Log In
PASS THE MIC
Looking to make your next business event more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming? There’s no better place to start than with your speakers. The PCMA Ascent initiative has hand-picked a few who may fly under the radar in the speaker circuit but raise the bar in making events more diverse — and way more interesting.
Supported by:
Laurel Bellows
Lawyer, former president of the American Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association
Jodi Bondi Norgaard
Consultant, with JB Norgaard Enterprises, founder and creator Go! Go! Sports Girls
Mercedes Hunt
Founder of Map & Compass Consulting and director of undergraduate business programs at Granite State College
Arwa Mahdawi
Founder, president, chief hopes and dreams officer, and chief minority officer at Rent-a-Minority
Hattie Hill
President and CEO at Women's Foodservice Forum and founder and CEO of Hattie Hill Enterprises
Courtney D. Cogburn
Assistant professor of social work at Columbia University and pioneer in the use of VR to show racism’s impact
Paulette Brown
First African-American woman president of American Bar Association, senior partner and chief diversity and inclusion officer at Locke Lorde LLP
The Ascent CEO Promise
What is Ascent?
- Ascent is an initiative by PCMA-Convene to promote inclusion and diversity across the business events industry.
- Ascent seeks to empower those challenged by gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or disabilities to find success in our industry.
- Ascent strives to motivate and to educate decision-makers on the business case and best practices for inclusive workplaces and events.
- We believe that greater inclusion across the industry will foster new voices to strengthen our leadership, our businesses, and our world.
- By working together toward inclusion and diversity within our workplaces and at the events we produce, we will enact meaningful social change.