The people dining alongside the pool at the Four Seasons typically are the ones to watch.

At breakfast yesterday, the balance of power shifted to the pool, handily transformed into a stage for four notable women to discuss business.

Perched on tall stools at each corner of the stage were the chief executive of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Shelly Lazarus; the president of the New York Stock Exchange, Catherine Kinney; the general manager of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences, Caroline Kovac, and a former editor of the Harvard Business Review, Suzy Welch.

The magazine the Week and the business research membership association the Conference Board presented the event; UBS was the sponsor.

The first topic was keeping women in the workplace.

“I think we’re losing a lot of talent,” Ms. Lazarus said of women who leave their jobs to raise children.

For Ms. Kovac, the issue is broader than gender or child-rearing.

“It’s the workforce that has to change. It’s not just the years you raise a family when you want a work/family balance. It’s all of your life,” Ms. Kovac said.

Ms. Kinney evaluated her own rise at the New York Stock Exchange.

“The men in power did a lot of blocking and tackling to help women succeed,” Ms. Kinney said.

“I wanted to succeed, and I really enjoyed working with men,” Ms. Kinney said.

Some managers go to great lengths to hold onto talent.

“In my industry, it’s only about talent. … It’s amazing what you will do to keep a person employed – letting them live in Texas, or work from 2 to 4 on Thursdays,” Ms. Lazarus said.

As moderator, business journalist Maria Bartiromo steered the discussion to crisis management, asking Ms. Welch about the headlines concerning her marriage to Jack Welch, whom she met while on an assignment for the Harvard Business Review – when he was still married.

“We did exactly what we wouldn’t advise to do,” Ms. Welch said. “We hunkered down.”

“I would say, with the benefit of hindsight, to get out there, to get in front of the crisis,” she said.

Ms. Bartiromo brought Mr. Welch into the conversation to ask him if women had achieved top positions at General Electric.

“This is a woman’s session. I’m here for breakfast,” Mr. Welch said before giving his serious answer.

“When I started at the company, there were no women officers. When I left the company, 30% of its officers were women, representing about $6 billion a year in revenue,” he said.

Mr. Welch’s tablemates included his literary agent, Helen Rees, and the co-anchor of Nightly Business Report, Susie Gharib.

Also in the crowd: New York’s superintendent of banking, Diana Taylor; the president and chief executive of Lebenthal & Company, Alexandra Lebenthal; literary agent Linda Chester, who talked up the fall releases of two of her authors, Richard Carlson and Neil Armstrong; the former broadcast journalist Mary Alice Williams, and the chief executive of Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne.

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A cocktail party at the Ezair Gallery Saturday night drew socialites to Southampton Village. Most of the 400 guests were invited by the Group for the South Fork to see Wanda Murphy’s first solo show. Through July 31, 15% of proceeds from the sale of Ms. Murphy’s paintings will go to the Group for the South Fork.

Guests included wedding planner Harriette Rose Katz, lighting designer Bentley Meeker, and models Heidi Albertsen and Sonja Wanda (the face in the new Mac cosmetics ads).

Lots of folks had dinner afterward at Nello Summertime (the new Hamptons outpost of the Madison Avenue boite).