When it comes to wellness, hygiene and self-care are two major buzzwords. What if you could be both clean and taken care of? Join Devin Avery, cofoundress and chief executive officer of Richual, and Arianna Tran, foundress and chief visionary officer of S’Wipe, for an illuminating conversation about cleansing our minds and bodies, even while we ascend the career ladder. Light breakfast will be served.
10:15 a.m. (Session A) Pitch Pageant: Who Is the Fairest of Them All?, sponsored by Finishing Touch
Contestants have ninety seconds to deliver their pitches in the video booth sponsored by the As Seen on TV Finishing Touch Lumina Personal Hair Remover. Mark Cuban, Chris Sacca, Ashton Kutcher, and Evan Wiley will review and score the pitches based on personality, presentation, appearance, and minimum viable product, via livestream. Winners will be announced tomorrow on Twitter. Follow us @FoundressSummit and #FoundressSummit17! Advance sign-up required.
10:15 a.m. (Session B) What on Earth Were You Put on This Earth to Do and Is Your Personal Brand Reflecting Your Calling?
Can you describe your world-changing manifesto in three words? Is your LinkedIn photo in harmony with your professional tagline? Before you take a single further step in your career, take the time to align what it is you want to do with your brand across social channels.
12:00 p.m. (Lunch) We’ve Got Issues
When’s the last time you slept through the night? Can an anti-inflammation diet slow down the aging process? By the time you’re thirty, how much retirement savings should you have?
Today, women entrepreneurs are doing more than just raising capital. They’re also raising awareness about serious issues that affect women all over the country: underbanked millennials and the true costs of having no retirement savings, the latest scientific research on why we need to sleep at night, the delicate art of negotiating for a higher salary without sounding selfish, and the superfoods that promote longevity so you can live long enough for the compound interest to grow in those retirement accounts!
2:00 p.m. (Session A) Restorative Tarot for Times of Burnout
Have you drawn a Hanged Man card on the question of your life? Learn about, and reclaim, the archetypes that promote healing, wisdom, and guidance for your venture.
2:00 p.m. (Session B) She’s a Friend of the Pod
With over 100,000 downloads every week, the Profiteering Mavens have built up a devoted fanbase of creative entrepreneurs seeking no bullshit advice for growing their side hustles in the gig economy. Find out their exact cold emailing formula that has landed them guests such as Marie Forleo, Audrey Gelman, Danielle LaPorte, and Amanda Chantal Bacon.
3:30 p.m. (Panel) Film Gives Back
What is it really like in Africa? Hear from the actresses who’ve been to the country, what they saw in terms of malnutrition and vaccination rates, and how it deepened their understanding of humanity and prepared them for some of the grittiest roles of their careers. From gaining twenty pounds to play a postpartum character, to playing a woman who has to overcome how differently abled she is, these actresses are making waves and giving back. Exact lineup TBA.
Foundress Summit is a ticketed event. Every attendee must have a ticket. To be eligible for a ticket, you must be a woman age 18 or over. Email us for a list o1f recommended childcare providers, or if you need a map to the lactation room.
Devin
The lighting in the lobby was not great. Very fluorescent, very awake-inducing. The skin on the back of my hands looked washed out, like raw fish. Let me see those hands . . . in the air: how many of you . . . think of yourself . . . as heroes . . . in someone else’s . . . story? The morning session had already begun—I could hear it from behind a flimsy black partition at one end of the lobby. And how many of you . . . think of yourself as heroes . . . in . . .
A staff member in black jeans and a black crop top that said “The Future Is Foundre$$” was shushing a group of conference attendees standing in the lobby in bodycon dresses, saying that they couldn’t talk here; they had to talk over there in a special room, because the sound was carrying over into the session. One woman, in a jade-colored dress with a gold back zipper, said, “I didn’t pay twenty-five-hundred dollars to be quarantined in the overflow room!” The staff member was apologizing and explaining that it wasn’t an overflow room—it was a conversation corner.
I had to wait my turn in line at the VIP registration desk, behind an attendee who was complaining that something in her swag bag wasn’t the flavor she wanted, or had an ingredient she was allergic to, or that her friend got something in her swag bag that she didn’t also receive, something expensive.
“I don’t want you to think that I’m one of those entitled women—”
“Oh, not at all,” the staffer said, holding up a finger to me that she’d just be a minute. “It’s only that we stuffed, I mean prepared, the gift bags at a different venue, so unfortunately I’m not totally sure if I have the product to swap out for you right this moment.”
“I paid a premium for this VIP badge and honestly you’re not making me feel very VIP at all right now.”
“Would you like to leave your contact info and someone will follow up on Monday?”
“I know Michelle,” the woman said, digging through her handbag for a business card. Michelle was the foundress of Foundress. “Michelle knows me. We were at Brearley together. I was actually supposed to moderate the Film Gives Back panel, but at the last minute Michelle said it would look better to have someone who’s more diverse.”
“That’s amazing,” said the staffer, checking a notification on her phone. Her nails were painted in alternating pink and gray, to match the brand. Her name badge read “Delancey.” “I’ll be sure to pass along what happened, and again I’m so sorry about the mix-up.”
Finally, it was my turn. “And you must be Devin,” she said.
Is there any greater high in life than being recognized? From under the registration table, Delancey pulled a pink nylon weekender bag that was at least twice the size of all the other swag bags I’d seen. The number 25 was written in sequins on one side and there was a sparkly unicorn head on the other.
“Is that like the number of children who get to eat when I use this bag?” I asked.
“Oh, maybe! I thought it was the number of pounds.”
As I slung the unicorn body bag over one shoulder, something heavy and cold inside slammed against the side of my rib cage.
“Can I get someone to help this speaker with her VIP satchel? Hey!” Delancey yelled at a staffer in black who was wearing wrist braces and carrying a velvet wingback chair, by herself, across the lobby.