Maria Shriver to Debut 'Night at The Village' Event with Rachael Ray, Billie Jean King, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Rocco DiSpirito

Maria Shriver to Debut 'Night at The Village' Event with Rachael Ray, Billie Jean King, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Rocco DiSpirito

A Limited Number of $25 Tickets Available for Purchase at the Pine Avenue Entrance to the Long Beach Convention Center

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Maria Shriver will be debuting the first-annual Night at The Village event tonight from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Long Beach Convention Center.

A production of The Women's Conference, Night at The Village will transform the Long Beach Convention Center's exhibit hall into an over 160,000 square foot interactive women's village featuring stage conversations with prominent speakers, book signings with best-selling authors, renowned experts with advice on beauty, cooking, fitness and fashion, shopping boutiques, and green lifestyle products and information.

"Night at The Village will be a celebration of women and all the things we love," said Shriver. "This event will connect women to the kinds of entertainment, information, products and services, business, work and service opportunities that interest them, but more importantly it will connect women to each other. From the very beginning, we wanted to build a place that would be a supportive community to enrich a woman's mind, body and spirit."

Tickets to The Women's Conference 2008 sold out in a record three hours when they went on sale in July, and the creation of Night at The Village was an effort to expand the event to two days and give more women an opportunity to experience the transformative conference in person.

"Every year, women tell us they would love more time at the conference to just be and more tickets to the conference to be with more of their friends," said Shriver. "Since we now reach capacity so quickly for The Women's Conference, we believed that adding an event like Night at The Village was the perfect solution."

Participant and program highlights for Night at The Village include:

-- Main Stage presentations featuring remarks by Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, performance of an original poem by 2008 California State Poetry Out Loud Champion Roshawnda Bettencourt, remarks by First Lady Maria Shriver, and a conversation with Rachael Ray and Actress Valerie Bertinelli.

-- A dedicated cooking stage with "how-to" presentations featuring Chef and Author Rocco DiSpirito, Chef and Shutters Hotel Co-Owner Dana Slatkin, and FOX TV's Hell's Kitchen Chef Scott Leibfried.

-- A dedicated Mind, Body and Spirit stage with "how-to" presentations featuring Fit to Live Author Dr. Pamela Peeke, green living experts Lisa and Ron Beres, style and fashion consultants Jesse Garza and Joe Lupo, fitness expert Jillian Michaels and Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life Author Sylvia Boorstein.

-- Book-signings with more than 15 best-selling authors, including Just Who Will You Be? Author Maria Shriver, YOU: Staying Young Author Dr. Mehmet Oz, Pressure is a Privilege Author Billie Jean King, The Middle Place Author Kelly Corrigan and Sammy's House Author Kristin Gore.

-- Night at The Village will also reinforce The Women's Conference's commitment to the city of Long Beach as it recognizes and rewards the work of domestic violence organizations, WomenShelter of Long Beach and Interval House.

A limited number of Night at The Village tickets are still available for purchase. $25 tickets will be sold at the Pine Avenue entrance to the Long Beach Convention Center beginning today at 3:00 p.m.

Night at The Village is presented by sponsor Lean Cuisine.

"As the presenting sponsor of Night at The Village, Lean Cuisine is thrilled to have the opportunity to inspire women," said Kristin Gibbs, Director of Marketing for Lean Cuisine. "Lean Cuisine shares in the conference's belief that women united by a common purpose and shared conversation have infinite potential. We're looking forward to partnering with The Women's Conference to empower and inspire women to do something good for themselves each and every day."

The Women's Conference is supported by generous sponsors that share its mission of empowering, inspiring and educating women. The Premier Conference Sponsor is Safeway, who will feature the best of California's healthy cuisine at The Village exhibit hall. Target returns as The Minerva Awards presenting sponsor, and Wachovia is the presenting sponsor of the Minerva Leadership Program. Lean Cuisine is the presenting sponsor of "Night at The Village" and the Conference National Media Partners are Disney-ABC Television Group and Meredith Publishing. Official sponsors include BP, Cisco, Dove, FedEx, HealthNet, Intuit, Mattel, PepsiCo, PG&E, Wells Fargo and Visa.

For more information about Night at The Village and The Women's Conference 2008, visit http://www.californiawomen.org/.

Source: The Women's Conference

CONTACT: Marissa Moss, +1-310-926-7365, mmoss@griffinschake.com, for The
Women's Conference

Web site: http://www.californiawomen.org/

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