Orlando, Fla., got a boost of black female power as scores of black women rolled into the Waldorf Astoria for the eighth annual Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit Wednesday, Feb. 27. With a program featuring some of the biggest names in business, the Women of Power Summit has gained a reputation for being that rare event where powerful black women can come together to not just celebrate each other, but to also strategize and push each other even further. “Your Power: Claim it, Own it, and Live it!” is this year’s theme.
Powerhouse names on the program include Cathy Hughes, the media pioneer behind Radio One, Interactive One and TV One, Xerox chairperson andCEO Ursula Burns and Judy Smith, the woman who inspired the ABC hit “Scandal,” and Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer.
Sponsors are also top-tier. State Farm has supported the Women of Power Summit for all eight years. PepsiCo is another long-term sponsor. McDonald’s, FedEx Express, Lincoln, Microsoft, Macy’s, Dell, Walmart, Comcast-NBCUniversal, Abbott, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EMC, Macy’s and Visit Orlando, among others, round out this year’s sponsors.
An early afternoon networking session led by recognized connector Jodi Brockington helped jumpstart the conference but the evening’s activities is what most looked forward to and they did not disappoint. Following the welcome reception courtesy of State Farm, the Women of Power Legacy Awards Dinner, hosted by PepsiCo, was packed with inspiration, as Major General Marcelite Harris, the United States Air Force’s first African American female general, media pioneer Cathy Hughes, FedEx Express EVP and CFO Cathy Ross and legendary educator Marva Collins served as the esteemed honorees.
Collins, whose success teaching students deemed un-teachable in inner-city Chicago was documented in the 1981The Marva Collins Story starring Cicely Tyson, received the inaugural Barbara Graves Legacy Award. Graves, the matriarch of the Black Enterprise family, lost her battle to cancer on May 25, 2012 at age 75. With her husband, Earl Graves Sr., Graves helped build Black Enterprise into a formidable publication and resource to both African Americans working in the corporate world and entrepreneurs.
Despite the many activities starting just after sunrise the next day, festivities lasted into the wee hours. –ronda racha penrice
