Theme:
Progress, Not Perfection
2022 Speakers
Emcee
Réland Logan
Gray Digital Marketing
Réland Logan is an award winning marketer, the founder of Gray Digital Marketing. Growing up multi-racial in a world where she could only check one box, Réland uses her marketing and sales skills to help you discover who you are as a business owner and share your message to the world to increase your revenue. She has been recognized globally for her Outstanding leadership in Marketing by the
Marketing 2.0 conference, a Top 50 Marketer on the Rise from the African American Marketing Association and co-authored the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion National Pledge for the American Marketing Association and currenty represents her local chapter as the President. In addition to that, she is a certified business coach, has earned her Master Storyteller Designation, and Diversity, Equity & Communications Certification.
Keynote Speaker
Nina Byrd
EXP Consulting
Nina has been a corporate strategist for more than 10 years. Her robust experience provides businesses with organizational development to strategic growth and scaling initiatives. Through deep questioning and analysis, she brings empathy and human-centered design thinking to otherwise traditional business practices. Her mission is to elevate the organizational experience in order to foster sustainable global change. Whether working with executive teams or using futurism to assess project risks, her critical thinking brings agility to each initiative she encounters. Her clients include brands such as Verizon, OMSI, Meals on Wheels America, Venture Capital Firms, and Prosper Portland.
Keynote Speaker
Marcus Carter II
First Tech Credit Union
Carter is an Organizer, Teacher, and Catalyst dedicated to transforming the cultural, material, and systemic conditions of the workplace and the society. Currently, he’s engaged with various equity, justice, and liberation projects locally and nationally.
Keynote Speaker
Rick Thomas
Business Advisor
Rick Thomas is a business strategist and financial advisor to privately held businesses and family enterprises. In a career that has spanned over 35 years, through the many hats he has worn as an engineer, business consultant, financial advisor and entrepreneur, all have been guided by two primary tenets; to follow an incessant curiosity
in understanding and replicating how owner's succeed in business, and to create meaningful and life-long relationships in the process. Rick lives in SW Washington with his wife of 33 years and three adult children (and one son-in-law!).
Keynote Speaker
Karen Foster
KF Curates
Karen D. Foster, MSIMC, Pacific Northwest native, of Black and Caribbean & Heritage, a HBCU graduate, and a champion for change who creates spaces for historically excluded communities. She is also the Founder and Event Producer of KF Curates, Event Consulting, Strategy, and Execution Agency for mission driven virtual and inperson events.
KF Curates mission is to curate diverse, inclusive & equitable event experiences to create transformational change and impact in communities and corporate spaces.
Panel Moderator
Himalaya Rao-Potlapally
The BFM Fund
Himalaya Rao-PotlapaIly is a Managing Director of the Black Founders Matter Fund, a $10m seed-stage fund focused on highly scalable Black-led deal flow within the U.S. Prior to becoming a General Partner, Himalaya worked as a Venture Capital Consultant for seven different firms along the West Coast. Himalaya has a passion for expanding the accessibility of entrepreneurship to BIPoC and rural communities as a pathway for economic development and generational wealth building.
Panelist
Norberto Gonzalez
Workplace Change
Norberto is an experienced Human Resources professional who enjoys the challenge of supporting business growth through HR bestpractices focused on leadership and development. Norberto has worked in different HR roles that give him a complete HR experience from Talent Management to Learning and Development to Business
from Talent Management to Learning and Development to Business Partner to HR Manager. This kind of experience has given him an understanding of how HR strategies and business growth relate to deliver results. Outside of the office, Norberto enjoys playing sports like soccer or tennis; he also plays the guitar.
Panelist
Shari Dunn
ITBOM Consulting
Shari Dunn is the CEO/ Principal of ITBOM, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in institutional and organizational coaching around equity, leadership, change management, women in leadership, and workforce development. IT BOM consults with companies as diverse as fortune 500's, State Agencies, and medium to small-sized businesses. Shari is a former nonprofit CEO, attorney, journalist, and foundation funder. Shari was the Co-VP of Power of Attorney Foundation, a sub-grantee of the former Atlantic Philanthropies. She has been quoted in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Non-Profit Quarterly, and more.
Panelist
Chris Magana
Money Nerd | Part-time Educator
Chris is a full-time investment practitioner, part-time financial markets educator, and lifelong value investing student. As a practitioner he manage wealth for high-net-worth clients and foundations and endowments based in the Pacific Northwest. He developed a concentrated equity strategy in 2007 and led the strategy until December 2014. As an adjunct educator at multiple universities over the last six years, he have taught over 1,000 students the principles of portfolio management, personal finance, foundational finance theories, and value investing.
Panelist
Max Traughber-Crismon
Get Hired Cascade Talks
Max Traughber-Crismon is a Navy Veteran and a Senior Recruiter at Astra. He graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Social Science with concentrations in Communication and Psychology. He is the founder of GetHired Cascade Talks, an organisation that helps professionals manage their career and help find high dollar employment opportunities for free.
Panelist
Amina Moreau
Radious.pro
Amina Moreau is the CEO and co-founder of an online platform that's dedicated to making work more flexible, equitable, and healthy. She believes that remote work doesn't have to be lonely or contribute to burnout, and that if we lean into third places as opportunities to gather remotely and foster work-life separation, we can create a healthier, more equitable future of work.
Panelist
Kimiko Matsuda
Director of Culture
Kimiko loves a great story and is obsessed with simple everyday pleasures. She was born in Los Angles, grew up in New York but calls Portland, OR home. She never thought that she would see the sweeping support for the BIPOC community that she has seen over the past year. This energy gives her hope for future generations.
Panelist
Stefani Coverson
Jamii Pae Consulting
A committed DEI strategist and practitioner working to embed equity and anti-racism practices into business and HR strategy. An executive who works to build equitable and inclusive workplaces where employees feel empowered to do their best work.
Panelist
Abbi Russell
Maul Foster & Alongi
Abbi Russell is a Clark County native, U.S. Army veteran, communications professional, wife, and mother of two. For 24 years, she's been helping people connect with those around them, and with the public and private entities that build our communities and nation. Abbi's work includes social and political advocacy as well as crisis communications for major natural and human disasters, including flooding and closures of 1-5 in Chehalis in 2007 and 2009, the 2013 1-5 Skagit River Bridge collapse, and the 2014 Oso landslide.
Poet
Brianna Renae
Artist
Brianna Renae is a spoken word artist from Portland, Oregon. She started writing as a way to heal herself and was pleased to find out that her words helped heal others as well. Brianna's work centers around themes of activism for equality, the vulnerability of love, and raw black girl magic. All of her work is centered from a female perspective.
rianna's poetry embraces her intersectionality as a black woman, but also exposes its complications. Brianna Renae was the 2018 Grand Slam Champion. She has featured for many great organizations such as Pickathon, WeMakePdx, Friends of Noise, and many more. Brianna has something to say, and is thankful for anyone ready to listen.
Schedule 2022
Day 1 - Thursday, October 06
- 4:00 PM
Registration OpensIn The Lobby
- 5:00 PM
Opening Remarks By Nathan Webster, Event Host
- 5:15 PM
The Ultimate Business Plan By Rick Thomas
- 6:00 PM
Keynote: The Exclusion of DEI By Marcus Carter II
- 7:00 PM
Vendor Love PanelBy Reland Logan, Tamara Crucey, NDUB, Karen Foster
- 8:00 PM
Mingle & ConnectMeetup
- 9:00 PM
Conclusion See you tomorrow
Day 2 - Friday, October 07
- 8:30 AM
Registration OpensIn The Lobby
- 9:00 AM
Opening Remarks By Nathan Webster, Event Host
- 9:30 AM
The Great Resignation Panel By Noberto Gonzalez, Chris Magana, Kimiko Matsuda, Amina Moreau
- 11:00 AM
Spoken Word Poetry By Brianna Renae, Poet
- 11:30 AM
Obliterating Imposter Syndrome Panel By Max Crimson, Shari Dunn, Stefani Coverson, Abbi Russell
- 1:00 PM
Mingle & Vendor LoveMeetup
- 1:30 PM
Keynote - Why the Best Ideas Finish Last By Nina Byrd, Event Host
- 2:00 PM