Esther Bush, president and chief executive of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, believes so strongly in networking and nurturing career relationships that she showed up on a day off to participate in a panel of female executives who shared their experiences of finding success in business.

"It's Veterans Day, my day off," Ms. Bush told the audience gathered Tuesday afternoon at the Rivers Club, Downtown, for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Women's Networking Circle. But it was a professional relationship -- and a bit of quid pro quo -- that prompted her to agree to the appearance.

Six years ago Ms. Bush was appointed to a task force created to recommend improvements to the Pittsburgh Public Schools. That is how she met Lou Testoni, market managing partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"I admired his leadership," Ms. Bush said of Mr. Testoni, whom she got to know professionally while serving on that task force.

So when she was invited to be part of the Women's Networking Circle, Mr. Testoni agreed to send two women from PricewaterhouseCoopers to an international women's conference that Ms. Bush co-chaired last month.

"You never know when you're going to follow up," she observed.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Women's Networking Circle is an effort by the accounting and consulting firm to improve the ranks of women in its worldwide organization.

At its first networking circle event held in Pittsburgh a year ago, the firm had one female partner in its local office; this year, it reported there are two female partners out of the 20 partners in Pittsburgh. Nationwide, 17 percent of the firm's partners are women and globally, 15 percent of the partners are female.

At the Women's Networking Circle, the firm presents a panel discussion with high-ranking women from diverse industries and then opens the session to questions from the audience, which is composed mainly of women with a sprinkling of men.

Besides Ms. Bush, the panel included Joan Hilson, executive vice president and chief financial officer, American Eagle Outfitters; Nanette DeTurk, executive vice president-finance, chief financial officer and treasurer, Highmark Inc.; and Barbara Mistick, director, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

When viewed as another task added to the schedule, networking can feel daunting, said Ms. Hilson.

A mother of two who relocated her family to Pittsburgh from Columbus, Ohio, three years ago for her job at American Eagle Outfitters, Ms. Hilson acknowledged she doesn't have a lot of time to plan networking opportunities. So she builds on relationships at work and through contacts such as the Wall Street financial types she talks to almost daily because of her position at American Eagle.

"Some of the richest relationships are with people you don't expect."

Ms. Mistick divides her networks into "strong-tie" and "weak-tie" and finds both beneficial. "Strong-tie networks are the people close to you; they want to protect you. But that's not the only barometer you should [measure]." .....

For instance, years ago Ms. Mistick discussed with her mother a new business opportunity. Her mother discouraged her by pointing out that she had a young daughter at home and that the timing was bad.

But a contact who has a weaker tie to Ms. Mistick and who is less familiar with her personal life might objectively endorse the idea and offer ways to make it happen, she said. "You should have some of each network."

Ms. DeTurk agreed there sometimes needs to be separation between social and work relationships. When she lost her husband six years ago, she said: "My network at work was closed out of that. I didn't want to break down in the elevator."

Several of the women said their fathers were among their most significant mentors and helped shape their careers when they were young.

Ms. Hilson and Ms. Mistick both were answering phones for their fathers' companies by age 11 -- Ms. Hilson contacting customers who were past due on invoices and Ms. Mistick helping to run her dad's taxicab and truck rental business.

For Ms. DeTurk, her father played an important role by declining to bail her out of speeding tickets when she was a young professional in her mid-20s.

"He said it was time to do it on my own .... From that point on, I took ownership."