business and politics... let's strive to remember who she was, what she stood for, and why we must never let her hard work be forgotten.