Program areas at WBENC
Events - events is comprised of two annual, in-person conferences. The National conference, Wbenc's signature event, is the largest conference of its kind for women Business owners, welcoming thousands of women entrepreneurs and corporate executives ready to make connections and do Business. The 2022 conference was held in atlanta, ga and included approximately 3,600 attendees. The november event is a smaller, invite-only conference. It includes three days of customized programming, meaningful connections, and a live presentation of the wbencpitch competition final round. In 2022, the november event was held in Washington, d.c. and included approximately 250 attendees.
Membership - Wbenc's corporate membership base consists of large companies that seek to diversify their supply chains through inclusion of certified women-owned businesses. Corporate members receive access to Wbenc's database of 16,000+ certified women-owned businesses and they may use this database to search for potential suppliers. In addition, Wbenc facilitates networking opportunities to connect corporate members to certified wbes and provides educational opportunities aimed at assisting corporate members with the development and growth of their supplier diversity initiatives.
Certification - the foundation of Wbenc's mission is to provide women-owned Business certification services to Women's Business enterprises (wbes). Certification audits vet whether or not wbes meet the standards of being at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman or women. In addition to the performance of certification services, Wbenc provides educational and networking opportunities to certified wbes.
Executive education: encompasses Wbenc's Business education programs and Wbenc's executive education scholarship funds. Wbenc's Business education programs include the wbenc-tuck executive education, wethrive, weignite, and the energy executive programs. Wbenc's executive education scholarship funds include the dorothy b. Brothers scholarship fund and the cheryl w. snead scholarship fund. The purpose of these programs and funds is to provide access to Business education for certified wbes to aid them in better managing their businesses.
Engagement outreach: encompasses Wbenc's targeted outreach programs that aim to engage specific populations of entrepreneurs. The programs included here are women of color, collegiate accelerator, and planet mogul.
Financial center of excellence: the Wbenc arm that aims to address financial matters relevant to women Business owners. The financial center of excellence uses the lift framework (learn, interconnect, fuel, thrive) to guide its programming. Thriving with capital one, for example, is one of the program offerings housed here.
Other programs: includes recognition programs, industry-specific programming, certification grant programs funded by specific donors, and other programs that are still developing. The recognition programs include top corporations awards and wbe stars awards. The programs that are still developing include nextgen, women + pride, and wbencpitch.