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Could you tell us about your upcoming Go For The Greens Conference?
Go for the Greens is a business development conference for established women-owned businesses that are looking to grow.   It’s at the BoardWalk Resort at Walt Disney World on Friday, September 19, and Saturday, September 20. You can find details at our website at www.goforthegreens.com.

What makes this conference different is the level of programming. So many events you go to are for people on the 101 level, and this one is more like 303. Friday is packed full of business sessions. In our procurement hall, women business owners can meet at informal sit-down sessions with buyers from major corporations and government entities or they can request one-on-one matchmaking meetings. We have three major panel discussions on high-level procurement strategies, doing business internationally, and working green. And we have breakout sessions on government contracting, writing bids, access to capital, and getting your company into the media.  Again, the schedule is available at www.goforthegreens.com.  Then Saturday, our participants can network at a golf event that includes 18 holes, fabulous prizes, lunch and a fashion show by Tail Apparel, all for only $75. Everyone who participates gets a golf cooler full of goodies from UPS, and one of our contests includes prizes from the Susan G. Komen foundation with donations going to fight breast cancer.

The golf event is set up for people who are avid players and those who’ve never picked up a club. It’s a nice blend of 101 through 303. If you want to bring friends who aren’t going to the conference but would like to play golf, they can register just for this event on our website at www.goforthegreens.com.  For anyone who doesn’t want to golf, we’ve set up a backstage tour of the theme parks for $100 each. Participants can learn the leadership secrets of Walt Disney. Doesn’t that sound intriguing?

What are the highlights of the conference?

This conference really is about the procurement roundtables. You never know what big businesses and government agencies are looking for until you sit down and talk with them. Building these relationships is so valuable for women business owners. At one of these events, I met with a company that said it couldn’t use my writing and marketing services but would really like to find a woman-owned business that manufactures envelopes. If I can find an envelope manufacturer, I’ll look like a hero and maybe I’ll wind up doing business with that corporation after all. It’s fun, it’s kind of like a swap meet except we’re wearing business suits.

The Working Green panel is the grand finale of Friday’s business day. We’ve lined up people from major corporations, small businesses and nonprofit groups all committed to sustainability. Where else can you have a meeting of the minds of Disney, UPS, Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club, IKEA, Progress Energy and others to get ideas about how to save money and protect our natural resources at the same time? We’ve also built a green component into the conference by measuring our carbon footprint and then purchasing carbon offset credits through a donation from a company in Colorado.

IKEA is outfitting the stage with its living room and office furniture so our panelists can relax, and at the end someone from the audience will win a very special prize.

Walt Disney World has put together a fun menu for us for breakfast, lunch, dinner and breaks on Friday. We also have a great rate on hotel rooms at the BoardWalk – only $201 a night for rooms that usually go for twice that price.

Then the golf event on Saturday is going to be really fun. UPS and our volunteers have gone all out to give our attendees maximum time to mingle and really get to know each other. We all know that’s where real business is done, on the golf course, right?

Could you share some background information on how the conference came to be?

Go for the Greens started when NAWBO’s partners from the Southeast region at UPS came to us and said, “Let’s go to Disney and talk about having a high-level conference that focuses on procurement and golf.” NAWBO’s national Economic Development Forum had been looking at ways to boost women business owners’ access to capital and larger contracts. So we took it on as a forum project. I was chair of the forum until my term expired in June, and now Lola Kakes from NAWBO’s Tucson chapter is the chair, with Judy Bradt of the Northern Virginia chapter as the chair-elect.

Who will be at your conference? How many attendees, sponsors, affiliates?

This is a boutique conference capped at 250 attendees. We want to give women business owners a chance to really stand out and get maximum exposure to our corporate partners and the procurement people from governments and corporations.  This originally was billed as a conference for women business owners from the Southeast, but we have people coming from New York, Arizona, Ohio and other parts of the country, and even Toronto.

Our major sponsors are UPS and Walt Disney World, and we’ve also received support from a host of other partners.

What is the goal/purpose of the conference?

This conference really is all about access. It’s about giving women business owners access to the people they need to meet to make their businesses grow at a faster rate. And it’s about giving our procurement and corporate partner participants access to some terrific women business owners they might otherwise never meet.

Just think what we can accomplish when we put all of these people in a room together. It will be magical.