More than 3,000 leaders will come together on May 15 for the 31st Annual Women’s Leadership Conference held by the Institute for Career Advancement Needs (ICAN).
This year’s theme “Elevate the Collective Power of Women” will lean into women’s economic impact and collective influence for powerful change and development when leading together.
ICAN’s event will feature world-class speakers, networking, and development opportunities that attendees expect, but will also include some new experiences. An expanded audience is also on the horizon, with ICAN President and CEO Aileen Warren referencing the power of virtual capabilities – more attendees from across the globe leaning into its hybrid format.
Last year, Warren said ICAN hosted 3,200-plus leaders, representing 464 companies, 43 U.S. states and five countries.
“We expect that to continue to grow this year,” she said.
The theme will explore the connections women make.
“To me, the ‘collective power of women’ means women understanding and using their collective power to come together, united towards a common goal resulting in powerful and impactful change,” she said.
The leadership development organization is bringing back two tremendously successful opportunities from last year. First, Honor a Leader, which provides anyone in the community the chance to honor impactful leaders in their lives with a donation to ICAN. Second, the Small Business Squad, which features small businesses in time for Small Business Month.
When asked about the unique flavor of the event in 2024, Warren characterized a robust discussion on women discovering their economic worth and financial capability as a cornerstone of this year’s conference.
“In addition to presentations on the main stage and the sharing of facts and resources in this arena, there will be an opportunity for our attendees to explore this in our exhibitor area via a collection of booths in our ‘financial marketplace’ to engage women around taking control of their finances and understanding their capabilities,” she said.
Rounding out fresh additions is its focus on women’s employee resource groups from organizations throughout the community that make an impact both on the women they serve — through networking, service and development aspects — and throughout their organization, industry, and community.
Defining a Focus
Lisa Kaplan, who oversees conference development, gave a glimpse into how the conference theme was developed.
“Each year our research seems to organically grow from the previous year’s theme, and this year was no exception,” she explained. “While conducting a broad reflection of the past 30 years of conferences in 2023, we focused on the bold conversations in the world impacting women.”
Kaplan noted how the biggest conversation kept coming back to the consumer and the financial place women have in society.
“One cannot help but think about the power and influence women can wield if we were to unite and bring attention to the issues that matter to us as women leaders,” she said. “In fact, ICAN sees it as more of an anthem than a theme.”
Engaging and Inspiring Change
Allison Zach, ICAN director of marketing, communications and events, indicated the organization is building on this rallying cry by creating engagement opportunities that enable participants to be a part of something unique collectively.
“There are a few entertaining surprises in store, along with the opportunity to really learn, gain motivation, and connect with fellow attendees through conversation tables, the exhibitor area, the annual ICAN Women’s Leadership Conference notebook, and some fun activations throughout the space,” she noted.
Previously available for purchase, the ICAN Continuing the Conversation Toolkit is now included as part of the conference registration value and will be delivered to all attendees afterward.
“We hope this toolkit will both encourage and instill easier activation for attendees to hold post-conference discussions on what they learned, implement their learnings together in their organization, put ideas into action and build on the connections made at the conference – not to mention extend the learnings throughout their company and networks to build on our collective power theme,” Zach stated.
Additionally, she highlighted how ICAN is partnering with both Saving Grace Perishable Food Rescue and Access Period as a “collective act of good” for its audience and event impact.
ICAN is also taking an expanded view, as it grows its virtual audience to more companies and cities across the country.
“For both our in-person and virtual audience, attendees will have access to the conference presentation recordings (both main stage keynotes and all breakout sessions) for 45 days after the conference,” Zach said.
She encouraged those who can’t be a part of the conference this year to look into its year-round programs, from ICAN’s Defining Leadership Program — 1,300-plus graduates strong, kicking off in September for women and February for men — to an array of custom leadership development workshops, offered both in-person and virtually. Watch for ICAN’s new Learning Burst four-part virtual series to be announced in May.
Top-notch Speakers
This year’s conference will feature a fresh lineup of speakers, continuing its tradition of world-class keynotes.
Holly Ransom, CEO and founder of Emergent Global, joins luminaries such as CNN journalist Brooke Baldwin and “Alpha Girls” author Julian Guthrie as keynote presenters. Her afternoon keynote will focus on “Leadership Development for the Collective.”
In the lead-up to the conference, Ransom spoke to the challenges faced by women as they become more vocal about their economic value to society.
“The biggest challenges include the disproportionate burden of unpaid work, limited access to finance, gender biases and harmful social norms,” she said. “Women globally shoulder a significant amount of unpaid work, with estimates ranging from 10 to 60% of GDP — highlighting its clear importance to society — but, due to a range of factors, including gender norms and cultural expectations, this work is often ‘invisible’ or significantly undervalued.”
Ransom said women are less likely to have access to the finances necessary to start and scale businesses.
“In the developing world, this amounts to upwards of a $260 billion unmet financial need, while in countries like the U.S., only approximately 2.7% of VC (venture capital) money goes to women-led enterprises,” she said. “It makes it very difficult to prove your economic case when the access to the very resources you need to scale and flourish are beyond the reach of so many women.”
Guthrie, founder of Alphy and the Alpha Girls Institute, will focus on women underdogs with her keynote “Alpha Girls — Women Upstarts.” She will pull from her experience writing about the Silicon Valley women who succeeded in the male-dominated world of venture capital.
“Writing ‘Alpha Girls’ opened my eyes to the disparities that exist in the world of venture capital and technology, specifically around the lack of support and funding for companies started by women,” she said. “Early on in my reporting, I came across alarming and eye-opening statistics: 94% of check-writing venture capitalists are men, and only 2% of venture dollars go to companies founded by women.
“I began to ask: what does it mean when the next generation of companies are funded and supported by men only, impacting the cars we drive, the technologies we use, and the way we travel, live, work, and interact.”
Event Takeaways
Zach advised the conference attendees to concentrate both on personal and professional leadership development and expand their focus to include their broader community and network.
“Visit the booths, check out a breakout session, chat with someone new, check out the bookstore and get a book signed by one of our speakers,” she said. “Be present to take in the energy and insights of the day, and keep the momentum from the conference going in your life, your career, and your business.”
Warren said women can create momentum and raise the standard of leadership to another level.
“We want our attendees to be inspired to find opportunities to activate ‘collectives’ within their own life or organization and use the power of leading and working together to elevate their potential and impact,” she said.
Additional information on speakers, offerings, registration, exhibitor sign-up, scholarship opportunities (applications due April 10), and more can be found at ICANconference.com.
