Workshops & Activities
MATCHMAKER
The Matchmaker event is always one of the most valuable experiences of the conference. Our corporate partners provide their ask/needs and get match with Certified WBEs and then meet one-on-one to see if they meet those opportunities. This is an excellent way for certified WBEs to introduce your company and get exposure in front of Corporate Members!
CORPORATE INDUSTRIES ROUNDTABLE
As we slowly return to business in a new normal, what are some “next” trends that have emerged for industry sectors that you should know?
PITCH COMPETITION / PITCH PRESENTATION
The Pitch Competition is one of the highly anticipated activities each year. During this activity, corporate representatives host a table with certified WBEs "Perfecting their Pitch." Each WBE shares its best elevator speech, and each table selects the WBE with the best pitch to represent that table in the final pitch competition. There are friendly advice and input shared to make this a learning experience for all and even greater exposure for certified WBEs with ORV Corporate Members and other WBEs.
WBE VIRTUAL SHOWCASE
The WBE Showcase provides the opportunity for networking and relationship building with other WBEs from across the region for partnering, collaboration, referrals, and business transactions. Corporate members can have a leisurely conversation with those companies that may meet a current supplier's need. Dozens of certified WBEs take advantage of this rare opportunity to share info about their company with a captive audience committed to doing business with women-owned firms.
WISDOM CIRCLES (WBE ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS)
These interactive roundtable discussions are an excellent opportunity to encourage sharing ideas, business best practices, and discussion around a topic relevant to common interests. There's nothing more powerful than sharing the success of your women-led high growth venture with those who aspire higher. Share commentary on Issues of Importance to women business owners…girl power on steroids!
Moderated by Alex Cole-Murphy, Recruitment Specialist & Sales Development Expert Anthony Cole Training Group, LLC & Alicia Wilhelmy, President, Seemless Printing LLC
PEER-TO-PEER POWER HOUR (BY INVITATION ONLY)
Come together with the best and the brightest in one room! Tap into the brainpower of a small, intimate group of high revenue, high growth certified WBEs and spend time in a structured but fun environment getting to know one another's business, sharing best practices, and offering helpful advice and support. Take advantage of an opportunity for true peer-to-peer networking and learning from the experience of other proven leaders in our region.
Moderated by Tara Abraham, Chairwoman, Accel, Inc. & Jill Frey, President, Cummins Facility Services LLC
CORPORATE MEMBERS BEST PRACTICE (CORPORATE MEMBERS ONLY)
This brain trust is held twice a year for corporate representatives to share best practices in inclusion and supplier diversity. With many of the leading corporations in our region, you are sure to learn new and innovative strategies to strengthen your program and enhance your company's supplier diversity efforts.
WORKSHOPS
This comprehensive workshop presented by WBEC ORV is a primer for women entrepreneurs interested in pursuing and/or leveraging WBENC certification to grow your business. You’ll learn about certification criteria, the certification process, costs and timing. You’ll also learn how to maximize the impact of WBE certification, including opportunities for engagement, strategies to apply, and learning all about this thing called supplier diversity and economic inclusion.
Presented by Colleen Rudisell, Certification Manager, Women’s Business Enterprise Council Ohio River Valley
A crash course of “best practices” to get you started leveraging your WBENC certification. Understand the benefits of WBENC certification. Begin to navigate the corporate landscape. Get engaged in WBEC ORV to begin building WBE relationships. Learn how to speak corporate, engage your RPO, build a WBE network, use WBENCLink 2.0, and create an impactful 30 second pitch and capabilities statement.
Presented by a WBEs Roundtable
This “up and out” dialogue discusses the impact of burnout, strategies for self-care, and the importance of taking time for YOU. The struggle is real. Burnout is an occupational phenomenon caused by prolonged stress has now been classified by The World Health Organization as a syndrome resulting from unmanaged stress. The negative effects of burnout spill over into every area of life and saps your health, energy and productivity. Join in for a crucial conversation that brings “up” the issues impacting our health, our mind, and our time while driving “out” the strategies and opportunities to take back OUR TIME.
Presented by April Day, MBA, CNP, President, Principal Investigator, WBEA Women Business Center CORE
In times of perpetual and pervasive change, leaders are being called to find opportunities in the chaos. Letting go of predictability expands the capacity to spark change while empowering those accountable for implementing the change.
This interactive session will help you to:
- Manage in times of tremendous change both internally and externally
- Use best in class practices to maximize employee engagement
- Balance big picture thinking with real-world implementation
Presented by Kris McGuigan, Professional Courage, LLC
No matter your industry, if you’re a leader of people or entrepreneur, you’re in the people business. So it’s critical to study people as much as, or more than, subjects like finance, sales and marketing. Based on the author’s best-selling book – The Heart of a Leader: 52 Emotional Intelligence Insights to Advance Your Career – you'll learn proven tools to engage teams, build credibility, increase followership and produce greater results by leading with head and heart in a global economy.
Presented by Kristin Harper; CEO; Driven to Succeed LLC
This session will explore the components necessary to prepare your business for a global economy and global platform. This workshop will provide attendees with tools and strategies in order to embrace a global economy. We will showcase the correlation between sustainable corporation structure and the strategic planning required to move an organization through expansion and ultimately into global markets as well as position it for a transition with inorganic growth strategies of joint ventures, merger & acquisition, or financing. A successful organization requires the right management and leadership structure, financial capacity, operational infrastructure, and growth strategy. During this workshop, we will explain how all of these factors as well as the strategic plan underpins the ability of an organization to be prepared for any major initiative it wishes to undertake. We will show the correlation between strategic planning and valuation from a legal and financial perspective. Major components include: developing the right team, identifying the right products, organizational readiness (cultural), marketing strategy, inorganic growth strategies such as joint ventures and strategic alliances, legal structure and regulatory requirements, tax strategies, financial structure, and valuation. Prior to moving into an expansion of corporate operations, we will stress the importance to understand a company’s valuation, capitalization, and sustainability.
The workshop will address the legal requirements and best practices for a company to expand the size and scale of operations while addressing the needs and operations of a corporation. Strategic planning through inorganic strategies will be discussed as a strategy for a corporation’s expansion of size and scale of the operations. The strategies will outline how a corporation can accomplish its goals to expand markets, the scope of work, decrease margins of operation through consolidation or acquisitions as well as address the financial needs and access to capital required to accomplish the strategic plan established by the management team.
Presented by Rea N. Waldon, PhD; President; KDDK Legacy Group LLC and Cheryl L. Borland, Of Counsel at Griesing Law, LLC