WIB 2006: A Great Opportunity to Grow Your Business

A Press Release by Women’s Business Enterprise National Council

Washington, DC – February 10, 2006 – Two thousand women’s business enterprises (WBEs) and corporate leaders will convene June 26-29, 2006, in Miami, Florida, for Women in Business 2006: Sharing the Vision – Contacts to Contracts, the nation’s largest business fair and conference for WBEs presented by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the leading advocate of women’s business enterprises as suppliers to corporate America.

As WBENC anticipates its 10th anniversary year in 2007, the organization is broadening the scope and length of its annual conference and business fair to include new Women’s Enterprise Leadership Forum events designed to meet the sophisticated needs of 5,000-plus WBENC-certified WBEs.

Janet Reno, Former United States Attorney General and Melanie Sabelhaus, Former Deputy Administrator, United States Small Business Administration, are scheduled to headline the groundbreaking Women’s Leadership Forum panel, “Using Your Business Clout in Politics,” moderated by Barbara Kasoff, President and Chief Executive Officer, Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).

The four days of high-profile speeches, information- rich workshops and business-building matchmaking sessions, illustrate how Women in Business 2006: Sharing the Vision, advances WBENC’s mission to enhance the success of both WBEs and its roughly 200 corporate members.

“This year we are adding the first annual meeting of the Women’s Enterprise Leadership Forum to our blockbuster conference and business fair agenda. As our women’s enterprises are growing in revenue and global impact, we are providing them the senior-level peer networking and professional development that they need,” said Susan Phillips Bari, president and founding architect of WBENC.

The conference will take place at Loews Miami Beach Hotel and the Miami Beach Convention Center with the business fair scheduled at the Convention Center on Wednesday, June 28. Co-chairing WIB2006 are Corporate Co-Chairs BellSouth Corporation and Raytheon Company, and WBE Co-Chairs ASAP Staffing, LLC, and LanguageSpeak, Inc.

The business fair will offer some 300 booths and the entire four-day event will include an intensive schedule of leading-edge workshops, keynote speakers and networking events that enable WBEs to successfully market their products and services to U.S. and multinational corporations. Among them are a CEO Plenary Session, entitled “A View from the Top,” at which senior executives from leading corporations and women business owners reveal strategies for competing in the trillion dollar bidding process for corporate contracts.

For more information on how to sponsor, exhibit or attend, please visit www.wbenc.org .

Corporate sponsors as of February 10, 2006 (listed alphabetically): In addition to Co-Chairs BellSouth Corporation and Raytheon: Altria Group; American Express; AT&T; Austin-Tetra; Avis; Bank of America; BP America, Inc; Chevron Corporation; The Coca-Cola Company, Dell; Ernst & Young; Exxon Mobil Corporation; General Motors; Georgia-Pacific; Halliburton, The Home Depot, IBM Corporation; JCPenney; Johnson&Johnson; Limited Brands, Macy’s, Manpower, Inc.; MCI, Merck & Co.; MGM Mirage, Microsoft; Motorola, Inc.; Office Depot; OPEN from American Express; PepsiCo, Inc.; Pfizer Inc; Pitney Bowes, Inc.; Robert Half International; Smead Manufacturing Company; Shell Oil Company; Sprint Nextel Corporation; Staples; Toyota Motor North America; Time Warner Inc.; Washington Mutual Bank; TXU; UPS; Verizon, and W.W. Grainger.

Women’s Business Enterprise sponsors as of February 10, 2006 (listed alphabetically): In addition to Co-Chairs ASAP Staffing LLC, and LanguageSpeak, Inc.: AccuBanker; Advantage Destination & Meeting Services, Inc.; Andavo Travel; Apollo Professional Solutions; Avail Workforce Management Solutions; Cajun Treats; CareerXchange; CottonImages.com, Inc; Designed Solutions Group, Inc.; Doubletake Studios Inc.; Eliassen Group; Global Capital Ltd; Icon Information Consultants, Inc; J&J Exhibitors Services, Inc.; Management Decisions, Inc; MBE Magazine; Meadows Office Furniture; Mercedes Electric Supply, Inc; Metro-Home NYC LLC; The Robart Companies; Rose International; Smead Manufacturing Company; Superior Staffing Services, Inc.; TCIM Services, Inc; TelTech Communications; Victoria & Associates Career Services Inc; Welcome Florida, Inc., and Women Presidents’ Organization.

Media sponsors as of February 10, 2006 (listed alphabetically): Atlanta Tribune (The Magazine); Bizwomen.com; Black EOE Journal; Enterprising Women; Hispanic Network Magazine; Latina Style; MBE Magazine; Minorities and Women in Business; Oh! Oxygen; Professional Woman’s Magazine; SBTV.com; WE-Women’s Magazine, and WorkLife Matters.

To register for WBENC's national conference and business fair as an exhibitor or an attendee, go to www.wbenc.o rg/wib2006 .

About the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC):

• As the leading third-party certifier of and advocate for businesses owned and operated by women, WBENC is distinctive in bringing both corporations and women’s business enterprises to the same table to build business
• Founded in 1997, WBENC is the nation’s leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women, and the leading advocate of women’s business enterprises (WBEs) as suppliers to corporate America .
• The average WBENC certified company has revenues of $7.5M, 48 employees and 12 years of experience
• More than 60 WBE firms have revenues in excess of $100M, and six certified WBE companies have revenues in excess of $1 billion.
• Nearly 203 US corporations are active members of WBENC and representatives of 36 corporations sit on the WBENC Board of Directors, along with nine representatives of its partner organizations and nine WBEs.
• WBENC certification is accepted by nearly 700 corporations, representing America ’s most prestigious brands, as well as government entities at the state, local and Federal levels.
• WBENC also has developed several highly regarded initiatives for recognizing excellence in corporate supplier diversity targeting WBEs ( America ’s Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprises, The WBENC Applause Awards) and women’s business enterprises (WBENC’s Women-Owned Business Stars).
• WEBuy@wbenc.org is an online marketplace where corporations and government agencies, as well as WBEs, post RFPs, sources sought, and RFIs.
• WBENC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that seeks and accepts donations from corporations, foundations and individuals that support its mission and programs.
• WBENCLink is an Internet database, accessed by WBENC corporate members and certified women's business enterprises (WBEs), which contains information on certified women's businesses for purchasing managers nationwide.

For more information contact us at info@wbenc.org or visit our website www.wbenc.org

E. Denise Stovell

Stovell Marketing & Public Relations

denise@stovellmarketingpr.com

Office 202-588-9875