The 2025 WBENC National Conference in New Orleans was a powerful opportunity for our WBEs, corporate partners, and board and staff, to connect with the larger network and each other, building vital relationships to form a more tightly knit community and strong business partnerships uplifting women in business. While the conference was monumental in its value and excitement, it was punctuated by the tragic loss of WBENC President and CEO Pamela Prince-Eason, whose bold vision and inspiring warmth was woven throughout every aspect of the week.
The conference’s ACCELERATE theme was a call to action for creating momentum, amplifying growth, and achieving more through strategic effort and the mutual support of WBE peers. We celebrated WBE successes, like highlighting the achievements of WBE Stars, including WBEC NY DMV’s Theresa Proctor of Forward Movement Enterprises and Darcy Ann Flanders of BaselineGroupNY; had a blast building our WBEC Metro NY and WBEC Greater DMV Mardi Gras floats at the WBEC NY DMV RPO Meetup; were inspired by talks from WBE leaders Avis Yates Rivers and Vicky Keramida, and a lively talk with WBE Chrissy Teigen; and took away valuable insights from a powerful panel on AI led by Pam, and featuring executives Diana Gonzalez of Amazon, Kathy Golding of EY, and Brett Howroyd of ActOne.
The more than 4,800 conference attendees—including more than 2,500 certified women-owned businesses—also took advantage of unprecedented networking opportunities with corporations from an array of fields, including Disney, Wells Fargo, Delta, Chevron, Sony, Salesforce, KPMG, and Merck, and were entertained at events like an evening at the House of Blues and the Thursday night Masquerade Ball.
This unforgettable conference heightened the energy and momentum needed to amplify the role women-owned enterprises play as drivers of economic progress. WBEC NY DMV is grateful to have been a part of this unique celebration of the power of women in business, and we remember with pride the legacy Pam left through her decades of purposeful leadership.
Find more photos from the WBENC 2025 Conference here!
