Welcome to the WED Colorado Summit!
Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) is the world’s largest entrepreneurial and financial empowerment initiative dedicated to celebrating, supporting, and empowering women worldwide.
On Jan. 20th, 2023, the WED Colorado Summit will bring together students, young professionals, and successful women entrepreneurs from all across Colorado. Listen to a diverse lineup of guest speakers and panel discussions, and then join interactive breakout sessions and a leadership workshop in the afternoon. Lunch is included. Here’s a great chance to build your community, get inspired, and even find a potential mentor!
Event Schedule
Jake Jabs Event Center (First Floor)
Check in – 8:00 a.m. to 8:25 a.m.
Welcome with Tish & Snooky Bellomo – 8:30 a.m.
Opening Introductions by Olivia Omega & Simone D. Ross – 8:35 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.
Young Female Entrepreneurs’ Panel by Anna Brekken & Simone D. Ross – 8:45 a.m. to 9:20 a.m.
Colorado & Women Entrepreneurs – 9:20 a.m. to 9:25 a.m.
Breakout Sessions in Rooms 3100-3300 (Third Floor)
9:45 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.
Enhance Your Networking Through Storytelling with Dianne Myles – Room 3100
Communication is More Than What You Think with Patsy Landaveri – Room 3300
10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
3 Keys to Building Your Confidence as an Entrepreneur with Anna Brekken – Room 3100
Bringing Passion & Vision Together to Make a Difference with Laura Fooks – Room 3200
The Art of Connecting & Creating Collaborations with Meghann Conter & Kami Guildner – Room 3300
Jake Jabs Event Center (First Floor)
Lunch with Successful Entrepreneurs – 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Keynote with Tish & Snooky Bellomo – 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Group Workshop with Amy Duncan: How Leaders Create Community – 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Group Workshop with Olivia Omega: You Are the Brand of Your Life – 2:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Final Notes & Closing – 2:45 to 3:00 p.m.
Session Descriptions
MORNING
8:45 a.m. to 9:20 a.m.
Young Female Entrepreneurs Panel – Jake Jabs Event Center
Hear from Colorado female entrepreneurs who began their businesses as young adults. This panel is moderated by teen entrepreneur Anna Brekken, owner of AnnaMade Design Co., and Simone D. Ross, CEO of the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the founder of the management consulting firm, Simone D. Ross LLC. Panel members include:
· Gabbie Carr, Owner of Gracefully Gabbie and GabbiesGracefulGifts
· Mary Sorteberg Langewisch, Artist and Owner of Fragile Glory Impressions
· Chloe Warren, Co-founder and Co-owner of Sweet Bee Sisters
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
9:45 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.
Enhance Your Networking Through Storytelling with Dianne Myles – Room 3100
There is a saying that your network determines your net worth, but building a network of peers, mentors, and partners can seem daunting. Yet, one of the best ways to make yourself stand out is to lean into one of your most important assets: your story. In this session, Dianne will show you how to use storytelling techniques to help you face any audience — from networking events to galas, boards to committee meetings, and building relationships that last.
Communication is More Than What You Think with Patsy Landaveri – Room 3300
Do you find it hard to express yourself? Sometimes communicating can be HARD! We feel people will not understand what we are trying to communicate. When we go into a professional workplace, it can be even harder. Join this interactive workshop to learn some tips on how to communicate more effectively and get the better outcomes.
10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
3 Keys to Building Your Confidence as an Entrepreneur with Anna Brekken – Room 3100
The biggest roadblock to starting a business for most teens is… a lack of confidence. What will people at school think? Is this the right business name? Is it worth spending $40 on supplies to get started? Anna Brekken’s workshop is designed to help you make decisions, talk to anyone, and put your new idea “out there.” You’ll have an opportunity to practice these skills and walk away with tools to be a fearless leader.
Bringing Passion & Vision Together to Make a Difference with Laura Fooks – Room 3200
Are you passionate about something? Don’t just sit there — take a leap of faith and turn it into something! In this interactive workshop, you will learn how to identify your values, passions, and resources and remain passionate, balance other commitments, and practice self-care along the path of entrepreneurship.
The Art of Connecting & Collaborating with Meghann Conter & Kami Guildner – Room 3300
In this session, you will meet two women entrepreneurs and community leaders who have mastered the art of connecting and collaboration as a strategic approach to growing their businesses. They’ll share their stories, lessons, and approaches to connection and collaborations.
AFTERNOON
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
How Leaders Create Community with Amy Duncan – Jake Jabs Event Center
Join facilitator Amy Duncan in a playful discovery of the values and qualities that build and encourage community. In this group workshop, you will explore vulnerability, empathy, compassion, cooperation, and equity.
2:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
It All Matters. You Are the Brand for Your Life & Your Business with Olivia Omega – Jake Jabs Event Center
Join Olivia Omega, author of Beautifully Branded – The Girl’s Guide: Understanding the Anatomy of Brand You, as she shares the necessary elements of a dynamic personal brand. Every single one of us has a personal brand. It doesn’t matter our age, interests, profession, or experience… we are all influencers in our own right. During this session, we’ll talk about how students can successfully create a strong personal brand that will benefit their college career and beyond. The talk will begin with laying the foundation for what brands are and the difference in personal brands, the power of leveraging your distinct DNA, and creating a life and career that you love.
Speakers & Panelists
Amy L. Duncan, CFP
Team Duncan Financial
Amy L. Duncan is an advice-based, comprehensive, Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner in Denver, Colorado with over 20 years of experience helping her clients invest and plan for a fulfilling and purposeful life. Amy and her team, Team Duncan Financial, facilitate Financial Life Planning centered around offering informed and objective advice and a step-by-step process that results in organized and confident outcomes. She specializes in helping people identify their internal money-script which can subconsciously drive their financial decision-making. Amy believes in aligning values, behaviors, and goals to achieve long-term success. Learn more about Amy on LinkedIn.
Anna Brekken
Owner, AnnaMade Design Co.
Anna is a teen business owner and speaker with a passion for creative writing. She believes everyone has an important story to share, and creative writing is the tool to uncover your voice and stand out. After moving to a new state and going to a school that discouraged creativity, she was inspired by her grandma – who showed her how to make handmade greeting cards – and with only 3 designs opened her shop AnnaMade Design Co. on Etsy. 150 cards later, she was out meeting other young business owners and saw that most of them struggled with running their businesses. Seeing a need, she started Soaring Together, a community to help her fellow teen entrepreneurs succeed.
Anna presented at TEDx Youth@Cherry Creek: Creative Writing for the Classroom. For Denver Startup Week 2022, Anna’s session on Disrupting Corporate: Creative Writing for Small Business was one of the few events led by a teenager. Learn more about Anna at AnnaMade Blog.
Chloe Warren
Co-Founder & Co-Owner, Sweet Bee Sisters
Chloe Warren is 20 years old and a co-owner of Sweet Bee Sisters, an all-natural skin care product business. She is a senior at Colorado Christian University and is studying Business Management. She hopes to take her business experience and degree to change the way people view business all over the world. As a Colorado native, Chloe loves to ski and be outdoors. Chloe started Sweet Bee Sisters in 2009, when she was just 7 years old. She, along with two of her sisters, started making the products from leftover beeswax from their beehives. Chloe and her sisters strive to encourage other young people to start businesses and do hard things. The company has grown to a variety of products including lip balms, lotion bars, sugar scrubs, and more. In recent years, Sweet Bee Sisters has expanded into the private labeling market. This means that companies will purchase Sweet Bee Sisters products with their name and logo on them and use the products as promotional items for their marketing purposes. Learn more about Chloe here.
Dianne Myles
CEO, Dope Mom Life
Dianne began her career in human resources and soon found her passion for storytelling, community outreach, and advocating for and connecting organizations to traditionally unreached demographics. Dianne is the CEO of Dope Mom Life. They do video production, community outreach strategy, relationship building, and ambassador networking.
Dianne spends countless hours serving on boards and committees or organizations like Girls Inc. Children’s Hospital, Downtown Denver Partnerships, Denver Startup Week, Sistahbiz, and YEBO, to name a few. She also works part-time in philanthropy for AJL Foundation. Learn more about Dianne on LinkedIn.
Gabbie Carr
Owner, Gracefully Gabbie and Gabbie’s Graceful Gifts
Gabbie is a 19-year-old social media creator and entrepreneur from Windsor, Colorado, who is using her creative passions for photography, videography, writing, and digital design to uplift others. At 16, she wanted to keep busy during the pandemic, so she turned her creativity to content creation and discovered a passion for social media management, starting her business Gracefully Gabbie and works with brands like, QDOBA, Zulily, Barebones Living, and Star Stables to help promote their products. Gracefully Gabbie also runs Lucky Reads, a bookstagram where she writes book reviews and works with authors to help share their books with more readers.
About a year into working in the social media field, Gabbie opened a sticker business named Gracefully Gabbie’s Gifts (Now GabbiesGracefulGifts on Etsy). She has had her stickers featured in the Windsor Lake Coffee and is working on expanding to bookmarks soon. Learn more about Gabbie on Instagram.
Kami Guildner
Founder, Kami Guildner Coaching and Extraordinary Women Events
Kami believes women’s voices matter. She is a connector. A storyteller. A business coach for changemaker women of influence, leading high vibe entrepreneurs to give voice to their most important messages and create a ripple effect of worldly impact.
Kami is the founder of the Extraordinary Women Ignite Conference, Extraordinary Women Connect events, and host of the award-winning Extraordinary Women Radio™ a podcast featuring wildly successful women living out loud in voice, vitality and vigor. She is the Best Selling author of Firedancer: Your Spiral Journey to a Life of Passion and Purpose. Kami was named to the 2020 Twenty-Five Most Powerful Women in Business List by Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce. Learn more about Kami on LinkedIn.
Laura Fooks
Co-founder and Chief Encouragement Officer, Light Speaks Loudest
When Laura Fooks was in middle school, she scoured teen magazines and Christian materials looking for content that was both relatable to culture and true to her faith, but she kept coming up short. A decade later, Laura discovered that authentic teen resources are still tough to find, so she and her husband started Light Speaks Loudest (LSL) in 2020 to fill that need. Now, Laura creates quarterly subscription boxes to support 13-to-17-year-old girls across the country as they live out their faith. Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations and a Bible minor from Biola University, as well as an MBA from Indiana University. She considers herself an amateur chef and loves exploring the Denver area with her husband and golden doodle pup. Learn more about Laura on LinkedIn.
Mary Sorteberg Langewisch
Artist and Owner, Fragile Glory Impressions Art Studio
Mary Langewisch is an artist and owner of Fragile Glory Impressions. Mary sells her original art, offers commissions, and provides personal art instruction, group classes, and workshops in the Littleton area. Mary started selling her art at a young age and has been in business for almost 20 years. Aside from painting in her home studio, Mary loves teaching others how to make art through her studio classes, online classes, and YouTube channel, and encouraging young people to pursue their dreams. Learn more about Mary here.
Meghann Conter
Founder and Chief Laugh Instigator, The Dames
Meghann Conter uses her power to connect, elevate, entertain, and celebrate extraordinary women as the CEO of The Dames, a global community designed specifically for women running and leading 6 and 7-figure businesses. Meghann believes that anything can be accomplished through fearless collaboration, laughter, fun, and love. Once a burnt-out, over-networked CEO, she is now THE global ultra-connector for women who thrive in the space where self-worth and net-worth align. Learn more about Meghann on LinkedIn.
Olivia Omega
Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, Denver Scholarship Foundation
Olivia is a branding strategist and seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of brand positioning, digital marketing, communications, and advertising experience across startup, nonprofit, public and private sectors. Half of her career was spent at an advertising agency and the other 10 years as an entrepreneur and small business owner. She is the author of Beautifully Branded: The Girl’s Guide to Understanding the Anatomy of Brand You.
Olivia serves as Advisory Council member and Entrepreneur in Residence at the Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. She is also Founder Track Chair for Denver Startup Week and co-founder of Wallace Marketing Group.
Olivia graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business and CU Presidents Leadership Class in 2001. Olivia volunteers mentoring students and lecturing on personal branding and marketing. She has a deep passion for encouraging and inspiring high school and college students in the areas of leadership and business, as well as championing nonprofit projects and missions that elevate under-represented communities. Learn more about Olivia on LinkedIn.
Patsy Landaveri
Founder and CEO, Impacto
Patsy is an ESG changemaker. Formed to close the gap between businesses and their impact on the world, Impacto is an ESG technology and a full-service consulting firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Originally from Peru, she brings decades of experience in the energy sector, having led ESG communications strategies and award-winning stakeholder outreach initiatives for oil and gas operations and utility providers. By leveraging her multicultural expertise, the Impacto team ensures that programs support and nurture a diverse, inclusive, and multicultural approach.
Patsy was appointed by Governor Polis to the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission, is a graduate of the Colorado Governor’s Fellowship Program, the Denver Metro Chamber’s Leadership Denver Class of 2017, and was named a Top Woman in Energy by the Denver Business Journal in 2017. Patsy is on the board of the Denver Public Schools Foundation, the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and The Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming. She also serves The Institute for Science & Policy as a member of its Strategic Council.
An alumna of the University of Colorado’s MS in Global Energy Management program, Patsy additionally holds a Graduate Certificate in Communications Management from the University of Denver and a BA in Economics from the University of Kentucky. Learn more about Patsy on LinkedIn.
Simone D. Ross
CEO, Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director of Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce
Simone D. Ross is a Colorado native who grew up in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood. Simone’s upbringing instilled in her a strong sense of the importance of community, family, and building through investing in the success and dreams of one another.
In her roles with CWCC she’s actively working to advance women in business, while making Colorado the #1 state for women in business. Simone is the founder Simone D. Ross, LLC, a consulting firm with the vision of catalyzing human thriving through effective and integrative change management, the CEO of SDR Events, and Founder and CEO of Youth United University, an anti-oppression education program for kids grades 6-8.
Simone holds a Master of Arts and a Master of Business Administration degree from Colorado State University. She has been recognized by the Denver Business Journal as a “Outstanding Women in Business” honoree, and a “40 Under 40” business leader; the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women; COBIZ Magazine GEN XYZ Top 5 Most Influential; the Association for Corporate Growth as a David Sloan business scholar; and was recognized by the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce as a community service champion. Learn more about Simone on LinkedIn.
Sylvia Scott
Founder and CEO, Girl’s C.E.O. Connection
WED Colorado Ambassador
Sylvia R.J. Scott has dedicated her career to empowering up-and-coming female professionals all over the world. Her mission and passion lie in guiding high school girls towards bright and fulfilling futures as self-sufficient entrepreneurs.
Sylvia’s career spans over 25 years and includes work in event coordination, public relations, non-profit fundraising, conference management, business development and relationship building—all in the name of supporting and collaborating with female entrepreneurs.
While taking MBA night courses at Babson College, she worked for the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE) in Boston as the Consulting Business and Volunteer Program Manager. With a move from Boston to Southern California Sylvia launched the Realizing a Vision Conferences and joined the Inland Empire Women’s Business Center (IEWBC) as a business counselor and coach. Between 2016 and 2020, she mentored Afghan women entrepreneurs virtually. Since 2020, she has worked as a virtual business counselor and workshop presenter for the Coachella Valley Women’s Business Center (CVWBC). In 2019, DataBird Business Journal recognized her in its 250 Inspiring Female Entrepreneurs list. Learn more about Sylvia on LinkedIn.
Tish and Snooky Bellomo
Co-Founders and Co-Owners, Tish & Snooky’s® Manic Panic ® N.Y.C.
Sisters and New York City natives Tish and Snooky Bellomo have been America’s darlings of creative hair color and punk rock pioneers and tastemakers, since their days in the original Blondie band line-up in the mid 70s. Opening America’s first Punk Boutique in 1977, they started the world’s first alternative creative hair color beauty brand, Manic Panic®. They are advocates for the well-being of animals, especially dogs and cats; sponsor a scholarship fund for the VISUAL ARTS Foundation at the School for Visual Arts in NYC in honor of their mother Estelle Bellomo, donate to several charities supporting cancer research and treatments, and many more. They give 15% of the monthly retails sales to selected charities and at least 15% of annual profits to charity. They are the most award winning creative hair color company as well as recipients of several business awards like, Crain’s New York Business Small Business Award and Women President’s Organization Entrepreneurial Achievement Award. Their book MANIC PANIC: LIVING IN COLOR – A REBELLIOUS GUIDE TO HAIR COLOR AND LIFE chronicles their roots and early years as entertainers, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists as well as guide to using creative hair dyes that fit the personality of the readers. Learn more about Tish and Snooky Bellomo and Tish & Snooky’s® Manic Panic ® N.Y.C. here.
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