Conference Agenda

Keynote session. Introducing the Ascent Free Platform for Women. Dr. Patti Greene and Prof. Kathy Korman Frey are the entrepreneurship experts behind the Small Business Administration’s resource “Ascent,” a free women’s entrepreneurship learning platform. Listeners will be walked through favorite tools, as well as key topics which include financial statements, people, and marketing.

Fireside Chat with Amy Millman, President of Springboard Enterprises.   In this session Amy will answer questions about her decades of experience supporting female entrepreneurs and discuss ways that innovators and entrepreneurs can help (and hurt) themselves when they talk about the plans for their startup ventures.  She is sure to provide key insights on ways that entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, can make their best case when pitching their idea to others.

Moderator: Lex McCusker, Director of Student Entrepreneurship Programs at George Washington University

This isn’t your normal company in the beauty industry.  Madison Reed grew exponentially during Covid. How did they do it? Learn about the company’s compelling mission, steps the company took during Covid – and every day – to support and empower their team and women around the world.

Moderator: Professor Kathy Korman Frey

Student Co-moderator: Lexi Young, GWSB MBA Candidate

Session Description:

Tourism provides a promising approach to sustainable development—a way for Indigenous communities to generate income, alleviate poverty, increase access to healthcare and education, and conserve their cultural and natural resources. Indigenous entrepreneurship in tourism is growing rapidly in the Americas, but there are significant discrepancies in opportunity for Indigenous women. Lack of education, lack of access to loans and capital, and lack of representation in the tourism industry are just some of the barriers facing Indigenous women who aspire to be tourism entrepreneurs. Despite these obstacles, entrepreneurial Indigenous women are playing an important role in achieving sustainable development goals by improving the living conditions of their families, creating economic value for their communities, upholding the traditions of their communities and creating economic independence and work opportunities for themselves. Join us as Indigenous women running successful tourism businesses throughout the Americas share how they have overcome barriers to pave the way for future generations.

Led by: Seleni Matus, Executive Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University.

Panelist: Uwahnie Martinez
Director, Palmento Grove Eco-Cultural & Fishing Institute

Olivia Rose Williamson, member of the Crow Nation in southeast Montana. She founded Indian Battle Tours after working as a tour guide through the Crow Tribe’s Apsaalooke Tours. 

Graciela Coy, Director, Ak’ Tenamit

Teresa Ryder, Director of Business Development, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada

Panel Description: Canada has a bold vision of “inclusive economic growth” that recognizes the importance of innovation driven by entrepreneurship, as well as the importance of gender equality and diversity. However, its performance is uneven; while Canada is performing well in terms of entrepreneurial activity, it lags in terms of overall innovation performance and GDP growth. This panel sheds light on how to create a more inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem advancing both economic prosperity and diversity challenging conventional assumptions. Entrepreneurship is situated in a complex system of interacting macro, meso, and micro factors. We offer a multi-levelled ecological model of analysis to consider interrelated macro, meso and micro issues. 

The panel will consider women’s entrepreneurship in the innovation ecosystem within four major themes:

1. The impact of definitions and discourses. This theme will explore ways in which entrepreneurship and innovation are defined and constructed, and the implications of these discourses on policies and practices affecting diverse groups. 
2. Macro Issues –This theme will present empirical data that suggests that the same societal level forces and factors (e.g. culture and stereotypes) come into play with entrepreneurship.
3. Meso Issues / Organizational Processes – Different organizations in the ecosystem (e.g., educational institutions, funders and financiers, government, intermediaries and incubators) try to consider the needs and support the success of diverse entrepreneurs. 
4. Micro/ Individual Issues – This theme will reconsider the ways in which we understand the experiences of diverse entrepreneurs, their motivations, perceptions, needs, and behaviors, as well as the implications for training and education. 

Moderator:
Dr. Mary Kilfoil
Executive Director, Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Dalhousie University

Panelists:
Dr. Wendy Cukier
Director, Diversity Institute
Professor, Entrepreneurship and Strategy
Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University

Dr. Tania Saba
Associate Professor, Leadership and Organization
Chaired Professor in Diversity and Governance,
School of Industrial Relations
Université de Montréal Québec

Dr. Suzanne Gagnon
Associate Professor, Leadership and Organization
Director, James W. Burns Leadership Institute
University of Manitoba

Ms. Stephanie Dei
Director, Research Partnership at Ryerson University

Panel Description: Whether guiding a nation with a steady hand or leading a corporation or non-profit or rising up against injustice, women leaders offer a glimpse of how to make progress under difficult circumstances, The concluding session asks these leaders for key insights and revolutionary ideas societies can implement for positive impact.

Panelists: 

Jill Kikul,Founding Director of the Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship
Cecilia Flores, Co-Founder and CMO of Webee
Evette Banfield, Vice President of Economic Development Policy and Wealth Building Strategies, CNHED
Jisoo M. Kim, Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies, Co-Director, East Asia National Resource Center
Julienne (Julie) Shields, President and CEO of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
Virginia Rose-Losada, Global Coordinator and lead officer for the ILO’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme
Tammy Nguyen, Owner of Tammy Nguyen Event Management

Closing Remarks by: Dr. Liesl Riddle, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the George Washington University School of Business