Determined to Lead Lunch Series: Dichotomy of Doing More With Less with Collide
Determined to Lead Lunch Seminar - Julie McLelland & Crystal Robertson on the Dichotomy of Doing More With Less
Determined to Lead is a lunch series that showcases female leaders challenging the status quo and driving the energy transition. It is open to all.
Julie McLelland and Crystal Robertson will explore the tension at the heart of modern energy innovation. In the energy industry, innovation often comes down to a simple tension: how do you move fast enough to compete — while also building relationships deep enough to matter? As founders and leaders, we’re often expected to do both: operate lean, carry big workloads, and somehow still build trust, credibility, and community within a historically relationship-driven sector.
This session explores how energy companies can balance those competing demands by pairing two powerful growth engines:
AI as a force multiplier that allows small teams to operate with the leverage of much larger ones
Community as the moat that no competitor can replicate
We’ll break down how founders can balance these seemingly opposite strategies — using AI to scale processes, content, and operations, while leaning into human connection, storytelling, and community engagement to build trust. This conversation will offer tactical lessons from building Digital Wildcatters and Collide, including how AI can support your community engine rather than replace it.
About the Speakers:
Julie McLelland, Cofounder, Head of Product & Growth @ collide.
Julie is a product-minded builder who specializes in taking ideas from 0 → 1, with a strong bias for execution and a passion for solving complex, high-impact problems. She thrives in fast-moving environments where the path forward isn’t clearly defined and progress depends on action. She is the Head of Product and Growth at Collide, a platform built to help energy professionals share knowledge, solve problems, and advance their careers. From day one, Julie has been deeply hands-on—shaping product strategy, building scalable systems, growing community, and driving adoption to turn vision into a real, working platform.
Crystal Robertson, Head of Community Success @ collide.
Crystal Robertson builds communities where people actually want to belong. Across community management, customer experience, content, and live events, she's spent her career designing engagement systems that feel human: where participation is rewarded, conversations matter, and connection happens naturally. She's fascinated by the mechanics behind how communities thrive: the incentives that drive contribution, the behaviors that build belonging, and the social structures that turn casual members into advocates. As Head of Community Success at Collide, her work lives at the intersection of energy, technology, and community—translating strategy into the touchpoints and experiences that keep people engaged.
Agenda:
1:00 pm - Light lunch served
1:30 pm - Presentation
2:15 pm - Q&A
2:30 pm - Networking
3:00 pm - End
Feel free to bring a guest!
Parking Instructions
You can park anywhere in the complex or in the church next door/behind the building. No Parking Validation required.