Conference aims to inspire, empower female entrepreneurs
Tactical training, strategic networking and inspirational speeches from three entrepreneurial trailblazers highlight a two-day WE Mean Business virtual conference Wednesday and Thursday.
“WE” stands for women entrepreneurs — the target audience for this event, which will link aspiring business owners to training, financing and mentoring opportunities.
Conference organizers are the New Mexico State University Arrowhead Center and WESST, a nonprofit community development financial institution that supports minority business owners and entrepreneurs and hosts U.S. Small Business Administration Women’s Business Centers at its six New Mexico locations. Other sponsoring partners include LiftFund, a CDFI whose diverse clientele is dominated by minority and female business owners; the Minority Business Development Agency Business Center; and Peacock Law PC, which specializes in intellectual property and tech commercialization.
“We will feature sessions on marketing, team building and getting started (in a business), and provide access to question and answer sessions with expert business mentors,” said Kristin Morehead, of NMSU Arrowhead Center. All three speakers are women of color who reached the executive suite through persistence and determination or created their own space leading their own companies.
Marisol Alarcon, a partner and executive director of the Chilean office of La Laboratoria, opens the event. Her organization, based in Latin America, prepares young, lowincome women for tech careers at hundreds of companies throughout the Americas.
The same afternoon, Miriam Rivera, managing director and founder of Ulu Ventures, leads a fireside chat that draws on her experience in life and in business. Maria “Lupe” Mares, southwest regional vice president of LiftFund, noted that Rivera, like so many of the women served by her organization, cut her path to the top from her beginnings near the bottom of the economic ladder.
“Her parents were migrants and worked in the fields,” Mares said. “She was the first generation to graduate from college, and she is the cofounder and managing partner of Ulu Ventures, a venture capitalist firm in Silicon Valley (that is) focused on IT startups.”
A speech by former NMSU basketball superstar Anita Maxwell closes out the conference. Following her career with the Cleveland Rockers during the inaugural season of the Women’s National Basketball Association, Maxwell founded the financial planning company SuccessFULL Living to help others develop financial literacy.
The Finance New Mexico project connects individuals and businesses with skills and funding resources for their business or idea. To learn more, go to www.FinanceNewMexico.org. For more information about funding and business support offered by LiftFund, visit LiftFund.com. To see how WESST provides education, business development and financial resources, visit WESST.org. The executive’s desk is a guest column providing advice, commentary or information about resources available to the business community in New Mexico. To submit a column for consideration, email gporter@ abqjournal.com.