Recently in the Events and Opportunities Category

WIPP and the California Black Camber of Commerce co-hosted an event in San Francisco, entitled Healthcare: Policy, Trends, & Opportunities. The event was sponsored by Pfizer, and I am happy to report that it was a resounding success. If you were not able to attend, you missed out on a tremendous event. Members of our audience included representatives from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Our panel of speakers represented many areas of healthcare, but each of them echoed the same concept: small businesses can and should take advantage of these changes.

What are YOU doing on March 4, 2010 at 7:30pm? I already know what my plans are. I will be attending a viewing of Half the Sky LIVE, presented by WIPP Coalition Partner CARE. CARE is planning on bringing together thousands of people in theatres across the country to celebrate, learn and take action to empower women and girls in the fight against poverty in 2010.

Half the Sky LIVE is inspired by the best-selling book from Pulitzer prize winning journalists and will celebrate International Women's Day with musical performances, celebrity commentary, and the world premiere of a powerful film directed by Academy Award Winner Marisa Tomei.

This is a one-night-event only! Visit www.halftheskylive.com to watch the film trailer, find your local theatre and purchase tickets.

I just recently got back from Houston, TX, where American Express OPEN, held a Women's Business Summit titled "The New Rules of Doing Business for Women Entrepreneurs". WIPP presented two Give Me 5 programs at the summit. Along with me, Ann Sullivan, WIPP Government Relations; Jennifer Bisceglie and Jean Johnson, WIPP Board of Directors; and Rebecca Boenigk, National Founding Partner all participated and presented during the sessions.

The event proved to be a tremendous success: not only in numbers generated, but the amount of positive feedback we have been receiving at WIPP headquarters and from the many women we met there. Particularly, I was delighted to read a blog post yesterday from a woman named Elizabeth who has started a diaper design company within this past year. She recounted her initial lack of confidence at attending the summit. However, while sitting in the audience - she felt connected to the many awe-inspiring women on stage. The "electricity" gathered in the room was enough to make her hair stand on end. The summit experience left her with an intense sense of renewed confidence and drive.

It is these kinds of personal accounts that propel me forward to continue WIPP's mission in helping women business owners in THEIR goal of achieving successful businesses. If you have any personal experiences from this past summit that you would like to share, please do not hesitate to contact me at bkasoff@wipp.org.  

Bay Area Women Business Owners Participate in National Summit on Health Care Reform
NWBC Summit Adds Women's Business Perspective to National Dialogue on Health Care and Business Growth

Washington, DC - Ann Blackburn, owner of Lafayette-based Blackburn Advisory Services; Barbara Kasoff, co-founder of San Francisco-based GrassRoots Impact, Inc.; and Cecelia McCloy, president & CEO of Walnut Creek-based Integrated Science Solutions, Inc., all members of the National Women's Business Council (NWBC), participated in the 2009 Women's Business Summit: Health Care and Business Growth in Washington, DC this week. The Summit, which was hosted by NWBC, in conjunction with Pfizer, Inc., encouraged dialogue among policymakers, health care experts, and the women's business community on the challenges and realities of health care reform and women business owners' role in driving the economic recovery. In addition to members of the NWBC, participants included representatives of top women's business organizations, health care professionals, and White House, SBA, and congressional staff.

During the event, participants shared their insights on current policies affecting small business owners struggling to find access to affordable health care options and grow their businesses. Summit attendees agreed upon the following set of shared principles to contribute to the national dialogue on health care reform:

• Accessibility: a menu of customized programs for individual choice
• Affordability: Transparent, per capita pricing, parity for service across state lines. Tort reform and electronic medical records are essential.
• Portability: Individually-owned, and goes with an employee 
• Wellness: Wellness education for the entire community. Individuals must take responsibility for lifestyle choices like smoking, obesity, alcohol/drug use. Employers should provide healthy options and incentives.

"The Council is pleased to have a role in this important debate," said NWBC Executive Director Margaret Barton.  "We look forward to advancing the common principles established by the Summit participants." The Council will formulate a letter to policymakers outlining the key recommendations and outcomes from the event.
"Small business employers care about the health of their employees but too often cannot afford to pay the health insurance premiums," said McCloy. "This summit focused on the issues important to women business owners and provides solutions that will be considered in the health care debate taking place in Washington D.C."  
Kasoff adds, "Healthcare reform is top of mind to business owners. When surveyed, 40% are unable to provide health insurance to their employees. From a small business perspective, access to nationwide pools would address the issues of affordability and access." Blackburn asserts that the healthcare system reform is much more than health insurance reform and must include provisions for portability and cost containment."

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The National Women's Business Council is a bi-partisan Federal government council created to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of importance to women business owners. Members of the Council are prominent women business owners and leaders of women's business organizations. As the nation's advocate for the more than 10.4 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., the National Women's Business Council works to promote increased access to affordable health care, access to capital, access to federal contracts and international markets, and access to the information and expertise women business owners most need to succeed. The Council conducts research on issues of importance to women business owners and their organizations and connects the women's business community to policy makers in order to expand and improve opportunities for women business owners and their enterprises.

By Barbara Kasoff, WIPP President/CEO

Since the last edition of e-news, several new events and opportunities have surfaced. Many of you participated in the Nationwide Instant Impact Team meetings and/or the regional meeting in Chicago. WIPP has been providing extensive programming throughout the year on business opportunities in the federal sector. In fact, it was just a little over a year ago that we launched Give Me 5, a program focused on providing the education, resources and tools for women business owners to successfully compete for federal contracts with American Express OPEN.    Within weeks of signing our contract, we launched an extensive series of webinars, podcasts and training sessions that are held weekly for business owners at all levels of expertise - those that are just considering public sector contracting, to more advanced courses ranging from fine-tuning your capability statement and federal page, certification strategies and building a powerful and strategic roadmap to bring your sales to the next level.

More recently, WIPP and OPEN are hosting day-long regional meetings, providing specific procurement opportunities and strategies resulting from the stimulus package. If you want to know what the opportunities are, how much, what industries, and how to position yourself, then you need to attend one. You will leave with specific information and a strategic roadmap. You can find our course offerings on GiveMe5.com, or WIPP.org. If you think that the opportunities for small business owners are all gone - think again. Check Ann Sullivan's Washington Week article - she addresses this very issue. Over 143,000 have been educated through Give Me 5 so far. Today, we are proud to partner with Business Matchmaking, the premier organization focused on putting you face to face with top federal buyers. I don't know of anyone else that is providing this level of access. Frankly none of this would be possible without OPEN. They recognized the opportunity, they sought out a team of highly qualified and competent organizations to deliver the very best programming in this area. They made it a priority, they invested in the program, and they invested in you. Small businesses are and will continue to be the future, and will lead the way to economic recovery. American Express OPEN is a committed partner in this process and is with all of you every step of the way, ensuring our success.

August 13th  will mark the beginning of our Pennsylvania tour providing specific procurement opportunities and strategies resulting from the stimulus package. Details on the event, and future events in Philadelphia and Harrisburg can be found on the WIPP website. WIPP and OPEN are presenting this event in cooperation and partnership with the Department of Treasury of the State of Pennsylvania and several business organizations. As in Chicago, in addition to noted speakers from the state, WIPP members will provide breakout sessions. WIPP partners from SCORE and Business Matchmaking will be there as well to round out this day-long event. For more information, please contact Oriana Camacho at the WIPP office, ocamacho@wipp.org. 

Also last month, on May 27th and 28th, Magdalah Silva, a member of WIPP's Board of Directors represented WIPP at the Billion Dollar Roundtable. Participants are major corporations that individually purchase in excess of $1 billion from first tier M/WBE suppliers. There are currently 15 members and Verizon invited us to attend. The program began with a key note address from the new Administrator of the SBA, Karen Mills. There were roundtables on high impact initiatives from corporate, government and non-profit perspectives, as well as a session on moving forward to increase M/WBE inclusion. Everyone has come to the realization that with the economic situation, we are all going to be called upon to respond and be accountable at a higher level. Each of the key partners (corporate, M/WBE, non-profit and government) must collaborate and help build capacity in small businesses. It's high time that we built a cohesive strategy and tackled economic development together.

Tuesday, June 17, the results of a new women's energy survey will be released. The survey was commissioned by WIPP in collaboration with Women's Council on Energy and the Environment. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, the international public-opinion research and consulting firm conducted the national telephone and web survey. The survey results will be posted on the WIPP website on Tuesday. Please check it out - there is interesting information to report.

October 1st will herald WIPP's annual legislative meeting. Once again, you will be greeted with excellent information, policy experts and content. You will be able to not only meet but interact with policy-makers. With significant policy initiatives rolling out of Congress, our participation and voice has never been more important or your presence more critical. Within the next two weeks more information will be available.

October 2nd, WIPP and Wal-Mart will host an Economic Summit for women business leaders in Washington, DC. This invitation only event will be a land-mark event for the recognition, collaboration and participation of the women's business community in the policy-making process of our nation.

For those of you who are interested in getting more engaged at a "party" level, WIPP has just launched two teams: a democratic small business leadership team and a republican small business leadership team. For those of you that want to become more actively engaged in your party, or want to contribute your voice as input to our policy team, this is the spot for you. Please contact Jason Lalak if you would like to join one of the teams, jlalak@wipp.org.

As always, please feel free to contact the office, 1-888-488-WIPP at any time. And certainly, please don't hesitate ever to contact me.