Erin Andrews bows out of Fresno women’s conference

Reporter and TV host Erin Andrews has canceled her scheduled appearance as the keynote speaker for this year’s 2015 Central California Women’s Conference due to a production scheduling conflict with her work on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

This is the second time the local organization has had to search for a new speaker for the event scheduled on Sept. 22 at the Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center. Viola Davis, the star of ABC’s “How To Get Away With Murder,” was originally scheduled as the speaker but also had to cancel because of production conflicts.

“This has been quite a year. Due to no fault of the conference, first Viola Davis canceled, and now, Erin has to cancel – both due to their busy production schedules,” says Jan Edwards, Director of Development and Marketing. “This just speaks to the caliber of talent we book.”

All contracts have an out clause for the celebrity without penalty if the conference is notified more than 30 days before the event. There have only been four times since the conference was founded in 1988 that the out clause has been used — twice this year, in 2001 by Cokie Roberts and 2011 by Diane Keaton.

The Women’s Conference aims to empower women. It has donated $650,000 to local women’s and children’s community benefit organizations. The theme of this year’s event is “Ignite Your Body and Spirit.”

Only a limited number of tickets are available. The $110 ticket includes continental breakfast, all of the seminars, the celebrity keynote speaker luncheon and the afternoon reception.

“We are confident that our attendees will enjoy the 2015 conference just as they have for the last 27 years. CCWC is so much more than one speaker, and we’ll have an announcement very soon about who our new celebrity keynote speaker will be.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Erin Andrews bows out of Fresno women’s conference."