Program Agenda

This exclusive space is not just a lounge! Although equipped with convenient amenities, including comfortable seating areas, refreshments, and snacks, it’s a hub of opportunity where industry leaders, decision-makers, and influencers from our sponsoring companies gather to network and forge powerful connections. Sponsors will enjoy unparalleled visibility, with their logos prominently displayed, ensuring that every attendee recognizes their commitment to business diversity. The lounge offers a unique setting for brief conversations, allowing potential clients and partners to engage with you and your brand away from the hustle and bustle of the convention center. 

Sponsors Only

Back by popular demand, NMSDC will be hosting its second Golf Classic in the vibrant Miami, Florida area. With a premier course soon to be announced, attendees can expect a dynamic and rewarding golfing experience, complete with top-tier service, non-golfer activities, and unforgettable networking opportunities.

Click here to learn more and register today! 

This event is more than a networking opportunity, it’s a strategic platform designed to catalyze growth for MBEs by facilitating meaningful connections, access to capital, and strategic partnerships. Whether your goal is to secure funding, identify key business partnerships, or expand your network with influential stakeholders, this event is a must-attend.

By Invitation Only

This exclusive space is not just a lounge! Although equipped with convenient amenities, including comfortable seating areas, refreshments, and snacks, it’s a hub of opportunity where industry leaders, decision-makers, and influencers from our sponsoring companies gather to network and forge powerful connections. Sponsors will enjoy unparalleled visibility, with their logos prominently displayed, ensuring that every attendee recognizes their commitment to business diversity. The lounge offers a unique setting for brief conversations, allowing potential clients and partners to engage with you and your brand away from the hustle and bustle of the convention center. 

Sponsors Only

Start your day by building meaningful connections over breakfast! This networking event is open to industry groups, NMSDC program alumni, and first-time conference attendees.

By Invitation Only

By Invitation Only

Schedule time with other attendees to connect and meet up at the Connect Lounge.

During a busy Annual Conference & Exchange, attendees may need downtime or a quiet place to stretch and relax. The Zen Room provides just that with massage chairs, yoga sessions, VR relaxation, and more. 

By Invitation Only

Hosted annually by the National MBE Input Committee (NMBEIC), the Opportunity Accelerator is a dynamic pre-conference experience created by MBEs, for MBEs. This FREE event brings together minority business enterprises, NMSDC corporate members, and regional affiliate staff in a space built for connection, insight, and momentum.

Click here to learn more and register today! 

More details to come. 

New to the NMSDC Annual Conference & Exchange? Join fellow first-time attendees to connect, ask questions, and start your journey with confidence.

By Invitation Only

By Invitation Only

This exclusive space is not just a lounge! Although equipped with convenient amenities, including comfortable seating areas, refreshments, and snacks, it’s a hub of opportunity where industry leaders, decision-makers, and influencers from our sponsoring companies gather to network and forge powerful connections. Sponsors will enjoy unparalleled visibility, with their logos prominently displayed, ensuring that every attendee recognizes their commitment to business diversity. The lounge offers a unique setting for brief conversations, allowing potential clients and partners to engage with you and your brand away from the hustle and bustle of the convention center. 

Sponsors Only

Start your day with meaningful connections, light snacks, and a cup of coffee before the mainstage sessions begin.

Game Changers: The Business of Sports in a New Economy

Leading Through the Shift: How CEOs Are Navigating Transformation, Innovation, and Belonging in the New Economy

By Invitation Only

This exclusive roundtable brings together the nation’s top technology leaders from diverse industries for an elite “meeting of the minds.” It’s a rare opportunity for CIOs to engage with peers, share valuable insights, and explore groundbreaking strategies that drive both personal and professional growth. 

By attending, participants gain access to an unparalleled platform to connect with the brightest minds and actively contribute to the strategic advancement of our MBEs. 

By Invitation Only

In today’s fast-moving business environment, contracts are won with numbers—but kept with trust. This session explores how deep human relationships, forged through adversity, healing, and shared values, are often the most powerful assets in business. Coach Jean’ Austin, a veteran, cancer survivor, and founder of ABS/BANKREADY®️, shares how the strength of authentic connections not only saved his life, but also saved his company.

Whether you're an MBE navigating procurement pipelines, a corporate executive managing supplier networks, or a government official aligning policy with performance your ability to build and sustain real relationships is your greatest differentiator. Coach Jean’ will guide attendees through a dynamic, deeply personal, and practical framework showing how personal wholeness fuels professional excellence, and how companies grow best in environments of trust, alignment, and human connection. Why This Matters Now: As economic and social pressures continue to mount, minority business leaders are carrying more than spreadsheets they’re carrying trauma, pressure, and isolation.

We must cultivate a new culture that doesn’t separate personal health from professional excellence. This session helps attendees reconnect to the heart of why they started and who they’re building for.

Speaker:
Jean Austin, Austin Business Strategies

In a time when budgets are tighter than ever, buyers are more cautious, and competition is everywhere, Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) are under pressure to do more with less.

But within that challenge lies a major opportunity.

The rise of generative AI tools is opening new doors for businesses to work smarter, not harder.

In this practical and engaging session, MBE business owner Marc Carroll shares how minority owned businesses can use AI based tools to simplify marketing, reduce costs, save time, and consistently connect with the right customers.

Whether you are just starting out or looking to scale, this session offers clear, real world guidance on how to apply AI to everyday business needs.

Drawing from nearly 30 years of experience in marketing and business development, Marc shows how small and midsized businesses can leverage tools like ChatGPT, Canva, and marketing automation to stay visible, build trust, and generate leads without needing a large team or technical expertise.

You will get a firsthand look at how these tools can fit into your existing operations and how to build a simple, repeatable process that supports consistent growth.

Business owners will leave with a clearer understanding of what is possible, what to prioritize, and how to start using AI based tools in a way that aligns with their goals and capacity.

If you have been looking for a realistic, actionable path forward in today’s economy, this session is designed to help you take that first step with confidence and clarity.

Speaker:
Marc Carroll, Carroll Communications Group

In today’s rapidly shifting economic landscape, procurement leaders are navigating a complex web of inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions, and evolving ESG expectations.

These forces are not only reshaping sourcing strategies—they’re redefining how organizations approach supplier diversity.

This session, led by experts from the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®), will explore how economic volatility is influencing corporate procurement behavior and what that means for diverse suppliers.

Drawing on ISM’s proprietary economic indicators and procurement research, we’ll examine how organizations can adapt their supplier diversity strategies to remain resilient, inclusive, and competitive.

Attendees will gain insights into:

• The latest economic trends impacting procurement and supply chain decision-making.

• How supplier diversity programs are evolving in response to cost pressures and risk mitigation.

• Data-driven strategies to advocate for and sustain diverse supplier engagement during economic downturns.

• Case examples of companies successfully aligning economic resilience with inclusive sourcing.

Speaker:
Tom Derry, Institute for Supply Management (ISM)

Achieving $1 million in EBITDA is a significant milestone, but for many founders, it’s a confusing middle ground—too mature for early-stage programs, but not yet on the radar of institutional investors.

This panel explores how knowledge becomes a key differentiator at this stage.

Drawing from the concept of “Economies of Knowledge,” we’ll demonstrate how data, performance, and insight transform into capital, influence, and opportunity.

Panelists will unpack the practical and often-overlooked competencies entrepreneurs need to scale beyond $1M in EBITDA—governance systems, investor engagement, reporting discipline, and strategic deal structuring.

Using real-world stories, including a founder who bootstrapped to $10M in revenue and secured their first institutional investment, this conversation offers a transparent look at what it takes to move from a profitable business to an investable one.

Designed for business owners on the cusp of institutional readiness, this session connects the dots between performance and perception—showing how the right knowledge, at the right moment, opens new doors.

Speaker(s):
Sophia Harris, Founder, CEO, Chairwoman, ODRG, LLC

Kayin Barclay, Vice President, Empower the Change/Advantage Capital

Sandra Moore, Chief Impact Officer and Managing Director, Empower the Change/Advantage Capital

In today’s accelerated, unpredictable, and complex economic environment, organizations can no longer afford to operate on outdated assumptions, legacy structures, or incremental change.

The new economy demands bold introspection, courageous action, and intentional transformation from the inside out.

As market headwinds, technological disruptions, and evolving policy landscapes continue to reshape industries, the greatest threat facing organizations is not the external climate—it’s the internal reluctance to evolve.

Many companies have quietly deferred critical operational, leadership, and cultural transformations, leaving costly gaps in efficiency, leadership acumen, workforce engagement, and innovation capacity.

This keynote experience, powered by Kyra Renel, CEO of The Kyra Company, challenges organizations to confront these gaps head-on and leverage organizational transformation as a catalyst for stability, quantum innovation, and sustainable industry leadership.

We will explore how taking a deliberate, enterprise-wide approach to evaluating internal positioning—across operations, leadership pipelines, employee engagement, and customer experience—unlocks not only stability in volatile times but catapults businesses into new eras of value creation.

Aligned with this year’s theme, "Navigating Our New Economy," this session will inspire attendees to shift from reactive to strategic, from incremental to exponential, and from avoidance to audacity—showing that the greatest leap forward is forged by looking inward first.

Speaker:
Krya Renel, The Kyra Company Business Development Services Group, LLC

Speaker:
John Henderson, Walker SCM

Speaker:
Raj Ramesh, xforiacare.com

Speaker:
Aaliyah Haqq, Academy for Advancing Excellence LLC

Speaker(s):
Andrew Jessup, Chief Technology Officer, Capital Energy Solutions, Inc.

Dino Rodwell, CEO, Capital Energy Solutions, Inc.

Speaker(s):
Chrissy Britton, Walmart

Sherry-Lee Singh, Walmart

Speaker(s):
Aquila Leon-Soon, Founder and CEO, ATS+Partners

Cheryl McCants, President & CEO, Impact Consulting Enterprises

Pamela Nelson, CEO and Founder, Bracane Company

Speaker(s):
Reshma Sheikh, CEO, MSDUK

Speaker(s):
Don Cravins, Jr., Interim President & CEO, NMSDC

Sharon Pinder, President & CEO, CRMSDC

Carlton Oneal, President, LightSpeedEdu, and Chair, National MBE Input Committee

Speaker(s):
Emanuel Basnight, Jr., VP of Integrated Strategy, Flowers Communications Group, Inc.

Helen Rabadan, Art Director, Flowers Communications Group, Inc.

Jasmine Mazyck, Managing Partner,  Flowers Communications Group, Inc.

Speaker:
Taniesha Thomas, Populus Group

Speaker(s):
Kimberly Ayers, Director of Supplier Diversity, AARP

Yanyn San Luis, CEO + Social Impact Expert, The Win Woman

Speaker:
Sophia Harris, ODRG, LLC

This exclusive space is not just a lounge! Although equipped with convenient amenities, including comfortable seating areas, refreshments, and snacks, it’s a hub of opportunity where industry leaders, decision-makers, and influencers from our sponsoring companies gather to network and forge powerful connections. Sponsors will enjoy unparalleled visibility, with their logos prominently displayed, ensuring that every attendee recognizes their commitment to business diversity. The lounge offers a unique setting for brief conversations, allowing potential clients and partners to engage with you and your brand away from the hustle and bustle of the convention center. 

Sponsors Only

Join us in giving back to our host community by filling bags with essential school supplies. These will be distributed to local schools and educational programs to support students in need.

This presentation explores “The Onus of Leadership,” focusing on the weight of responsibility that comes with holding a leadership position. It delves into the ethical, emotional, and strategic demands leaders must navigate, emphasizing that leadership is not just about authority or influence, but about accountability, integrity, and resilience.

Through real-life examples and practical frameworks, the session highlights how leaders can responsibly carry the burden of their roles while inspiring those they lead. Participants will be challenged to reflect on their own leadership styles and consider how they can lead with greater purpose and responsibility.

By the end of this session, participants will gain a nuanced understanding of the concept of the “onus of leadership,” exploring its implications from both practical and ethical perspectives. They will examine the primary responsibilities leaders hold, as well as the personal and professional challenges inherent to leadership roles.

Through analyzing real-world case studies, attendees will assess the outcomes resulting from both responsible and irresponsible leadership behaviors. Additionally, participants will reflect critically on their own leadership approaches, specifically in the context of accountability and ethical decision-making.

Finally, the session will equip attendees with strategies to implement responsible leadership principles effectively, empowering them to foster trust and achieve meaningful impact within their organizations or personal lives.

Speaker: 

Elizabeth Caulder

Innovation is always a challenge. When you are trying to create something that has never been done before, how do you make it happen?

In this session, we will use case study discussions that involve some of the most transformational industry creations prior to the latest advent of generative AI. We will look at the actual situations and the choices presented.

Audience members will have a chance to break into small groups based on a set of choices regarding which direction they prefer and will have the opportunity to talk through how they would attempt to tackle the challenge.

Because the discussion is based on real-life situations, there will be ample opportunity to explore the keys to success for creating a new industry.

Speaker: 

Kirk Holmes, Holmes and Associates, Inc.

When economic volatility and cultural disruption collide, how do some companies not only survive—but scale toward billions?

Speaker: 

Ticki Favaroth, President, BOW Enterprises, Senior Partner and Managing Director at HR&Co.

New this year, these five-minute, industry-specific meetings are designed to spark new connections and opportunities. 

Learn more about Fast Match here.

Breathing New Life Into Iconic Brands

The CPO Summit at the NMSDC Annual Conference & Exchange is an elite, invitation-only forum exclusively for Chief Procurement Officers or their equivalents. It's a unique opportunity for these top leaders to connect, collaborate, and lead. Join fellow procurement leaders from across the NMSDC network for high-impact conversations on current market dynamics, inclusive procurement strategies, and innovative solutions shaping the future. This is a must-attend session for procurement leaders looking to exchange insights, elevate best practices, and influence the direction of supplier inclusion and impact in the new economy.

High Level Agenda:

• NMSDC Interim President Update
• Fireside Chat:  Reinvention: Driving resilience to profitability and economic impact
• Break-out tabletop discussions resulting in key takeaways including a position paper.

By Invitation Only

Speaker: 

Speaker: 

Speaker: 

Speaker(s): 

Shene Commodore, Commodore Consulting

Desmond Brown, Desmond A. Brown LLC

New this year, these five-minute, industry-specific meetings are designed to spark new connections and opportunities. 

Learn more about Fast Match here.

Sponsors and Global Partners Only

This exclusive space is not just a lounge! Although equipped with convenient amenities, including comfortable seating areas, refreshments, and snacks, it’s a hub of opportunity where industry leaders, decision-makers, and influencers from our sponsoring companies gather to network and forge powerful connections. Sponsors will enjoy unparalleled visibility, with their logos prominently displayed, ensuring that every attendee recognizes their commitment to business diversity. The lounge offers a unique setting for brief conversations, allowing potential clients and partners to engage with you and your brand away from the hustle and bustle of the convention center. 

Sponsors Only

In today’s rapidly shifting economy, the pressure on women—especially Black and Brown women leaders—to perform, produce, and persevere has intensified. But in this new economy, sustainability—not sacrifice—is the true competitive edge.

As part of the year-long Emerging Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) program, participants hone their pitch to investors for a chance to showcase their company at the NMSDC Annual Conference & Exchange. Five finalists will enter the EYE Pitch Competition for a chance to win a grant to support expanding their business.

All attendees are welcome to attend.

All attendees are welcome to attend.

Join us for a night of star power and inspiration as we celebrate the achievements of MBEs and corporate members driving impact.

The Awards Ceremony will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. 

Emcee:

Laz Alonso, Actor, Producer, Founder & CEO, Abundancia Pictures