“The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it and execute it. It’s not something you await, but rather create.” - Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
This storybook is designed to capture insights from our conference experience.
It's DESIGNed TO AMPLIFY THE IMPACT OF OUR CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE.
We call it the 'Amplify the Impact Storybook'
This takeaway, complete with visuals, storytelling, images and stories, and more, and will help us remember all the details, excitement, and energy of our 2023 WBENC conference experience. We'll capture events, speakers, and ideas encountered along our journey to help us retain the momentum, encourage action and help us share our enthusiasm with our team, so they quickly understand and learn from our experience.
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WHO ARE WE?
We are North America’s ONLY Visual Futures Agency. We work with organizations to:
- Transform their leaders into exponential leaders; able to unleash the power of their people to imagine, anticipate, evolve & adapt to all possibilities of the future.
- Build a culture of anticipation inside teams.
- Craft a strategic plan with the creative agility needed to flex and adapt to the unimaginable future (the good and the bad).
MY NAME IS JANINE UNDERHILL
I LEAD IDEA360- THE ART OF POSSIBILITY.
We make the invisible- visible. We work to transform leaders into exponential leaders who unleash the power of their people to imagine, anticipate, evolve & adapt to all possibilities of the future.
AS THE ONLY VISUAL FUTURES AGENCY IN NORTH AMERICA, IDEA360 IS DRIVEN BY A PASSION FOR INNOVATION AND AN UNWAVERING FOCUS ON THE FUTURE.
For over two decades, we have partnered with global companies to discover new possibilities and opportunities through strategic visualization, creative problem-solving, and visionary thinking. Our events and experiences inspire teams to ask bold questions and envision a world of endless potential. Let us help you unlock the power of tomorrow to shape the future of your business today.
My name is MONICA SHARP
I am an operations-minded tech leader with over 20 years of experience at Apple, leading diverse, cross-functional teams in delivering complex, transformative initiatives for AppleCare, Operations, Manufacturing, Retail, Supply Chain, and more. I was responsible for delivering Apple’s innovative anti-fraud platform, which protects millions of customers and billions of dollars worth of transactions daily.
I work with IDEA360 as the lead Strategic Futurist using my diverse planning and execution expertise to help clients bring their “big ideas” to life.
I also lead North Star Futures to help organizations navigate technical and operational transformations with an approach that accounts for the short-term AND long-term simultaneously.
Monica and i arrived early to get the lay of the land.
Wow….There is so much to learn and explore.
We decided that our first day is -a day to listen. We want to find out what is in the hearts and minds of this brilliant community.
Our curious questions
What drives you…what impact do you want to make?
What’s alive in you..what’s the burning question that guides you this week?
We met Ruth Golden. We asked her about the impact she holds true in her heart.
We learned she has come out of retirement as a certified esthetician with a new range of products to help put her grand children through college.
We were so taken by her mission and commitment. We hope everyone will read her story and support her success.
We attended the WBENC Women of Color Program. We can not ADEQUATELY DESCRIBE how wildly dynamic, informational, engaging and inspiring this session was. We listened to the stories, witnessed women supporting women, we watched what true sisterhood looks like.
The keynote by BOFTA YIMAN was delivered with inspired brilliance.
Here is the visual capture of her ideas. I will continue to review and remember the nuggets she shared.
The big ideas…
Networking visibility
Activating your network
Leverage Linkedin…update your headline… now!
Understand what it will take from me
Then, we heard from a panel of emerging leaders talk about their journey and ideas
Day 2
We met Phinesia Johnson!
She is helping prospective WBENC’ers with their applications. She brings the discipline of her experience as a paralegal to her growing business.
She described what she does…
“I am a business consultant who helps minorities increase their chances of getting their certification applications approved by reviewing the applications and making recommendations before the applications are submitted”.
She added…
“We also provide talent acquisition, marketing, and finance (non-taxed related) consulting” and We serve startups, spin-offs and mid-sized organizations.
We audit supplier diversity programs to ensure they’re doing what they were designed to do. If not, we identify the gaps and work with organizations to fill those gaps. We help companies who don’t have a SD program or are in the infancy stage of their SD program to build it out so that it compliments the company’s values and aligns with the company’s strategy vision. We assist the eligible suppliers of company’s with the certification application process.
The pre-conference day was packed with learning and inspiration.
We met Michelle Settecase from EY on Wednesday. She’s leading the charge to quantify contribution better using a survey where she will begin to capture the insights as she seeks the answer to the following question:
“how do women founders contribute to a better future for us all?”
Michelle works on the WOMEN. FAST FORWARD project inside the EY KNOWLEDGE function.
Michelle encouraged us to take the survey. She noted how critical it is to better understand how women entrepreneurs contribute to our communities.
We wanted to understand better why this is so critical..
Amy Webb from NYU Stearns School and THE FUTURES INSTITUTE presented her 2023 TRENDS at SXSW. She invites us into a thought experiment. She asked for a visual AI platform (Midjourney) to show her what a leader looks like. What follows SHOULD come as a shock.
Michelle had mentioned how challenging it was to find information that would allow her to quantify the contribution of women founders. Remember, AI gathers information by scraping the existing data in the system.
This is the image of leadership generated by the AI tool.
Where are the women?
Where is the diversity?
THIS IS THE INFORMATION THAT LIVES IN THE SYSTEM.
WE NEED TO CARE ABOUT THIS and THE IMPLICATIONS!
Help Michelle- help us and let's continue the conversation.
Contact Michelle here Michelle.settecase@ey.com
We attended Allison Maslan's workshop...
How to Scale Beyond 8-Figures, Create More Capacity as a Supplier, and Build a Team-Managed Company that Can Thrive Without You.
Many business owners that are serious about scaling get stuck at 7 and 8-figures and cannot get beyond that, even when they’re working non-stop, sacrificing time, health, and sanity… for years.
Scaling doesn’t come from working harder; it comes from thinking and acting strategically. If you, the CEO, are still rescuing projects, deadlines, team members, or clients, you are actually choking your company's growth rather than being the visionary moving it forward.
In this powerful presentation, Allison Maslan, CEO of Pinnacle Global Network, Founder of 10 of her own companies, and the Wall Street Journal Best Selling author of the book, Scale or Fail, will show you how.
I loved it so much... we are attending her event in San Diego at the beginning of MAY!
SCALE IT LIVE!
Boost your business with Gov’t contracts
Jackie P Taylor with EY is the panel host (25 yrs of experience in organizational improvement).
Secrets to growing your business
- You have to increase your revenue to grow (the 3 Cs)
- Increase your Customers (individual customers)
- Increase your Corporate relationships
Interactivity do’s and don’ts
Do’s:
- Familiarize yourself with your local government agencies and the types of products and services they purchase
- Do some research on what they currently buy, and how (check out their procurement website)
- Do some research on what they currently buy, and how (check out their procurement website)
- Register as a diverse supplier/vendor.
- READ your RFPs in their entirety and ask all of your questions during the Q&A
- Give the RFP to your attorney if you aren’t comfortable interpreting the language.
- If you are uncomfortable working with a business your first time, you can work with EY Business sectors so they have you in their system, and you can be a subcontractor until you are ready to be a prime supplier.
Don’ts:
- Do NOT underestimate your opportunity in the government procurement.
- Don’t disqualify yourself by answering the RFPs incorrectly. READ them in their entirety.
Conversation with Jaideep:
- Atlanta is proud to call itself a global city.
- How to do biz with the city of Atlanta?
- EVERYTHING is sourced
- 180 sourcing activities with a spend of $17B in the last six months
- 2022 the spent $4B in contracts
- Atlanta needs EVERYTHING and ANYTHING.
Atlanta created a website called https://www.atlsuppliers.com
- This is a hub spot for all the suppliers to do business
- Match your 3 Cs to the 3 Ps: People, Process and Products. Don’t give up!
- Generally, people think gov’t procurement takes a long time. Atlanta has transformed their procurement org to get all projects completed within 90-120 days, which means they can do more projects per year = great business opportunities
Q&A:
- Sherry Sussino, runs a dual-language book publisher (English-X) supporting over 100 languages.
- If you don’t win the bid, it is a great idea to reach out to the winning prime and offer your services as a sub. Build and foster those relationships now so you can grow together. You can leverage the electronic sign in sheet during the RFP Q&A to find out who the competition is (EY, PwC, etc) and reach out early.
- When applying to a state/local government outside of your state, you can foster and build relationships with partners who can help you build capacity. State and local governments often leverage contracts from city, state, and federal agencies.
Health Equity, Policy & ESG panel
Charlene Vickers, Dir Supplier Diversity, J&J
Panelists
Erica St Louis, J&J, Director of StrategicAccounts @ J&J MedTechJ&J MedTech: most products used in OR
Nov 2020, J&J launched “race to health equity” = to eliminate and eradicate healthcare disparities. Pillars of success:
- Diverse workplace
- Diverse suppliers hire diverse employees and typically operate in their own community
- Innovative Care models
- Partnering with advocacy groups
Samantha Smith, MedTronics, Engineering Director in Sustainability
- Motivated by looking at how to reduce medical device waste (packaging & product) in the environment, especially coming out of COVID with all of the single use products.
- COVID has created massive waste within the healthcare system
- Big Question: How do we design for recyclability and waste reduction?
Helen Fitzpatrick, Bristol Myers Squibb, Lead Director Supplier Diversity in Government Affairs
- Healthcare Policy:
- Inflation Reduction Act (IRA): provision for federal gov’t to negotiate drug prices for Medicare program; $2,000 annual cap for out of pocket costs for Medicare patients (patient protections driven by healthcare industry)
- FMP for part D and part B drugs.
Kick-off!
We heard from corporate sponsors, leaders and change makers who set the tone for the conference.
The key themes-
- Inclusion
- Access
- Diversity
- Success
- Committment
INDUSTRY LABS- DAY 2
Women Entrepreneurs as DRIVERS OF CHANGE
This session provided attendees with information about NWBC’s mission and highlighted the Council’s signature initiatives focused on helping advance women’s business enterprise in the U.S. NWBC Executive Director Tené Dolphin shared some of NWBC’s 2022 policy recommendations to the White House, Congress, and the SBA Administrator.
She was joined by Nic Cober of THE BOW COLLECTIVE. The panel opened the floor to questions and comments from conference attendees and facilitated a conversation on how women business owners can serve as drivers of change by promoting inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems and advocating for impactful policy change.
- THE INVITATION TO COLLABORATION
- UNDERSTAND WHERE THE GAPS ARE
- FOCUS ON EDUCATION
- IDENTIFY VIABLE OPPORTUNITIES
The big takeaway Tene offered- "WE NEED TO SHAPE THE NARRATIVE"
Meet Kristin Harper
Kristin is a true force of nature.
She is the Founder and CEO of Driven to Succeed. Kristin leads an award-winning WBENC & NMSDC-certified global market research & consulting firm uncovering consumer insights so mid-market companies & Fortune 500 brands can grow sales, profit & share | Classically trained brand manager.
We have had the good fortune to work alongside Kristin's business partner Kaylie Dugan for over for 20 years. It has been a delight to work wiTh kristin and Kaylie as they help Fortune 500 companies and leading brands uncover deep consumer insights to innovate and grow their brand, with research capabilities across 50+ countries and six continents.
THEY JUST ANNOUNCED SOMETHING NEW!
The Driven to Succeed team has worked for the past eight months to create and validate a solution to inspire more of your customers to buy.
They combine quantitative market research, brand management, and copywriting expertise to write and test sales and marketing soundbites, including one-off customer feedback, with hundreds of vetted people from your target audience.
Visit her new offering here!
https://www.driventosucceedllc.com/sales-marketing-message-consulting
We had such a great experience at our first WBENC!
A big thank you to the entire WBENC host team for designing a spectacular experience.
Driven by a passion for innovation and an unwavering focus on the future. For over two decades, we have partnered with global companies to discover new possibilities and opportunities through strategic visualization, creative problem-solving, and visionary thinking. Our events and experiences inspire teams to ask bold questions and envision a world of endless potential.
Let us help you unlock the power of tomorrow and shape the future of your business today.
Allow this Digital Storybook to take you back to the conversations, ideas, and questions that emerged in our time together.
- WHAT, SO WHAT, NOW WHAT!
- Think about WHAT we talked about and then ask yourself the SO WHAT questions.
- SO WHAT does this mean, SO WHAT needs my attention, SO WHAT might the next best step be?
- Then ask, NOW WHAT? NOW WHAT might I do to incorporate a fundamental need into the things I am working on? NOW WHAT might I begin to listen for?
Digital Storybook by IDEA360
The Amplify the Impact Storybook helps your meeting participants: The Amplify the Impact Digital Storybook removes the expiration date from your meetings. It is a map for post-meeting momentum, generated in real-time during your event and then provided to all attendees afterward. It is a visual re-telling of the meeting’s key themes and ideas, allowing participants to feel a deeper connection to what’s possible and be propelled into action.
- Access their full memory of the event.
- Re-live content and ideas
- Make sense of how they fit in the big picture
- Make connections between big ideas.