Three years ago, Melissa Pavlicek was working toward becoming a partner at a law firm as a new mommy.

Then she went to the inaugural International Women's Leadership Conference.

It changed her life.

"I really didn't even think it was for me," said Pavlicek, now 43, with two children. "I didn't have any interest in going. It was going to take two whole days out of my life, and I thought, 'No way.' "

At the two-day conference, she was inspired by women who found success in their passions, often juggling careers and motherhood to make it work.

A few months later, she quit her job to start Hawaii Public Policy Advocates, a state and local legislative advocacy firm. Then, her husband, attorney Stephen Teves, quit his job and joined her.

Going to the conference "was definitely the thing that made me actually take action on an idea I had had for a long time," said Pavlicek, who's been volunteering there ever since. "It was something I had always wanted to do. If I didn't go to the conference, I wouldn't have had the courage and confidence to actually make the leap."

The third annual International Women's Leadership Conference, hosted by Gov. Linda Lingle, is being held Tuesday at the Sheraton Waikiki hotel.

The conference features such notable speakers as Karen P. Hughes, undersecretary for diplomacy and public affairs at the U.S. State Department; Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director of the American Islamic Congress; and Constance Lau, president and chief executive of both Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. and American Savings Bank.

Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Johnetta B. Cole will address the conference via videotaped messages.

But it's not just the distinguished guests who can inspire.

"There is something special and unique being in a room full of women, many of whom have children," Pavlicek said. "They can understand and be supportive."

Pavlicek was particularly encouraged by motivational speaker and business owner Renée Amoore, who will be speaking at the conference for the third time.

"I want women to walk away knowing that they can do anything they want to do," said Amoore in a phone interview from Beijing, where she spoke at the 3rd International Forum of Women Presidents in Higher Education. "It doesn't happen overnight. It's a journey, and sometimes it's an uphill journey. But it's all about who you surround yourself with."

Amoore believes that great things can happen when women get together to talk and network.

"We don't get to do this enough," she said. "We have to be a little selfish, to take care of ourselves first. If we don't do that, how can we do what we want to do?"

Pavlicek doesn't regret her decision to leave the law firm to run her own business. In fact, she found that she actually has more time to spend with her family and to pursue other interests including volunteering as vice president of the Legal Aid Society, chairwoman of the Aloha Tower Development Corp. and diversity chairwoman of the Hawaii State Bar Association.

"Other women have told me that it's very courageous and inspiring to think that you could actually follow your dreams," Pavlicek said. "I don't think it was courageous at all. I just needed a little push to make me see what I wanted to do all along. ... Once you follow your dreams, that's not the courageous thing. It's the liberating thing."