Conference Emcee
Linda Clemons®
CEO, Sisterpreneur® Inc.
About Linda
Linda Clemons from Indianapolis, IN is the CEO of Sisterpreneur® Inc. Linda is an award-winning and record-setting sales producer as well as one of the top sales trainers in the world in the resort/ timeshare industry where clients have generated over two billion in sales. A sought-after body language expert, Linda is trained and certified in Analytic Interviewing and Statement Analysis ™ which is a process used to detect deception.
Her client list includes celebrities, executives, politicians, and entrepreneurs from a broad range of organizations including Southwest Airlines, Coca-Cola, Spanx, Publicis, Nielsen, National Urban League, Nestle, MGM, Major League Baseball, Wells Fargo, Leo Burnett Worldwide, US Customs, FBI, Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham, and Starwood.
Linda has opened for or shared the stage with such notables as Oprah Winfrey, President Obama, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, and Mary Jo White, former SEC Chair.
Awards and Honors include: Office Depot National Entrepreneur Award, Women of Wealth Top Mentor Award, Listing in the United States Congressional Records for community work, Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest civilian award given by the governor in the State of Indiana, Memberships-Rotary International, National Board member for the National Congress of Black Women, Recognition by President Obama for community work
Conference Commentator
Tanya Gadsby
Founder, Fuselight Creative
About Tanya
Tanya Gadsby is the founder of Fuselight Creative and has seventeen years of experience working in event design and audience engagement. Over the last thirteen years, Tanya has focused on health care, collaborations with Indigenous Nations & communities, and climate science. She specializes in strategic and customized use of graphic facilitation so it deepens dialogue, creates a safe space for sharing, is flexible to the group’s needs, and is a core part of the work moving forward. Tanya is constantly testing new ways of using graphics and technology to facilitate learning and connection – whether it’s virtual or digital graphic recording, augmented reality, interactive infographics, or experimenting with new animation techniques.
Tanya has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre & Writing from the University of Victoria, and is trained in community engagement through the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). Born in New Zealand, and of Māori / Ukrainian / Scottish descent, Tanya grew up in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and Whitehorse, Yukon. She resides in Victoria, British Columbia on the unceded traditional territory of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.
OPENING KEYNOTE
Bevy Smith
Author, Actor, Award-Winning TV & Radio Host
Bevelations for Journeyers: Ask tough questions. Do the work. Unearth your core. Dare to dream. And remember, it gets greater later.
Bevy Smith was living what seemed like a glamorous dream as a fashion advertising executive, so it came as quite a shock to her when one day, after arriving at her luxury hotel in Milan, she collapsed on the Frette bed sheets and sobbed. Years of rolling with the in-crowd had taken its toll. Her satisfaction with work and life had hit rock bottom. But Bevy could not be defeated, and within minutes (okay, days) she grabbed a notepad and started realizing a truer path.
In her signature lively and infectious voice, Bevy candidly shares how she reclaimed her life’s course, inviting us along on the journey of her personal transformation to reveal how each of us can OWN OUR OWN JOURNEY to live our best life with honesty and joy.
“Bevy knows what’s what, and she is the kind of woman you want in your corner.” – Whoopi Goldberg
“Funny, wise, well-experienced, empathetic, colorful. Bevy brings the spirit of humanity wherever she goes.” – Pharrell Williams
About Bevy
Quintessential Harlem girl, Gracie Award winner and life-long New Yorker, Bevy Smith is the host of Sirius XM’s Bevelations on Radio Andy. Once a wildly successful luxury fashion publishing exec, Bevy shifted her professional goals over a decade ago to pursue a life in front of the camera. A pop culture aficionado and fashion expert, Bevy served as moderator of Bravo TV’s revolutionary Fashion Queens, was a part of The Wendy Williams Show’s Style Squad and a former co-host on the nationally syndicated Page Six TV. Smith’s debut book Bevelations: Lessons from a Mutha, Auntie, Bestie which details her transition from a fashion advertising executive into a media personality was published through Henry Holt & Company’s Andy Cohen Books.
Bevy gave her first TED Talk in April of 2022 breaking down her greatest #Bevelation, It Gets Greater LaterTM, which has received over 3 million views and was the third most popular Ted Talk of the year (besting Bill Gates). Bevy has also added actor to her list of accomplishments having appeared in Amazon Prime’s original series Harlem (created by Tracy Oliver) as Aunt Tammy. Season 2 will premiere in 2023.
Awards and Honors include: Black Women in Media Pioneer Award; Gracie Award for National Radio; Harlem Eat Up! Luminary Award Winner; Harlem Fashion Row Style Awards-The Trailblazer; Harlem United-Community Champion; NYABJ Award’sHonoree; PowHERful Foundation Gala Honoree; Range Rover Evoque City Shaper
CLOSING KEYNOTE
Katty Kay
Anchor, BBC World News America, Author
The Power Code for Journeyers: a new (and beneficial) model of power – for the workplace, the political arena, and the home
Katty Kay, author of the New York Times bestseller The Confidence Code and a top-rated IWL mainstage speaker, is back in 2023! And this year, she’s sharing insights from her new book, The Power Code.
We are living in a moment of unprecedented transformation for women. Despite recent setbacks, women continue to advance in almost every arena – politics, business, education.
If it’s all so great, and we’re moving in the direction of equity, why does it feel so hard? Studies show women improve profits, so why aren’t more of us CEOs? We’re doing better at school than boys, yet we can’t crack STEM? Do women use power differently and do we even want it?
Katty shares the latest research, interviews with high-powered women, and her own personal stories, presenting a new operating system to help women use our talents to become our most powerful selves and step into and OWN OUR JOURNEYS.
About Katty
Katty Kay is an award-winning journalist and news anchor who brings an instinctively global perspective to her observations on American politics and global affairs. During her nearly 30-years with BBC News, she was a reporter and then news anchor, bringing important news from America and around the world to a huge global audience from her studio in Washington, D.C. Katty has reported on six U.S. presidential elections, Washington politics, financial crashes, world trouble spots, sex scandals, global affairs, and much more. She is a regular contributor and substitute host of Morning Joe on MSNBC.
Katty also writes on the art and science of self-assurance in women and girls. She is coauthor, with Claire Shipman, of four New York Times’ bestselling books: Womenomics, The Confidence Code, The Confidence Code for Girls, and Living the Confidence Code. Katty and Claire have co-authored their sixth book, The Power Code: More Joy. Less Ego. Maximum Impact for Women (and Everyone), scheduled for release on June 13, 2023.
On the fun side, Katty had the distinction of being immortalized in pop culture in 2018 when her name was the answer to a question on the Jeopardy game show. In the same week, she was portrayed in a skit on Saturday Night Live which satirized a moment from MSNBC’s Morning Joe program.
Katty Kay settled in Washington, DC in the mid-90s where she lives with her husband, two cats, and a dog. They have four grown children.
JOIN US ON JUNE 13
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Our Corporate Partners
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